Praise Music Industry Has Led Many Churches To Exchange Worship for Emotionalism - Les Lamkin, longtime church music leader

Consider what (not who, but what) is being adored in much of current Praise Music. It is certainly not our Triune God’s great saving work celebrated throughout history and in our own lives. Rather, it’s our own emotional status, our own emotional wants, our own psychological selves.

With the sweeping popularity and utilization of songs produced by the Praise Music Industry - specifically those from non-denominational megachurches like Bethel and Hillsong - the having of an emotional experience has trumped all other criteria for determining faith and practice during Sunday services.

Here's the problem; the Bible never connects worship to emotion or music. It encourages emotion as a response to experiencing God - but it also warns against allowing emotion to be our sole guide regarding faith and practice.

Worship is supposed to be the gathered congregation together accepting God's invitation into God's way of life; into the Divine Life of God as it is expressed in selfless and absolute love of God lived out forever in the Trinity as community.

Worship is meant to be formative too, not merely expressive.

The music currently coming out of the Praise Music Industry has reversed all this and made worship about us individually, our individual wants, our individual feelings, our individual emotions..

Consider the thematic and lyrical content of much of current Praise Music; it is certainly not God’s great saving work celebrated throughout history and in our own lives. Rather, it’s our own emotional status, our own emotional wants, our own psychological selves.

Current Praise Music Industry culture has substituted the Divine Communal Life of the Triune God with content that is borderline-sensual, manipulative, has a lot of emotional-neediness, and prioritizes instant emotional gratification.

The full article is available here

How Christians Should and Shouldn't Speak About Creation - Brian Zahnd

Instead of saying un-Christian things like, “This world is not my home,” “It’s all going to burn,” and “Environmentalism is idolatry,” listen to how wise Christians have always spoken about Creation.

This year Earth Day falls on a Sunday.  So I thought I’d say a few words about how Christians should and shouldn't speak about Creation.

First, Christians should never say…

"This world is not my home."
This world is our home! And it’s the locus of God’s saving work. The blessed hope is not “we’re going,” but “Christ is coming.” Our eschatological hope is resurrection, not evacuation. The risen Christ is not a ghost, he has flesh and bones; he eats fish and honeycomb.

"It’s all going to burn."
What a horrible, ghastly thing for a Christian to say! Especially when it’s given as an excuse for justifying environmental exploitation. In Christ we have a hopeful eschatology that says, “It’s all going to be renewed.” (And if you want to work from 2 Peter 3:10, say, “It’s all going to be refined.”)

"Environmentalism is idolatry."
Never say that. Instead say, “This is my Father’s world.” In giving humanity “dominion,” God made us park rangers of Planet Earth. Environmentalism isn’t idolatry — it’s the original vocation given to humanity. Environmentalism isn’t idolatry — but greed is! In Revelation we’re told that God will judge “those who destroy the earth.”

So ...

... instead of saying un-Christian things like, “This world is not my home,” “It’s all going to burn,” and “Environmentalism is idolatry,” listen to how wise Christians have always spoken about Creation.

• The first step for a soul to come to know God is contemplation of nature.
  –Irenaeus (120–202)
• The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God.
  –John of Damascus (675–749)
• If we learn to love the earth, we will discover what it means to be truly alive.
  –Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)
• A wrong attitude toward nature implies, somewhere, a wrong attitude toward God.
  –T.S. Eliot (1888–1965)
• How we treat the earth defines the relationship that each of us has with God.
  –Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (1940–)

The full article is available here

A Tribute To Jack Casey: One Of The Greatest Men I've Ever Known - by Jeff Wiersma

I’m far from the only person who has given this kind of tribute to Jack in the days since his passing. That speaks to the far-reaching impact he had and his legacy of being a humble, kind, and giving man. I will never forget how he always greeted me with his trademark, “Heeeey theeeere” and a handshake

A great man, Jack Casey, has completed his life’s work. This has caused me to reflect back on the 40 years that I was blessed enough to know Jack and be in community with his family.

I’m not sure that I can adequately express what Jack and the Casey family have meant to me in my life ... how they influenced who I am as a person, how they helped to shape my spirituality from my earliest years ... but I'm going to try.

