Man reading scripture is tough.  I recently watched a documentary For the Bible Tells Me So which addressed the difficulty around interpretation of scriptures dealing with homosexuality.  Today I read an article discussing the incredibly difficult task of determining what the Bible means when it talks about hell.  And then I was challenged on something I thought was an interpretive slam dunk when I learned “abba” may be mistranslated when it is used as “daddy”.

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In the last week I have had a the same conversation with several different people about scripture.  Because it is on my mind, and because it is on other’s minds too; I thought I would post my latest tool for scriptural interpretation and see what you think.  Hopefully you can help sharpen my imagery and add the depth of your experience. [Read more →]

Books of God or of Humans?

Today we are writing our final papers for a class focused on the Pastoral Epistles of the New Testament: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus.

These texts are rather controversial; their authorship is debated, they contain some pretty harsh stuff about women, and they represent a shift in the New Testament from the early Church who believed that Christ would return in their lifetime to a church who began to set up hierarchy.  This shift started the desire to figure out how to be a religion for the long run in a society which wasn’t really for them…. [Read more →]

Buddy Christ, from the movie, "Dogma"

Growing up as a Young Life going, Youth group attending, mission trip summering, Jesus Freak (DC Talk) kind of teenager, I was taught many things about my friend, Jesus. I was taught that Jesus was loving, that Jesus saved people, that Jesus could teach, preach, do miracles and led a group of men around. I was also taught that Jesus was in my heart now that he left the earth and would guide me, teaching me what to do and letting me know I was never alone. I wanted to be like the Jesus of the bible, in fact, I even wore my rainbow WWJD bracelet proudly through middle school and high school. But most of all, life was good because I knew that Jesus was there for me and that I always had a friend in him. This was the Jesus I clung to.

Today, after many years of higher education in religion, Jesus still means the same thing to me… but he also means so much more. How can we, as adults involved with faithful youth and kids encourage a more well-rounded Jesus?……… [Read more →]

Often in my faith life themes arise and connect unrelated events in revealing ways.  Currently this is happening over the revelation of scripture.  This term has been one of dealing with and confronting difficult scripture and revitalizing the way I understand and approach the Bible as a whole.  And in each discovery I grow more intriqued by my faith tradition and at how poorly we sometimes use such a rich scripture…. [Read more →]