Owner: Rude Armchair Theology URL:http://www.rudetheology.com/ Join Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 20:10:01 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Just a personal web journal, usually on theological topics. It's "rude" in three senses: "crude" in that I have little formal theological training; "offensive" in that the things I write unintentionally tick folks off sometimes, and "rough" in the form of Site statistics:Click here
5 things YOU didn't know about me 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Well, my friend the LightLady tagged me with a meme (ow!), so here y'all go. Five things
almost nobody knows about me:1) When I was six or so, my cousin chucked a plastic toy block at my head and knocked the corner off my left front tooth. We tried to repair it a couple of times when I was a kid, and the fake bit fell off both times, so I gave up.2) I love to travel, but I've never set foot a different continent than the one I was born on. I've been to both Canada and Mexico a few times each.3) I'm quite literally a bastard - my mom never married my biological father. However, my dad (who adopted me when I was five) and my biological father are both 100% Irish, so I'm 50% Irish no matter how you slice it. Which is why I try very hard not to hear my new nickname ("Mick") as an ethnic slur. ;-)4) Tina and I have known each other since we started going to the same school in the 8th grade. However, we didn't start dating until we were freshmen in college.5) I have a phobia abo
New RSS (Atom) feed 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Hey all, if you happen to subscribe to my blog's feed (in Bloglines or the like), it has come to my attention (thanks, StaplerDude!) that my feed's URL changed when I upgraded to the new Google/Blogger thingy. If you were subscribed to my FeedBurner feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/RudeArmchairTheology), you should automagically get the new feed. If you were subscribed to my unBurned Blogger feed (http://mcroghan.blogspot.com/atom.xml), you might not be seeing updates. So, if you want to subscribe, please switch over to the FeedBurner feed, and I'll try to make sure it always points at the right thing.Thanks!
Holy crap 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Tina and I put in an offer in a house this afternoon. We are now, officially, attempted first-time home buyers. We affectionately refer to it as "That 70's House". We really like it.Aaaaaagh! :-)
The Golden Calf 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Wow - this is definitely one of the coolest things to happen in the history of this blog. Here's an e-mail I received recently from Robert Blakesley, a self-described "fledgeling poet" who has created a very lovely poetry "blogazine" called Linekin Bay Review:Hello Michael I ran across your intriguing blog "by chance" some months ago. Have only scratched the surface but was really taken by your post of May 7, 2006 on idolatry. It prompted me to organize my thoughts and eventually I wound up writing a poem you might enjoy, copied below. You can find the poem on my blog (http://linekinbay.blogspot.com) along with a number of others. Best wishes, ~~ Robert THE GOLDEN CALF Scientist challenges believer, believer dooms atheist,Christian fights with Muslim fights with Jew:You are so sure you have the truth,I'm convinced I see the way.We can't all be right,on that onlydo we humans agree. Differences fuel mistrust,we take up arms.Deeper down though I at leas Read more:Golden
House update 1970-01-01 00:59:59 For those who are interested, but whom we haven't talked to in the last few days: we have a ratified contract to buy the house, as of late Sunday night. Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning is the inspection. We're hoping it turns out that the place is as sound as it appears! I won't ask you to pray for us, because, honestly, I don't think "whether or not Mike and Tina buy this house" is high on God's Kingdom priority list. But, though it's a phrase I seldom use, I think this is an occasion where it would be appropriate to wish us luck. :-) Read more:House
Deal's off 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It's gone all hinky. Oh well. We're just out the cost of the home inspection, which was worth every penny. There are other houses.Thanks for your well-wishes!
