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
Comics / TV cross-pollenation 2007-10-22 11:54:00 This isn't exactly news, but:Brian K. Vaughan, Jeph Loeb, and Tim Sale are working in TV?Joe Straczynski and Joss Whedon are creating comics?What's wrong with this picture??Answer: Abso-friggin'-lutely nothing. :-) Read more:Comics
The Bridge Builder 2007-10-24 21:30:00 This poem arrived in my inbox from an older friend of mine (older than me, but not necessarily "older", if you know what I mean), a fellow member of the youth ministry teams at Holy Comforter. I thought it was a good reminder for us postmodern, baggage-laden, smartypants whippersnappers when we get to thinking how we know so much better than those s-q-u-a-r-e "moderns" and the quaint and irrelevant ways they used to do things.The Bridge Builder
An old man, going a lone highway,Came, at the evening, cold and gray,To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,Through which was flowing a sullen tide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim;The sullen stream had no fears for him;But he turned, when safe on the other side,And built a bridge to span the tide. “Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near, “You are wasting strength with building here;Your journey will end with the ending day;You never again must pass this way;You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-Why build y
Hierarchical accountability 2007-11-01 12:11:00 So I've been a pretty vocal critic of certain assumptions regarding hierarchical accountability (as contrasted with relational / mutual accountability) in the Church. When a leader's accountability is the business of his or her boss(es) alone, all kinds of sick s**t will happen. When a leader's accountability is explicitly the business of his or her congregation, friends, mentors, etc. in a flat (or flattish) network of mutual friendship and honesty, then guess what? All kinds of sick s**t will happen. Why? Because we humans are sick, sinful, self-interested, cowardly s**ts. But my point is that this seems to be the most common defense of church hierarchies - denominational judicatories, Senior Pastors, Archbishops, etc. We need them, I'm told, to maintain accountability and discipline.Well, I sincerely doubt it. I'm not aware of any sizable hierarchical church system in which appalling crap occurs at a rate greatly less than I would expect if there weren't bishops (or wh
Sr. Joan Chittister on Speaking of Faith 2007-10-31 16:09:00 OK, this is two Makeesha-inspired posts in a row, but I didn't see any reason not to accept her challenge to link to an illuminating interview with Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB. Any summary would fail to do her justice, but: longtime Roman Catholic nun, Benedictine monastic, feminist, reconciler, peacemaker, scholar, teacher, leader. I've had (and loved) Sr. Joan's authoritative English translation of the Rule of St. Benedict for years, and she is definitely a voice worth listening to. So, give her a listen. Read more:Speaking
, Faith
My worldview, according to an online quiz 2007-10-29 07:20:00 HT: Makeesha What is Your World View?created with QuizFarm.comYou scored as Cultural CreativeCultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. Cultural Creative 81%Postmodernist 69%Idealist 56%Fundamentalist 38%Romanticist 38%Modernist 31%Existentialist 31%Materialist 25% Read more:online
Can self-deception be a good thing? 2007-11-05 13:16:00 This is rare, but not unprecedented: an article published by my beloved day-job employer has got me thinking. It's about a trendy new therapy called "healing touch" that's being offered by a growing number of hospitals to treat post-surgery pain, among other things. Give the article a read if it sounds interesting to you. Be sure to click on the ads. ;-)Here's what I'm noodling about. I have some gut guesses about this procedure. I wouldn't be surprised if any or all of them are wrong, and that's not really my point, anyway. Here are my guesses:1) This stuff really works.2) It works because the patients believe it works, not because there's really an energy field around our bodies that can be manipulated by folks moving their hands over it.3) It wouldn't work if the patients believed that it only works because they believe it works.Again, these guesses are not really my point. I don't really want to debate their accuracy. They are, admittedly, just hunches; we're no
