Rick Warren And Praying For The Middle East

With all the unrest and mostly non-violent demonstrations in the Middle East over the last month, there is an abundance of “pray for the Middle East” emails, Facebook statuses, and tweets. Some of these are calls to pray for justice, for peace while others are calls to “pray for Israel” out of fear of the Muslim boogeyman.  Then there’s this. Rick Warren, on his Twitter account,...

It’s Easy To Be An Atheist When Your Theology Is A Cartoon

Listen or read any of the “new” atheists in vogue today and odds are you’ll hear compelling arguments against a faith so rife with contradictions, so fraught with logical errors, so stuck in an early civilization mindset that it makes you wonder how religion is still around. Case in point, Washington Post “On Faith” Panelist Paula Kirby.  Paula is described as: A former Christian,...

Strolling Along My Own Faith Journey

I’m in an odd place in my own faith journey.  Lately I’ve found myself longing for a bit more tradition and more theological depth in my faith.  Amazingly enough, this isn’t the first seismic shift in my own personal theology.  I grew up Roman Catholic, then at 20 years old left the church completely.  What followed were years of atheism, eastern philosophy, new ageism, and eventually a...

Big Tent Reflection #2 – Doubt As A Part Of A Vibrant Faith

Being part of and Emergent Cohort, doubt and faith, for me, go together like peanut butter and jelly.  I happen to be one of those people who believe that it is downright impossible for humanity to get it all figured out.  Being created being, we are less than perfect, and to have it all figured out would imply having perfect knowledge. So, you can see the paradox. Rachel Held Evans, author of “Evolving...

Big Tent Reflection #1 – A Modern Day Pentecost

Perhaps one of my favorite talks at Big Tent Christianity was the conversation between Anthony Smith and Tripp Fuller regarding Pentecost.  It started out with Tripp reading the following passage from Acts 2: On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place.  Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were...