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Jack specifically helped to shape my concept of how a man with integrity and emotional honesty served in leadership in a church (along with my dad of course, another old softy). He was kind, welcoming, authentic and accommodating.

He and Lois - along with my folks, the Van Dyke's, the Dykstra's, and several others - were brave enough to start a brand new church. Part of the reason they did this was so that people who weren’t churchgoers would have somewhere that they could feel comfortable attending; where broken people could be real and didn’t have to fit any mold - somewhere they could come as they were to find some acceptance, unconditional love, and hope. (If you know even the first thing about me, you know how deeply that example has been imprinted into my DNA).

Jack and Leo took on preaching in addition to their busy work and family lives. (Jack was always better at keeping sermons under 25 minutes. I take after my Dad I think).

So many benefited from that courage and vision that it can be easy to take it for granted, but it wasn’t a sure thing by any means. It was a definite risk in a community in which they and their young families were all deeply ingrained church and school-wise.

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The Casey family opened their home to me as a child and were a second home when my parents were off visiting my older siblings at college/etc when I was in grade school. Being the youngest and therefore closest in age to me (4 years my elder), Scott made me feel welcomed, included, and at ease. He clearly had that modeled for him by his parents.

The Casey family continued this kind of hospitality, opening their home as foster parents for Bethany Christian Services.

I cut my teeth as a church leader (both band and generally) under the leadership of Jack’s oldest son John, who led me with the same empowering and enabling qualities that his father lived out. 

While getting my feet under me leadership-wise, Jack always made sure to seek me out to encourage me and tell me "nice work" and "good job."

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I’m far from the only person who has given this kind of tribute to Jack in the days since his passing. That speaks to the far-reaching impact he had and his legacy of being a humble, kind, and giving man.

As Mike O'Brien once said, “No one gets extra points for loving Jack Casey, bc EVERYONE loves Jack Casey.”

I will never forget how he always greeted me with his trademark, “Heeeey theeeere” and a handshake.

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“May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.”

- traditional Gaelic blessing

The Disconcerting Rise Of Self-Proclaimed Megachurch Apostles - Jeff Wiersma

A group of mostly self-proclaimed “apostles,” leading ministries from North Carolina to California, has attracted millions of followers with promises of direct access to God through alleged "signs and wonders."

In August 2017, Christianity Today's Bob Smietana interviewed authors Brad Christerson and Richard Flory about their book, The Rise Of Network Christianity.

Their book is about the group of mostly self-proclaimed “apostles,” leading ministries from North Carolina to California, has attracted millions of followers with promises of direct access to God through alleged "signs and wonders."

The following are some insightful, albeit disconcerting, excerpts that resonate with what I have perceived and discerned.  To me, these observations are disconcerting to me - because it always concerns me when emotionalism, devotion to a “chosen” leader, and financialization are driving forces in a movement.

I've seen first-hand the abuses of power that often result from the lack of oversight and accountability and celebrity-leader dynamism.  I've observed the kind of misguided teaching and psychologically damaging cultures that result from it.

I know many people who have suffered long-term emotional and relational trauma from attending these types of churches. 

Multi-level marketing reaps millions 

Many of these "apostles" run megachurches, among them Bethel Church in Redding, California. But their real power lies in their innovative approach to selling faith. They’ve combined multi-level marketing and Pentecostal style alleged signs and wonders to connect directly with millions of spiritual customers. That allows them to reap millions in donations, conference fees, and book, MP3, worship cd and DVD sales.

Trickle-down spirituality, devotion to the leader

The leaders of this movement don't have the same "priesthood of all believers" theology as the Protestant Reformers, because their power flows down from particular "apostles," and then others who are "under them" can access it.   

Despite being similar to established prosperity gospel preachers, this group is unique in that they really think God has put these "apostles" on earth to transform the world.  It's a sort of trickle-down Christianity, which spreads its ideas through marketing and media production.

No oversight and accountability, lots of hype. 

They consciously avoid any kind of formal organization or denomination (aka "oversight and accountability").  They can just go straight to the market activities.

Between social media, the internet, and conferences, they have figured out ways to leverage big, hyped-up, (emotionally-manipulative) experiences.  It is a completely different discipleship than the weekly rhythm of church life in community.   