I am the LOLrus. Goo goo ga joob. 2007-11-08 09:21:00 UPDATE:1) I forgot to give a hat-tip to Randy for the Olbermann rant on the Bush administration and water-boarding.2) Turns out Hillary's entourage did leave a tip. Maybe. Maybe it was on a credit card. Maybe it was cash. Maybe it didn't get shared among the staff like it was meant to.Whatever. If I was wrong to believe that Sen. Clinton and her peeps neglected this, then I apologize. But my bucket is still pretty empty, and I'm sorry to say that my impression of the Senator led me to believe this pretty readily. :-(~~~~~Perhaps you've met the LOLrus. If not, allow me to introduce you to his tragic tale:Later:Sad, no?How am I like the LOLrus, you ask? Well, not in many ways, honestly. Very little has ever been taken from me. However, there is one thing I must admit that I miss - perhaps not as muct as LOLrus misses his bukkit, but acutely. Acutely.I miss mah sense of hope and respect for US national politics. The Bush administration, it seems clear, is almost completel
Events this week 2007-11-12 17:06:00 If you're local (to the DC/NoVA area), don't miss these fun and faithy (faithiness is next to truthiness!) events this week:TUESDAY: The DC Emergent Cohort will gather at the Front Page on Dupont Circle (right near the Dupont Metro stop), 7pm. Sara won't be there, so we can behave in an unseemly and embarrassing manner, if we so choose. ;-)WEDNESDAY: It's Karaoke Night at The Lamb Center (Fairfax county's only daytime homeless shelter), from 6:30 - 8pm. Come join Lamb Center clients and teen and adult volunteers as we together seek and find our inner ham. And seek and find Christ, too. Maybe the two are related.THURSDAY: It's MESH-a-rita's Tres: We'll be slurpin' 'ritas, wolfin' burritos and chattin' about life, the universe, and whatnot at Tequila Grande, (444 Maple Avenue West, Vienna VA 22180). Thursday, 15 November, 7pm SHARP(ish). Join us!
A force for goo 2007-11-16 15:02:00 This is really old news, but I've been interwebs-impaired for most of the week. There was an article on the Opinion page of my Beloved Employer this past Monday on the Emerging Church. The writer (a stringer, unfortunately, so I couldn't just walk down to the 3rd floor and say howdy) seems to be a fan of the movement, calling it "A Force For Good" - but I found the truncated version of the headline in the online story's URL more amusing. :-)In sadder news, Beloved Employer is laying some folks off. :-(
This makes me smile 2007-11-26 10:42:00 Check out this video: PersepolisAdd to My Profile | More VideosThe graphic novels it's based on were really good.HT: Whitney Read more:makes
Waiting 2007-12-02 00:05:00 Hey. It's Advent. I'm waiting. Waiting
for some grace, and blessing, and glimpses of the kingdom. I'm waiting expectantly, and hopefully. I think some good stuff is coming soon.Want to wait with me? I'll make some hot chocolate. With marshmallows.Let's see what God has in store.
Shopping is demonic 2007-12-04 08:27:00 Tina and I went shopping on Sunday. Both of us were kind of wishing we'd scheduled some painful dental work, instead.I was thinking, as we slogged somewhat desperately through several different stores - looking for a small list of items, among a reasonable-sized crowd of friendly fellow-shoppers and clerks; this could have been worse! Anyway, I was thinking:Shopping
is evil. It's demonic. Here's why: If you're someone who likes shopping, then you'll spend lots of money because you enjoy doing so. And if you're someone (like Tina and me) who puts it only slightly this side of waterboarding on a scale of fun activities? You'll buy whatever it takes to make the job go away. Either way, they getcha. It's insidious. You've made a deal with a devil the moment you walk through that automatic sliding glass door into that brightly-lit shrine of consumption.I'm with Rev. Billy.P.S., Grocery shopping is exempted, mostly, from this diatribe. I like food.