Google Gapminder and Africa 1970-01-01 00:59:59 OK, check this out.Play it once or twice, just for the "Google
is kewl!" effect. Realize how much data is being visually conveyed into your brain, all at once.Now, play it again, and watch what happens to the dots that *aren't* dark blue. Look at the red ones, or the light blue ones, or the green or orange or yellow.Now, play it again, and just watch the dark blue dots. See what happens to those, in contrast to all the other colors. Particularly on the Y axis.Now think about what that means. Think about the visual story being told there.How can we freaking sleep at night?HT: Bob Carlton Read more:Africa
Community (Part 3) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Remember that series I was doing on Community? And how I threatened to take things to an uncomfortable place with my next post in the series? And then I seemed to forget about it? (And you probably forgot about it too!) :-) Well, I didn't entirely forget about it, but I did have some hesitation to "go there" to that uncomfortable place. But now I don't need to. Because Webb Kline went there for me. Here's an excerpt:I have made an incomplete list of some comparisons between the traditional and missional church models as I see them. Hopefully it is complete enough to spell the challenge out for those who are trying to count the cost of making the transition.Traditional Church: Inward-An institution created to attract people to a building, thus is focused on the futile task of appealing to and meeting the insatiable desires of its members in order to survive financially. Made up primarily of people for whom church is little more than an addendum to their busy self-engrossed li
Leaving an abusive Christian cult 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Some of you might find this interesting. I just got an e-mail from one Doug Duncan, whose wife Wendy recently wrote a book about their experience in an abusive fundamentalist Christian
cult in Dallas, then leaving that cult, then finding the Episcopal church. (I use the term "cult" because it's the word Wendy and Doug use; I don't know them or the group, so my use of that term is not an informed judgment I am making. Just passing along the story.)Anyway, I have friends who have a background in groups (superficially) like the one Wendy describes, and I have Episcopalian friends, so I thought I'd post the link in case this was interesting to anyone. Read more:Leaving
Good stuff on the atonement from my friend Caryn 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Well, the interesting discussion between my college friend
s is still ongoing, and it's wandered into territory like original sin and the atonement
(i.e., Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross and how to interpret it). My friend Caryn posted some thoughts that I thought were really brilliant, so I asked her permission to post them here. Here's (an excerpt from) Caryn:The whole "why did Jesus have to die on the cross?" thing is what wecall a mystery. I don't subscribe to the idea that a mystery issomething we accept and don't ever think about again. I believewe're supposed to think about it - figure out what God is trying totell us here. This is where literalism breaks down and we fail toget the moral of the story - and there are many morals to thestory - it reaches people in different ways. When we slam down thewindow and stop analysing then we're in trouble. I fail tounderstand the people who say: I accept it, no need to think aboutit, let's go picket a gay marriage or Read more:stuff
N.T. Wright: Simply Christian 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This past Tuesday, I attended an outstanding lecture at the National Cathedral from Tom (N.T.) Wright
, Anglican Bishop of Durham (England) and superlative New Testament scholar/theologian, on his latest book, Simply Christian
, which is a fairly slim treatise on the essentials of following Jesus, in the tradition of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity.As always, the wonderful folks at the Cathedral have made the video of this talk available. You can watch it here. I highly recommend that you do so.I took notes at the lecture intending to blog them, but I'm feeling lazy. I'll gladly blog my notes if anyone asks me to, but if everyone would rather just watch the video (and if you've got the time, you should do that!) then I'll save myself the trouble. So, if you'd like to read my notes, please let me know (comment on this post). Don't worry about putting me out - I really don't mind a bit blogging my notes if anyone wants to read them.For now, I'll just tease you with some near-q
Congratulations, Pete and Jackie!!!! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Wow! What a day! My friends Pete and Jackie