These leaders don't engage in a lot of self-reflection about the dangers of holding major power without any oversight.  We haven't seen a lot of self-awareness on their part.  They think they are an instrument of God - and that's all they need.  There's a suspicion of accountability structures. 

CRC Has Been Welcoming Refugees For Decades - Immigrants Are A Blessing Not A Burden

Call To Worship: Ambassadors of Hope and Promise (based on 2 Corinthians 5:20)

God, guide our lives in service to your world. Make us ambassadors of the promise of your hope. Open our eyes to see your world as you see it, God. Open our hearts and our spirits to follow your path. Help us to be people who bring good news to those victimized by injustice and suffering.

God, your love makes all things new again. For this incredible gift of grace, we give thanks.

Why Do Many Everyday Republican Christians Still Support Trump? - Jeff Wiersma

Even though many everyday Republican Christians may identify themselves as “values voters,” in reality they’ve been conditioned to be just as partisan as any other special interest group.

In light of the fact that a solid majority of everyday Republican Christians continue to support the amoral Donald Trump, my longtime suspicion - that many everyday Republican Christians have been conditioned to not ACTUALLY care as much about “values” in the political/social realm as they’ve claimed that they do - appears to be confirmed.

It, unfortunately, appears that they’ve been quite poorly-discipled in ways that serve the Religious Right’s pursuit of authoritarian political power. (But there’s good news too, so please read through till the end).

Trump's continued support among many everyday Republican Christians has not been eroded by the recent revelation that Trump cheated on his 3rd wife just after she had given birth to their son. Were that not enough, he committed adultery with numerous porn stars, who he then paid hush money to, including physically threatening one if she wouldn’t keep quiet about the entire affair.

As a contrast, when Bill Clinton committed adultery with an intern, the Religious Right called for his impeachment and deemed him wholly unfit morally to serve as President.

I agreed then - and I feel the same way now about the current POTUS. But as for the current POTUS, the Religious Right has argued many different rationalizations and justifications for the immoral behavior.

(As an aside - many of them who I interact with have rationalized voting against Hillary because Trump is “pro-life.” (1) The narrow, inadequate definition of the term “pro-life” by the Religious Right leaves much to be desired when compared to the Consistent Ethic of Life Christian teaching. (2) Actual abortion rates tend to increase under Republican presidencies because the economy performs worse and social program funding is often cut. (3) Roe v Wade was made law by a conservative-majority Supreme Court.  Subsequent conservative-majority Supreme Courts have not overturned it.  (4) A man who threatens nuclear holocaust isn’t pro-life, so this entire rationalization - unfounded and spurious as it was based on the 3 previous points - doesn’t even hold water given Trump’s threats to wipe out North Korea with nuclear weapons).
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So, what does this ethical inconsistency demonstrate? In my assessment, it demonstrates that even though many everyday Republican Christians may identify themselves as “values voters,” in reality they’ve been conditioned to be just as partisan as any other special interest group.

They don’t emulate Trump’s behavior in their own lives (thank goodness, or society would be an unmitigated disaster), but they’ve found ways to justify or rationalize all kinds of behaviors of Trump’s that they cited as disqualifying in previous political leaders.

These everyday Republican Christians are the people who, in my youth, taught that values and morals were the most crucial issues in the political and social spheres; they were the baseline criteria upon which all political and social decisions should be made.

But in light of their continued support of Trump, many us of are asking ...

• Were those teachings and beliefs ever really”fundamental?”
• Or - perhaps - were these everyday Republican Christians simply unquestioningly passing along the franchised propaganda that Religious Right leaders provided/said to?
• When the opportunity for authoritarian political power presented itself in the golden calf of Trump, did they SUDDENLY change what they really believed and cave to a novel temptation, or did it confirm what - all along - Religious Right leaders have groomed them to be?

I believe it to the 2 latter possibilities and not the former. It sure appears to confirm the conclusions I reached 19 years ago when I shed what I've taken to calling the "Fundacostagelical" bondage and converted to actual Christianity.

Sadly, this ethical inconsistency has discredited my faith to onlookers outside of the evangelical cloister. This has only worsened as Religious Right leaders have defended neo-Nazis and pedophiles.

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Now, I did promise that there is good news.


The good news is that it’s possible to break free of the Religious Right’s spiritual bondage and wholly inadequate theology/moral vision.