My church is famous 2007-12-16 22:17:00 Alright, since Stav blogged about it, I guess that means we're not trying to be so humble as to not acknowledge the attention. ;-) A national news magazine, U.S.News and World Report, published a nice little sidebar about our church along with a larger article on "A Return to Tradition" in various faith contexts (Jewish, Catholic, Protestant). The main article is interesting and rather balanced, and the sidebar on Common Table is pretty good, I think. The reporter, Jay Tolson, took the time to talk to folks and get to know us a bit.(The photo of my friend Julie lighting a candle in our participatory Advent wreath is by USN&WR's Jim Lo Scalzo. Jim, let me know if you mind me using it; it's a great photo.)OK. 15 minutes begins...now. :-)
Authority in the Church 2007-12-15 09:31:00 This week, Kingdom Grace (the artist formerly known as "Emerging") did an insightful commentary (entitled The Gender Issue) on an Allelon article by Sally Morgenthaler (entitled After the Show is Over: The Rise of the Feminine in the Postmodern Turn). The two articles, plus the discussion in the comments on Grace's post, make for a fascinating and thought-provoking meditation on "authority" in the church. Did Jesus intend for some of his followers to have "authority" over others? Are authority structures, roles, concepts of prestige, etc. a product of culture?Many folks in groups who have been denied authority and prestige in the Church
(women, minorities, gay folks, etc.) are quite rightly hurt and angered by the very real injustice of that denial. (They are also, quite rightly, hurt by the very real history of the church's lack of respect for them and valuing of their gifts. Let me state up-front: I don't think there's any room to question that the church needs to respect, Read more:Authority
Wisdom on giving. Really. 2007-12-13 16:22:00 UPDATE: In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably note that my Beloved Employer ran a prominent article last week about how "alternative gift giving" wrecks family harmony. But, IMHO, it's a lot more balanced than the MSN article that we savage below. :-)~~~~~~OK, I should warn you that this article contains naughty language, and so does this blog post. But if you're man enough or woman enough, please read the article. It is wise and true.Cussing aside, some would find the ideas espoused far more offensive than the words chosen. But I just wanted to say, I agree with every word of it. (Except calling the stupid bitch on MSN a fat cow. That's not nice.)As a culture, we have so thoroughly perverted what "giving" is supposed to mean that I'm afraid we need a bit of a detox. Christmas is about giving - this is true. It's celebrating the birth of the one who gave everything to be present to us, and to save us from ourselves. It's about giving (as Jesus did) our Read more:Wisdom
Alienseses 2007-12-09 20:23:00 Tina and I have been re-watching some of the Alien movies. I thought I'd share some brief reviews for your edification.Alien - Classic. Scary. Genre-defining.Aliens - Possibly the most overrated sci-fi movie of all time; definitely the most overrated Alien movie. I can barely stand to watch this flick. Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser's characters annoy the living piss out of me. The thing looks ridiculously dated with its '80's fashion and big hair. The acting is abyssmal, and the tension is nill because you don't give a crap about any of the characters, with the exception of the little girl (cheap ploy), Ripley (whom you only care about because she was a badass in the previous flick), and the android, Bishop, who is this movie's one positive contribution to the franchise. OK - and I'll admit it's cool to see Ripley in the robotic exoskeleton taking on the alien queen.Alien3 (aka Alienses) - The most underrated movie in the franchise. I like this one almost as much as the o
My church is famous (redux) 2008-03-08 21:43:00 The Common Table was mentioned in an article in the Metro section of today's Washington Post. The bit about us is well-reported and includes a nice quote from my friend Deanna. (Note that this makes three of my friends who have been quoted in the Post in the last few weeks. Famous friends, baby. Famous friends. Now I just have to figure out how to ride their coattails, whatever that means.) Our friends at Casa Chirilagua, a Christian neo-monastic community near DC, were also featured in the article.On top of that, several of us Commoners had the privilege of helping out with one of the worship services for the Interfaith Peace Witness this weekend, and also the Washington, DC stop on Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change / Deep Shift tour. Some of us did a ton of work for these thi