, from my little church (The Common Table) got themselves wedded yesterday. Without a doubt, it was the most mind-blowingly awesome, joyful, musically virtuoso wedding I've ever heard of, much less attended. What a privilege to be there - considering the musical talent alone, I've paid big bucks to attend concerts that were a pale shadow of this wedding's joyful noise. But don't think for a minute that it was all style and no substance - every word and every note was grounded in grace, love, gratitude, and a deep relationship with God in Christ. The meditation (homily) by my friend Mike was masterful and inspiring, even if he did look (rather uncharacteristically) a bit like a TV preacher, with his black suit, clean-shaven face, and perfect hair. ;-) A rather tired TV preacher who, nonetheless, was fit to burst with love and joy for his dear friends, beginning their covenanted life together - and rawther amazingly eloquent about it Read more:Congratulations
Why is there an ad for winches on my blog? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 An ad for winches seems like an odd thing to find at the top of a personal theology journal. What is that thing doing there? Have I sold out?Glad you asked! I'm running that ad free of charge because it's actually raising money for a very good cause. My friend Israel's mom and dad are trying to start a non-profit business to raise money to provide social and economic help for single-mother families. The winch store, in their words, "illustrates our enterprising approach to nonprofit self-support". They're hoping to make enough money to put food on their table (a goal they aren't currently meeting, though they live very simply) and to put everything else they make into support for single moms.Israel also supplied the following info on his mom and dad: "Also, you might mention that mom has M.S. and Dad is an intestinal cancer survivor with complications that prevent him from working full time right now (until he can afford surgery)."So, I think it's a worthy cause. I don
Center Aisle 1970-01-01 00:59:59 If you're interested in the goings-on at the 2006 General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the USA (which is going on right now in Columbus), I recommend that you check out the perspective offered by The Center
Aisle, a moderate webzine (yes, we have moderates in the Episcopal Church, despite what you may have read) that's published by my own diocese, the Diocese of Virginia. Several folks whom I've met and regard highly (including Bishop Peter Lee, Fr. John Ohmer of St. James' in Leesburg, and Susan Daughtry Fawcett, who will soon join the clergy at Holy Comforter, my big church) are involved in writing, editing, and publishing the mag. It's full of good stuff.I've only read one thing so far that I take issue with: the second "growth" goal in this article: "growth in numbers". I honestly don't think the Episcopal Church (or any church) should be concerning itself with numerical growth in membership. Membership, schmembership. I would hate to see our Anglican traditi
The heart of Anglicanism 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Great post from Thunder Jones, on the eve of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the USA. I agree wholeheartedly with the formulation he quotes from Bishop William Sanders:We share unity in the essentials of faithWe embrace diversity in the non-essentials of faithWe have charity in allFor you "emerging" folk who love the idea of "generous orthodoxy" (as do I) - sound familiar?This more than anything else is why I love my Anglican tradition. May we be true to our heart as we enter into General Convention. Check out Thunder's post; it's brief and worth reading.
Good stuff 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I have a couple of external links for y'all tonight. First and foremost, if you're at all interested in the "Emerging Church" conversation, you simply must read Brian McLaren's article Emerging Reactions, Spring 2006. It's chock full of wisdom born of lots and lots of interaction with folks all over the Church. It's not too long, and it says things that all of us in the Emerging Church need to hear, IMHO. So read it. Read it, I say!Secondly, you also might like this article on trans- and post-denominationalism from this dude named Keelan Downton. I've run into Keelan at both the Baltimore and Washington, DC Emergent Cohorts, and his article is brief, readable, interesting, and scholarly (four great tastes not often found together). So if you're interested in reflections on what the future may hold vis-a-vis denominationalism (and what that might have to do with the future of political nationalism), check it out. Read more:stuff