Trust me, I did it - and you can too! I can’t even put into words how free it feels to live free of that oppression. I have lived in both worlds and there's no comparison; life after Fundacostagelicalism is better by far.

Christianity Is Meant To Be a Lifestyle, Not An Established Religion - Father Richard Rohr

Muslim Leaders Are Speaking Out Against Terrorism — Is Anyone Listening? - CRC Network

With the rise of anti-Muslim bigotry and hate crimes in the U.S., coverage of events where Jews, Christians, and Muslims gather to talk about how they can work together to seek peace is critically important.

More than 400 leaders — Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu — convened in Washington D.C. last week for an event coordinated by Rabbi David Sapperstein, Pastor Bob Roberts, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyeh. While the Christians at the event were mostly from Evangelical communities, there were also Catholic, Orthodox, and Mainline representatives participating in the event, known as the Alliance of Virtue.

The Alliance of Virtue was born in January 2016 with the drafting of the Marrakesh Declaration in Morocco; a document signed by more than 350 leaders which stated that the persecution of religious minorities is contradictory to Islam, and called for an end to acts of terrorism in the name of the religion.

With the rise of anti-Muslim bigotry and hate crimes in the U.S., coverage of events where Jews, Christians, and Muslims gather to talk about how they can work together to seek peace is critically important.

According to a survey by the Pew Forum last year, just 35% of white evangelicals know a Muslim personally. This lack of connection is reflected in the perspectives of white evangelicals. According to the Pew survey, 72% of white evangelicals see a natural conflict between Islam and democracy, while only 44% of the general population shares this perspective.

But God is greater than our suspicions. God is larger than our formulas.

The full article is available here

Reflection and Renewal: The Still Small Voice Among Many Noisy Voices (based on 1 Kings 19:12)

God, in our lives there are many voices which ask for our attention.

There are voices that says, "Prove that you are a good person."  Other voices say, "You’d better be ashamed of yourself." There are also voices that say, "Nobody really cares about you," that say, "Be sure to become successful and powerful," and that say, “buying this product will make you happy and will win the approval of others.”

But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "Rejoice, you are loved, simply because you are a part of the universe that God created and called ‘good.’”

God, that’s the voice we need most of all to hear. Sometimes we are so hurried and distracted that we forget that this voice is even speaking at all. Sometimes we resist making the effort to listen for that voice - to listen for you.

So as we pray now and going forward - gives us ears to hear the voice that calls us "loved” and to take joy in it.

Amen

Call To Worship: God, The Life-Giving Trinity (based on Ephesians 2:22)

The incarnate words that God speaks are the life and sustenance of all things. The life Jesus gives is the re-creation and renewed birth of all things. The Spirit which dwells within all of us is the inspiration for creativity, compassion, joy, and community.

May we grow in our awareness of the all-surrounding presence of our life-giving, life-restoring, and life-fulfilling God as we are gather today.

We Choose Love Over Fear - CRC Office of Social Justice

"The Bible is clear that there is no fear in love. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Fear has to do with punishment. Love has to do with seeing Christ in all, especially the distressed."

Love versus fear.

We are living in a time, in a world, in which fear rules our hearts. Fear that has been woven into the very fabric of our society; fear that we carry around as a heavy burden in our bodies, and in our souls.

The Bible is clear that there is no fear in love. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Fear has to do with punishment. Love has to do with seeing Christ in all, especially the distressed.

Now is the time as Christ followers to choose: do we want to live in the spirit of fear, or do we want to embody the perfect love of God in this world? We cannot choose both.

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It can be all too easy to be swallowed up by fear.

It's acceptable, in the eyes of many, to continue putting up walls, turning back boats, not saving those in distress in the middle of the sea, imprisoning those who dared try to cross a man-made border “illegally”.

Many justify these acts by saying that they are not our brothers and our sisters, they are not our neighbors, they are not aliens living in our land…they are others.

It can be all too easy to say, “Well, many of them are Muslims…” and deny the love of Christ to those who are believers of different religions (or of no religion).

We choose love. It is not always easy. It does not always feel safe. It takes work. But we choose love.

The full article is available here

Call To Worship: Love God and Love People (based on Mark 12:30-31)

As followers of Christ, we are called to a hopeful understanding of our world; declaring that God called the created universe "good."  We are called to bring this hope in God with us wherever we go,  declaring that God makes all things new again.

