Faith Challenges: It Ain't All Comfort

There is this strange chapter in Genesis that talks about Jacob’s daughter. You might think he only had one daughter, Dinah, for she is the only one ever mentioned. On the other hand, the only reason Genesis mentions women is when there is some special reason to mention them. That does not make the women and daughters unimportant. It means that they played no role in advancing the plot of the majority of these narratives, from their patriarchal perspective. Genesis chapter 34 is one of those exceptions. We find that Jacob indeed did have daughters. They just had not been named for us at the time of their births. Now, however, she suddenly becomes important because of the aftermath of what is done to her. She is raped. While we might think of rape from the standpoint of the harm and trauma brought upon Dinah, the brothers would likely have been more concerned with the economic damage done to the family, as her bride price would be greatly reduced. Shechem’s father, however, ta...

We have a history with attempting to force others to adhere to our faith, our ways of doing things, our understanding of the world and reality. That’s not limited to Christianity. That was part of why Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE. The Jews had failed to keep up their bargain with Rome to sacrifice on behalf of Caesar and Rome. By not sacrificing to the gods or at least on behalf of Rome, they were deemed atheists, insurrectionists, and determined to bring down all Roman society by incurring the wrath of the gods. They broke the pact, so Titus marched into Jerusalem and sacrificed a pig on Yahweh’s altar before effigies of Caesar and the Roman gods. Cattle ranchers and farmers battled over the use of land in the Western states, clashing over fences built to protect crops and a history of running cattle on a free range. Native groups clashed with settlers over land-use, water rights, encroachment, and questions of property rights and European authority to stake claim to lan...

Church has played a big part in my life. It has always offered me an anchor of community wherever I happened to be. Living at my 41st address, that's a big deal. Then there was the year I spoke in 50 churches over 50 weeks and found the very same open community at each one. I have always had a welcome reception waiting for me in whatever new place I have gone from before my earliest memories. As I look to what the future holds, I imagine that church will be different. Gone are the days of “If you build it, they will come.” Gone are those times when church was the primary, if not the only social gathering place in the county. Gone is that period in which we could skate along with a sense that everyone felt that church was where they should be on Sundays and Wednesday nights, and then again for two or three other weekly events. The local church is no longer the accepted and expected social center for the larger community. Our society has built other options and opportunitie...

There is an iconic scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which a character yells out, “Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!” His claim is spurious, as what has happened is that King Arthur has asked him and then ordered him to be quiet as he rants on about his political views against most any kind of governance and executive power. The problem is not that his views have no merit or any value. The problem is that he is so intent on expressing his views that he leaves no room for any kind of dialogue. This is what comes to mind when I hear Christians in the United States talking about being persecuted. That is not reality. The reality is that people are disagreeing with them and not allowing them to force their views, values, and preferences upon everyone else. Persecution is not that people disagree with us. Persecution is when we are not allowed to live our lives according to our values, interests, and identity. Persecuti...

All too often, the church has been guilty of not listening to people in the larger society. We have acted as though they are enemies to fear, rather than people to love. Our unwillingness to listen creates further distance between us and our neighbors, as it denies their humanity and anything of worth they might have to offer. There is more than one way to use the term pride. I am proud of my kids. That is not the same thing as the sin of pride. What the Bible is concerned about is when we place ourselves as superior to others. That's not what LGBTQ+ pride is about. That is not what Black pride is about. That is not what efforts to grant native and immigrant peoples spaces for displaying their pride in their heritage and contributions is about. It is recognizing the inherent worth of the community and that there is much diversity among those who still belong. For those struggling with a queer identity in terms of perceptions of sin, I would offer the following advice....

A politician recently declared the Bible to be his worldview on any and every issue. There are a host of problems with that declaration, beginning with the fact that the Bible does not have any one particular “worldview.” The Bible includes various worldview perspectives, but never gathers those together to present any unified whole of thought. It is an anthology. It is a compilation of various kinds of texts from multiple sources spanning centuries from more than one cultural context. One passage tells us that no one from Moab should ever be included into Israel. Then the book of Ruth denotes her as a Moabite and grandmother of King David. That is a major clash of perspectives. If we look at the first three chapters of Genesis, we find two different accounts of creation. One stresses order from chaos, while the other stresses the creation of humanity as God’s essential purpose. The order of creation differs greatly from one to the other. One has humanity as the last act of cr...