Another one - on origins 1970-01-01 00:59:59 OK, here's another one from the same conversation. I'm replying to the following post from my friend Brock, which in turn was responding to part of my previous post:"That's the whole question here I think: Is evolutionary change God's mechanism for creation. If so, wow. But how does that relate to Genesis? Does that mean we equate about a billion years to each day of creation? Or, do we hold what the Bible says as the complete Truth of God's Word? I wrestle with this all of the time, in many areas of Scripture."There was some intervening discussion (very good stuff; too bad you're not a Looney - unless of course you are) ;-) from both Brock and my friend Peri in which they mused on the necessary inexactness of divine communication and Biblical interpretation. Then I contributed the following:----------I don't know that I have a lot to add to the good thinking Brock and Peri have done on this issue. Brock, this sort of question is something I think all Christians (probably
Idolatry bad 1970-01-01 00:59:59 E te whanau / My brothers and sisters,our help is in the name of the eternal God,who is making the heavens and the earth.So for a while - like, over a month - I've been teasing about an upcoming post on "Leadership and Technique" or whatnot. It was going to be an attempt to comment on recent events at both my big church (Holy Comforter) and my little church (The Common Table, formerly Mars Hill). My life's been fairly fully full o' stuff these days, so as you may or may not have noticed, it's been a long time since I've posted anything but a quick thing about big events in my personal life (wife leaving, dog dying, wife returning) or a link to somebody else's blog. So now I'm finally writing something again, but the events I wanted to write about are over a month old. That being the case, this post is going to be slightly less high-fallutin' than it was originally going to be. Instead of "Leadership and Technique", you get (with a nod to Boris Karloff) "Idolatry bad".So he
Post to my college friends' Yahoo group 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Well, I'm posting this here because my philosophy is that if I'm going to write over 1,000 words, and it's not either personal/private or dreadfully boring (read "work-related"), then it's going up on the dern blog. Below is a reply I just sent to an unprecedented, long, spirited discussion on the Yahoo
group I set up years ago for my circle of college friends. (We refer to ourselves as "The Looneys".) We have generally only used the group list to plan our yearly reunions, but someone posted something about a group opposing the Christian right, and thus were a great many words born. Our group of friends includes conservative Christians (Protestant and Catholic), liberal Christians, Deists, Pagans, agnostics, and atheists, and all kinds of other flavors too. We're all pretty educated and opinionated. So it's been quite a ride. But anyway, here's what I wrote. You can get a sense of the themes in the discussion so far by reading below.----------Hi everybody!All I can say i
An emerging third way? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Outstanding post from The Great Giveaway blog on why the Emerging Church must not become merely a half-baked synthesis of evangelical fundamentalism and liberal protestantism. If we are to truly emerge as a relevant form of the Body of Christ in the postmodern era, we have to do a lot better than that. If you identify at all with the Emerging Church, you should read this post and think and pray about these issues. (HT: Maggi Dawn.) Read more:third
DC Emergent Cohort - a great start! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I haven't had a whole lot of time to post lately, but I wanted to say that I had a great time at Guapos past Thursday with the newly-forming Washington, DC EmergentCohort
. I met a lot of diverse and fascinating followers of Jesus, and had some yummy Mexican food too. If you're interested in the church that is emerging and you're in or near the DC area, keep an eye on the Cohort blog (linked above) or e-mail me for more info.
Maggi Dawn on love "vs." doctrine 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Great stuff from Maggi
: our doctrine
is love. If you feel that doctrine compells you to violate Jesus' new commandment, then you need to wonder if your doctrine is in error. Love - especially for sisters and brothers in Christ - is as central a Christian doctrine as just about anything else you might name: the trinity, the incarnation, the atonement - heck, the existence of God, since God is love. If you think the most effective way to express love for your brother or sister is to spew venom in his or her direction, then brother, you have issues. If you admit that your venom-spewing betrays a lack of love for the person you're aiming at, then you've got doctrinal issues. Or so it seems to me.Thanks, Maggi!