Jesus taught that we should love God and love one another. So let's join together in our love of God to worship and give thanks.

Ways U.S. Churches Can Welcome Immigrants - Christian Reformed Church of North America

In the Bible, strangers are often used by God to bring blessing. Immigrants today are a blessing to our congregations, communities, families, economy, and country. They are created in the image of God.

And God expressly, and repeatedly, commands us to welcome the stranger. This resource shares ten ideas for showing hospitality and experiencing the blessings immigrants bring.

You can preview and download the resource here

It Was Not A Silent Night - Rewrite by Jeff Wiersma

It was not a silent night
there was pain, and joy, and fright
A first time mother, far from her home
Forced, far to travel, by edicts from Rome
A young woman's cries echoed out
that night in King David's town

It was not a silent night
the barn floor cold, the cattle and flies
Mary is screaming in labor and pain
sweat and fear upon her face
with blood and tears on the ground
that night in King David's town

It was not a silent night
as Joseph watched with worried eyes
Held Mary's hand as he knelt on the floor
joy at the screams of the newborn
Love incarnate came down
that night in King David's town

Love incarnate came down
that night in King David's town

White U.S. Christianity = It's Own Greatest Threat - Charles Mathewes, professor of Religious Studies

Fear moves us away from the core of Christianity — love.

When it comes to keeping us away from the core truths of our faith, I suspect this one error is key: many Evangelical and Fundamentalists Christians today seem governed by fear. (The celebrity fundamentalist Christians who have built their fortunes selling fear have discipled their adherents incredibly poorly).

Theologians as well as psychologists will tell you that there is a spiritual peril in acting out of fear and a sense of danger. Fear drives us into patterns of “reasoning” that are far from reasonable, but more akin to reactionary patterns of cause-and-effect.

And fear moves us away from the core of Christianity — love. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love,” says the first epistle of John.

The tyranny of fear in US Christian life is especially visible among white evangelicals, who stand out in their opposition to pluralism in the United States.

The full article is available here

Christian Zionism's Problematic Interpretation of Scripture - Stephen Sizer

Any suggestion that the Jewish people continue to have a special status before God is biblical anathema. The exalted Christ rules from the heavenly Jerusalem with sovereignty over the entire world. A regression to the limited form of the Old Covenant that Jesus fulfilled is not sound Christian teaching.

The Rise of Biblical Literalism vs Christian Tradition
The rise of biblical literalism in the early 18th century was central to Christian Zionism. In the 1830's, John Nelson Darby substituted the traditional Christian view of the Revelation for his own literalist hermeneutic, claiming that God had revealed it to him by special revelation.

In place of all main Christian tradition, Darby concocted a "dispensationalist" view; the belief that God was about to destroy the world and inaugurate a "whole new dispensation" on earth. This led to speculative interpretations of apocalyptic writings, especially Daniel and Revelation.

Lewis Chafer defines the literal hermeneutic upon which which dispensationalism and Christian Zionism is based in the following way: "The dispensationalist believes every statement of the Bible has only the plain, natural meaning its words imply." Additionally, dispensationalists believe prophecy must be taken literally, despite Christian tradition having interpreted the Bible's future predictions as symbolic.

Unfortunately, this absolutist commitment to literalism does not place any emphasis on the historical context of passages or the way scripture interprets scripture.

Take for example the blessings made to Abraham in Genesis 12. Though these promises were made to the patriarch personally, Christian Zionists applies to the current nation state of Israel.

Biblical Prophecy Removed From Its Covenant Context
Christian Zionists - working from a flawed literalist hermeneutic - believe prophecy is pre-written history. In doing so, they detach the words of the prophets in scripture from the covenental contexts in which they were originally given.

This speculative endeavor is at odds with the prophets themselves, who consistently stressed that it was their intention to call God's people back to the terms of their covenental relationship. Their role was not to reveal arbitrary and otherwise hidden facts about predestined future events thousands of years later.

This is the most basic hermeneutical error which Christian Zionists consistently repeat. Biblical prophecy is invariably conditional rather than fatalistic and is ALWAYS given within the context of the covenant relationship between God and his chosen people.