Tony rox 2008-03-04 12:08:00 Here's Tony Jones on the question of being "born again" (HT: The Emergent Village Blog; Tony's being interviewed by a critical pastor named John):John: Ok, when were you born again?Tony: But when did I really take on the Lordship of Jesus Christ?John: Yes that’s… (indistinct)Tony: You know what? Today, this morning.John: This morning…every day. Daily.Tony: Absolutely.John: Daily, every day. And that’s what you gotta do.Tony: That’s right.John: Romans chapter 12.Tony: That’s not a copout either I’m not like saying that to…“scramble your eggs” in your words, like really truly, I can’t look back on one day and go “that was the day that I took on the Lordship of Jesus Christ in my life.” I can’t. It is an ongoing battle… (indistinct)John: Is it a daily…Tony: Bu
On being an artist 2008-03-03 22:25:00 I don't usually think of myself as an artist. With effort, I can be an OK writer, but in general I think my gifts lie outside what most people tend to think of as artistic endeavors.However, sometimes I think I'm capable of elevating hypocrisy to the level of a rare masterpiece. I've been known to create works of symmetrical, even recursive hypocrisy. It's very beautiful, if you have the eye to appreciate it.Absolutely true story: This past Saturday, 1 March. These thoughts go through my head:"Hmm. There's a pretty good chance, I hear, that a reporter from the Washington Post is going to be at church tomorrow morning. And I'm scheduled to be up front, leading content [sort of like a sermon, only (in my case) with a whole lot more um's and ah's] and celebrating the Eucharist."I don't
Holy shit 2008-03-01 11:06:00 I feel like I really ought to reference this, a) because it's horrifying, and b) to balance the tongue-lashing I gave the Episcopal Church (TEC) and its Presiding Bishop a couple of posts back. Please read this article from Episcopal Cafe about Peter Akinola, the African Anglican archbishop who's been encouraging, enabling, and overseeing a lot of the conservative breakaways from TEC, particularly in Northern Virginia. Obviously more facts need to come out about this, but it seems there's some serious reason to believe (based on Akinola's own statements) that he's been supporting malignantly evil anti-Muslim violence in his native Nigeria. I hope the breakaway folks are paying attention, and praying hard about whether they really want to throw in with this man.And I hope the rest of the
No title 2008-02-29 15:33:00 Warning: Smug snarkiness alert. I should probably put this disclaimer on most of my posts lately.Beloved Employer raised my eyebrows with this review of the new, er, "charity" reality game show, Oprah's Big Give.Who knew Ms. Winfrey was white? (HT: Bricklad)God knows I'm white too, and I'm certain I fall into the same traps, but I am a fan of getting to know and listening to the folks one is trying to help. I hope I try to practice that.
Church property: let go with love 2008-02-29 08:39:00 The Rev. George Clifford is my new hero. With amazing grace, gentleness, care, and (IMHO) prophetic weight, he lays out in detail exactly what I think about the current property
disputes between the Episcopal Church
and those congregations and dioceses that are currently leaving it for other branched of the Anglican Communion. It's brilliant. If this stuff interests you at all, please read it. An excerpt:Quite simply, Christianity is about grace and love. For we who seek to follow Jesus, grace should take precedence over law. TEC operates through democratic processes. When a majority of a parish (or a diocese) votes to leave TEC, those who leave should recognize that the property belongs to TEC and, if they wish to have the property, offer to purchase it at fair market value. However,
Cut from the Dive Team 2008-02-28 23:43:00 Well, Tina's and my first attempt at (sub)urban gleaning (which is also known by some other names with fewer high-fallutin' Biblical connotations) can only be described with one word: FAIL.This is a practice which is becoming increasingly popular among the scruffy, remarkably shameless "screw alls y'all principalities and powers of consumer cultural captivity" Christian circles that our friends and we run in. (Well, as you'll see, Tina and I don't exactly run - it's more like stumbling along behind, just within sight of the pack. But anyway.) The idea is that we rescue perfectly good, unwanted food from its landfill destiny, thereby creating space in our food budgets, which in turn enables us to spend more money and time loving God and neighbor. That's the theory, anyway.Well, despite