Confession and absolution 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Here are some thoughts I collected in response to an inquiry regarding Confession and Absolution from Deanna, partly in regard to the liturgy of The Common Table church (my little church), and partly in regard to a school assignment for her cousin Rebecca. I thought it was possible that bits of it might be interesting to a wider audience.My knowledge is all from the Anglican and Celtic traditions, but the Anglican stuff might be relevant to The Common Table because of the church's Anglican DNA. In the prayers below, I'll attempt to use the following conventions: regular text for word spoken by the leader, bold text for words spoken by the entire congregation, and italics for rubrics (instructions not meant to be spoken at all).First, some quick words about my humble understanding of the whys and hows of confession and absolution. Confession has always been considered an essential for worship especially in traditions that make a eucharist/communion/Lord's Supper a central part o
A parable of Light and Mystery 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Jamie Arpin-Ricci, ever a source of worthwhile reflections, has posted a very lovely parable on his blog, (e)mergent Voyageurs. I think you might enjoy reading it. It's the sort of thing that I could see being turned into a short dramatic play, and even used in a worship context or as a discussion-starter. Then again, you may think that it's unduly critical of tall men in robes. :-) Anyway, I think it's cool. Read more:Mystery
The Continuing Conversion of the Church (4) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Chapter Four of CCotC is entitled "Translation in Mission". The following quote from its opening paragraph sets the context: "This history reveals over and over again that the missio Dei, as God works it out, is fraught with risk. This risk, I suggest, is the necessary companion of the love that God translates into reality in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This love is the content and motive of Christian mission." Guder then goes on to make the following points:The fundamental nature of sin is the desire of human beings to be in control - of their lives, of their destinies, of God. The "people of God" are not a bit more immune to that sinful need for control than are any other humans. This, however, is no barrier to God's gracious action for and through them. God takes a "risk communicating his love to creatures who may reject it. That loving risk is what makes the history of salvation and the living hope of faith possible.""By the gift of God's Spirit, this witne Read more:Church
, Conversion
I am the happiest dude in the fricking universe 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I got some totally awesome news today - Tina's coming off the trail, and she seems to be totally at peace with it. It's just become monotony, and she's lonely, but she doesn't feel defeated by it, because she's hiked through a bunch of bad stuff - her pack injuring her shoulder and hip, a sinus infection, our dog dying - and kept on going. It's been going well for a while, but she's decided that she just doesn't like hiking alone week after week after week, and she doesn't want to do it any more. So she's coming home!This wasn't an outcome I even allowed myself to pray for, much less hint to Tina how much I miss her. I truly did and do want her to do what she needs to do, and to get from this what she needs. But now that she's made the decision, and she seems completely cool with it,YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:-DI'm so happy.
Current month's Daily Office 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I don't know if this will be useful to anyone but me, but just in case....I made a web page that will always send you to the current month's Daily
Office listing (according to the 1979 American Book of Common Prayer, Rite II) from Mission St. Clare. The URL is:http://www.shunyata.net/new/do.phpWhy is this useful? Well, it's useful for me because I can set it up as an AvantGo channel in my Treo smartphone and always (at least, until they restructure their web site) have the current Daily Office prayers in my pocket without needing to do any manual steps. I don't know why it might be useful to you, but you never know.Update: I've added pages that take you straight to the current day's morning and evening prayer:http://www.shunyata.net/new/domorn.phphttp://www.shunyata.net/new/doeve.phpAlso, for a great discussion on the value of praying in this fashion, see Scot McKnight's blog: this post on Praying with the Church and some follow-up posts too. Read more:Current
Great day 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Wow, what a great day. Naturally, I spent most of it at church, or at least hanging out with church folks. It would have been better if we'd spent some of it out in the world doing some kind of compassionate work with our neighbors, instead of just among "us church people", but it was a great day nonetheless. And it's not like it was all selfish, inward-directed stuff: the first weekend of March Mission Madness at Holy Comforter (highlighting the good works of the Episcopal Church Women, including the Pennywise Thrift Shop here in Vienna, and the United Thank Offering, which raises money for all kinds of great Kingdom work), followed by a time of Lenten fellowship with Mars Hill in which we ate simple homemade fare instead of the usual Chipotle burritos and reserved the would-be Chipotle money for a family in need. Then, this evening, a big Lenten fellowship/study session at Holy Comforter that I believe may lead to some missional transformation. So, it was all good.Unfortunate Read more:Great
Claims about the Bible 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Well, several of us ended up having quite a conversation about perspectives on Scripture (among other things) in the comments on this post on 1 Corinthians 13 which I made a few days ago, not really expecting a response. Shows what I know.That discussion prompted me to think a bit about claims Christians have made about the Bible. What follows is a list of some of those claims, with my brief thoughts on each of them.Christians have claimed that the Bible is:Literally true. This is the idea that every word of the Bible that isn't obviously and explicitly metaphorical (such as Jesus' parables) is to be interpreted literally: it really happened exactly as it is described, word for word, and no fair interpreting anything symbolically. This is the point of view which leads to young-earth Creationism and other absurdities. (I'm sorry; I wish I could be more gracious to my fundamentalist brothers and sisters, but young-earth Creationism is absurd.) Obviously, I don't subscribe to this p
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