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Why I Am a Liberal

  Next month I will have been a pastor for 58 years. I was a licensed minister and preached now and then for eight years before taking on my first (student) pastorate in August of 1968; so the Judeo/Christian Scriptures (the Bible) have been a part of my official work for 66 years. I am amazed—and often disturbed—at the many diverse and often contradictory ways those Scriptures have been understood and applied. Actually, it’s not the variations that disturb me; it’s the anger and bitterness with which we Christians—you know: “blessed are the meek…” “blessed are the peacemakers…” “love your enemies…” Christians—treat each other when we don’t agree. Due to the animosity, I’ve come to prefer the word Christlike over the word Christian as a goal for living. Not everything that is called Christian is “like Christ.” Most recently I’ve seen hostile exchanges over the concept of God’s sovereignty. From where I sit it’s that God can do whatever God darn well pleases. Okay; I can wor...
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Collateral Damage of Misplaced Faith

  After battling chronic depression and serious neurological pain for years, with his business failing and seeing no livable future, our youngest son took his life last August. The grief remains demanding for our family. It flared up again this morning when I ran across one of the most difficult passages in the entire Bible. It’s the story of Jephthah (Judges 11:1-39) . Jephthah is called by the people of Gilead to lead a fight against the Ammonites. Verses 30-31: “And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: ‘If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.’” Jephthah went to battle, he was victorious, and when he returned home his daughter came out to greet him. Jephthah is devastated. The text won’t allow us to pretend otherwise. He cries out; he tears his clothes; he names his grief and he says, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought ...
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A Matter of Survival?

  Four Principles for Christlike Discussion of Controversial Subjects In our confirmation culture, being right is considered an achievable absolute, and being wrong is synonymous with unpardonable sin. Disagreement is not tolerated and is met with belligerence and hostility and even violence (verbal or physical). Relationships are damaged or destroyed in the climate of intolerance. In the teachings and life modeling of Jesus of Nazareth and in subsequent Christian ethical teachings, relationships are paramount, and love is the only valid basis of relationships. We are called even to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48 and Romans 12:20-21) and both Jesus (Matthew 5:38-42) and Paul (Romans 12:17-1 and 1 Thessalonians 5:15) teach non-retaliation as a Kingdom of Heaven ethic. Sadly, relationships die, because they are human and death is part of being human. There’s even a biblical model for dealing with the death of relationships; it is a form of resurrection: “You have heard...
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An Unsettling, Yet Freeing, Discovery

Almost daily I make new discoveries in the Bible, even after 66 years of studying the texts in preparation for preaching and writing. I can't find it now, but recently I read that we should never get to the point that we confuse the pursuit of truth with the possession of it. Shakespeare wrote, “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”   And St. Paul wrote, “Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.” (I Corinthians 8:2) I found the new discovery in a text found in all three Synoptic Gospels, viz., the familiar story of the rich, young ruler [1] (Matthew just calls him “someone,” Mark calls him, simply, “a man,” Luke calls him “a certain ruler”)—isn’t it strange how words, phrases, and ideas get attached to scriptural accounts? In this case it’s not inaccurate. Later in the narrative Matthew does say he is “young;” Luke calls him a “ruler,” and all three accounts mention his wealth. It’s just not generally go...
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Collateral Damage of "Faith"

                 After battling chronic depression and serious neurological pain for years, with his business failing and seeing no livable future, our youngest son took his life last August. The grief remains demanding for our family. It flared up again this morning when I ran across one of the most difficult passages in the entire Bible. It’s the story of Jephthah (Judges 11:1-39) . Jephthah is called by the people of Gilead to lead a fight against the Ammonites. Verses 30-31: “And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: ‘If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.’” Jephthah went to battle, he was victorious, and when he returned home his daughter came out to greet him. Jephthah is devastated. The text won’t allow us to pretend otherwise. He cries out; he tears his clothes; he n...
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Exploiting Scripture for Political Power

                 I haven’t written recently. It’s almost a “what’s-the-use” situation. For everybody. We’re so divided as a nation, as a church, as congregations, as families… If I write anything of substance I’ll piss somebody off—no matter what I write. We’re so divided we can’t even watch a Super Bowl together! We’re to the point that we’re not divided over issues anymore; we’re just divided. Division isn’t the condition we’re in. Division is who we have become. Sincerity and integrity scarcely matter anymore—unless it agrees with me—unless it conforms to what I believe—if I even know what I believe. From all appearances, much of our population doesn’t advance any purpose or cause except to oppose somebody else’s purpose or cause. And don’t you dare disagree with them! Disagreement is the unpardonable sin! Much of our population apparently can’t function without an enemy—by pointing out somebody else’s sins they can deflect at...
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Selective Literalism/Selective Inerrancy

  This concern may be the most difficult for me to comprehend and may be the biggest barrier in my ability to communicate with and understand people whose religious and political standards and principles are to the right of mine. Without stereotyping everyone to my right, I recall very few times when I have been able to engage any of them in a civil conversation on any topic more wide-ranging than Aunt Myrtle’s hysterectomy. And the deal-breaker almost always is selective literalism and/or selective inerrancy. We all are inconsistent and imperfect in living out our faith and all of us put greater emphasis on some biblical passages than others; but there’s a world of difference between giving emphasis versus absolutizing a verse or passage taken out of context and eliminating or ignoring other related passages. Perhaps the clearest example is the iconic anti-gay passages (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13) and the word, “abomination.” There are significant translation issues within the pri...
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