But Christian Zionists treat scriptures as a "frozen text." Based on highly selective texts, they erroneously focus on a restored Jewish kingdom rather than the Body of Christ, upon the contemporary State of Israel rather than the cross of Christ. Their selective hermeneutic leads to them ignore how Jesus and the Apostles reinterpreted the Old Testament.

The Christian Zionist's misguided reading of both history and contemporary events, determined by the dubious exegesis of highly selective texts, is essentially fatalistic, polarised and dualistic. It sets Israel and the Jewish people apart from and above all other people; despite what Jesus and Paul taught.

Any suggestion that the Jewish people, let alone the nation state of Israel, continue to have a special status before God is biblical anathema. The exalted Christ rules from the heavenly Jerusalem with sovereignty over the entire world. A regression to the limited form of the Abrahamic Covenant that Jesus fulfilled is not sound Christian teaching and ignores the ways that Jesus and the Apostles reinterpreted the Old Testament.

The Unfortunate Results
These problematic practices and understandings only serve to perpetuate, exacerbate, and the policies of right-wing Israelis who resist negotiating land for peace. It reinforces Israel's apartheid policies and the illegal settlement and absorption of Occupied Palestinian Territories into the State of Israel.

Mary, The Magnificat, and an Unsentimental Advent - Rachel Held Evans

The incarnation isn’t about desperately grasping at the threads of power and privilege. It’s not about making some civic holiday "bigger and better." It’s about surrendering power, setting aside privilege, and finding God in the smallness and vulnerability of a baby in a womb.

We like to paint Mary in the softer hues—her robes clean, hair combed and covered, body poised in prayerful surrender—but this young woman was a fierce one, full of strength and fury. When she accepts the dangerous charge before her, (every birth was risky in those days, this one especially so), rather than reciting a maternal blessing, Mary offers a prophecy, called the Magnificat.

With the Magnificat, Mary not only announces a birth, she announces the inauguration of a new kingdom, one that stands in stark contrast to every other kingdom—past, present, and future—that relies on violence and exploitation to achieve "greatness."

This is the stunning claim of the incarnation: God has made a home among the very people the world casts aside. And in her defiant prayer, Mary— an unwed, un-believed teenage girl in an occupied land—names this reality.

The incarnation isn’t about desperately grasping at the threads of power and privilege. It’s not about making some civic holiday "bigger and better." It’s about surrendering power, setting aside privilege, and finding God in the smallness and vulnerability of a baby in a womb.

The full article is available here

Advent: Labor Pains In The Birth Of A New World - Shane Claiborne

Compassion For The Poor - Father Greg Boyle

Update From CRC Team at COP23 Climate Change Negotiations - Stephan Lutz

“Sustainability” might be a modern term, but it’s an ancient value.

Elders have long taught youth not to take more than is needed, to live in harmony with one’s surroundings, to protect the soil from wind and water erosion, and to protect creatures so they can continue to reproduce. Before the advent of sustainability coordinators, math, and science, citizens of our world were already implementing widely effective methods to use resources without depleting those resources or causing permanent damage.

I am currently representing World Renew and the Climate Witness Project at COP23 in Bonn, Germany. It is exciting to be here. Being with thousands of people from all over the world, coming together from all walks of life to stand in solidarity about an issue that is affecting the entire world, is an awesome thing. You realize that you, as an individual, are one of many with the same passion, and that each of us are one small but crucial piece of the puzzle.

Each of us has our own unique contribution to make to the bigger picture of defending vulnerable people and preserving God’s good world. It’s a very humbling experience!

The full article is available here

The Gospel Is Good News Or It Is Nothing At All - Jacob Wright

Jesus’ gospel affirms the original goodness of humanity created in the image of God. Any “gospel” that emphasizes continually repenting of "wretchedness" and begging God for mercy is no gospel at all. 

Any “gospel” that emphasizes shame and sin-consciousness instead of a new creation and restoration is no gospel at all.

Any “gospel” that emphasizes continually repenting of "wretchedness" and begging God for mercy is no gospel at all.

Any “gospel” that oppresses people with the need to be in fear and anguish over people for the eternal destiny of their souls is no gospel at all.

Any “gospel” that says your true nature is a wretch that must only approach God with groveling and self-deprecation is not the gospel that Jesus preached.