More on new wine and leadership 2008-02-26 20:57:00 I was going to wrap more words around this, because this post BLEW...ME...AWAY, but I'm not finding the time, so I'm just gonna link to it. Len Hjalmarson's post (quoting Eddie Gibbs) on "The Evolution of Hierarchy" crystallizes beautifully (for me, anyway) a lot of the thoughts I've been having on the postmodern shift in church leadership. If you read this blog at least in part because you think I sometimes have sometimes have something interesting to say on church leadership, please, please read Len's post. It's magnificent.An excerpt:There is paradigmatic shift occurring. Hierarchy limits options because it limits connectivity, and we live in an connected world. Information that has to flow from the top down through rigidly defined chains has limited effect. Information that is rando
Famous friends 2008-02-24 18:03:00 Two of my good friends were quoted in the Post within the last four days. Susan even got her picture run (in a nice article about preparing for your own demise). The pictures in the other article were all of Mike's much larger aluminum doppalganger, who, sadly, has been relocated to a glorified shopping mall (or so I heard).It's good to have famous friends. Makes name-dropping easier.Good on ya's, ya feckin' glory hounds! ;-) Read more:Famous
New wine - rethinking church leadership 2008-02-23 17:50:00 I was excited to hear about this "Anglimergent" gathering. It sounds like it was a good meeting - though it also sounds like 18 people got together and delivered speeches to each other (Phyllis Tickle did her "Great Emergence" talk which I've heard a lot about and would love to actually hear some day, and Fred Burnham did a talk on network theory, etc.), which seems slightly bizarre from an emergent point of view - but not so strange from an Anglican point of view, so there you are. :-) And it seems like they also had informal multi-voice conversations in between, which (I'm guessing) made up the bulk of their time together.The most promising thing in Steve Knight's summary (linked above), from my perspective, was that they were discussing Burnham's ideas on network theory and "alternat
Thankful and hopeful 2008-02-23 16:55:00 For anybody who saw my last blog post about my Dad's brain tumor, but hasn't been following our new family blog for updates on his progress, I wanted to do a quick update.Tina and I are back home in Northern Virginia after spending about a week in Charlotte with Dad and Mom, my brother Sean and his fiancee Anna, our Aunt Joan, and (for part of the week) our Uncle Edd and Aunt Linda. Tuesday and much of Wednesday were spent at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where our expectation was that Dad would be undergoing brain surgery to try to remove as much of the tumor as possible. The risks of this surgery were scary: Dad might lose his ability to speak, or large chunks of memory, or mobility, etc. Literally just before the surgery (during pre-op), we found out that the plan had c Read more:Thankful
Praying for my Dad and my family 2008-02-10 20:25:00 Hi folks,I just spammed a whole bunch of friends with an email about this, but if you read my blog and might pray for my family right now, we'd be grateful for your prayers. We found out on Wednesday that my Dad has what his doc described as a "really big" brain tumor. The whole family (Dad and Mom, my brother Sean and his fiancee Anna, and Tina and I) have spent the weekend together - it's been a good weekend with lots of laughs and Croghanesque good food! - and tomorrow at 12:15 we're all going to Dad's first appointment with a neurologist who seems to be the very best in North Carolina for this kind of thing. We're hoping to come back from tomorrow's appointment with some idea of a treatment plan, but we don't know for sure what we'll learn. In any case, I wanted to share the URL fo
Rowan Williams on the Emerging Church 2008-02-07 16:35:00 I like ++Rowan a lot, and I think his observations on strengths and weaknesses in emerging church contexts (the first video below) are spot-on. And it seems that the Church
of England is doing some very cool things with its "Fresh Expressions" initiative (which Archbishop Williams
speaks about in the second video below).Note to the Episcopal Church: Wake up! Pay attention! Get a clue! This is infinitely more important than fighting schism! TEC will be much healthier and stronger in a decade or two if it includes, blesses, and supports younger and postmodern people, than it will if it succeeds in preventing folks who want to leave from leaving but misses the boat on "fresh expressions" of church. Among other things, folks who are leaving for AMiA and CANA are not leaving the Church (
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