Any “gospel” that causes one to be weighed down with spiritual gloom on top of the already weighty concerns of life that we have to deal with every day is not the gospel Jesus preached.

Jesus’ gospel lifts the weight, not adds to it. Jesus’ gospel affirms the original goodness of humanity created in the image of God. It declares the bright shining hope that Jesus is universal Lord, the One whose empathy and forgiveness and love is for all humanity; not that a devil will drag the vast majority of humans who’ve ever existed down to eternal torment and that it’s up to Christians to make sure people are “saved.”

I reject a “gospel” that adds loads of spiritual heaviness to the weight of sadness and darkness that we all will deal with as humans. Yes, Jesus' gospel does call us (corporately, not individually) out of selfish and unloving behaviors and it does excoriate the systems that dehumanize us and lead us to victimize each other.

However, the gospel is light and hope and peace and joy for all! It is good news or it is nothing at all.

Erroneous Idea of Eternal Hell Obscures Good News Of Gospel - Jacob Wright

The good news is that God has come to restore this shattered world, NOT that if we happen to come across the right beliefs then God might not torture us for eternity. 

The idea that you have to tell people the scariest most horrifying thing ever ("eternal Hell") in order to present the "good news" of a formula to be saved from it is the absurdity of all absurdities.

I've had people tell me "That's what makes the good news so good! You can't have good news without the bad news!" It’s as if these people have forgotten that the world is full of suffering, disease, fear, violence, war, heartbreak, injustice, poverty, and finally death. The state of this world is the bad news, and everyone lives it.

The good news is not that if we happen to get the right beliefs then God might not torture us forever after this short life in which we all experience suffering. The good news is that God has come to this world to make things right!

The idea that the good news actually means “avoiding some eternal afterlife horror” is nothing more than using the fear of death to propagate worse news than we ever imagined, that the world is worse than we thought!

Eternal torment infinitely eclipses any sort of good news. Eternal torment is a dark shadow overcasting the contemporary understanding and articulation of gospel, and it needs to be removed.

The truth is, the good news is that God has come to restore this shattered world and mercifully bring it to justice, eradicate suffering, and vindicate human meaning within the cosmos. It's as simple as that. The kingdom come. It's what the prophets have declared from the beginning of the world.

The Fear-Inducing, Damaging World Of The Fundamentalism I Knew - Unfundamentalist

The larger U.S. Fundamentalist Christian culture I grew up in showed nothing of an unconditionally loving God – the God that, since I have left that awful world, I have come to know and love.

Sometimes people ask me why I became an Unfundamentalist. Well, the main reason is that I know what real fundamentalism is like; because I was raised within it's bubble.

It's important to note that my parents and some of the church leaders of my youth were reliably good spiritual guides.

But the larger U.S. Fundamentalist Christian culture my non-denominational church was part of - as well as the denomination it eventually joined - was toxic, injurious, and theologically bankrupt.

This fundamentalist culture of book stores, music, magazines, movies, youth revival conferences, "family-focus" organizations, and televangelists falsely indoctrinated us to believe that we were completely worthless in the eyes of God.  We were taught that we were dirt: undeserving, untrustworthy, deserving only of punishment.

Naturally, this is how we came to view everyone else too. Logically, this leads to the hubris and judgmentalism so common to fundamentalism.

(Sadly, this completely theologically-backward understanding is what is still articulated by much of the Praise and Worship Industry).

We were taught that Satan would take every opportunity to creep in and trick us away from “the narrow path.” Questions, doubt, and sin were of the Devil, evidence of weak faith, or of no faith at all. Looking back now, it's patently obvious that this absolutism was complete bullshit, plainly contradicted by scripture. But back then, it was leveled against us as an absolute truth.

This is the patriarchal, ego-fortifying, psyche-destroying, soul-crushing, domineering, brain-washing, fear-inducing, manipulative, spiritually-abusive world of the fundamentalism I know so well.

It showed nothing of an unconditionally loving God – the God that, since I have left that awful world, I have come to know and love.

The full article is available here

"Holiness" = Be Christlike - Jacob M Wright

Jesus said that when we love our enemies, overcome evil with good, and are kind to all, then we will be perfect as our Father is perfect. That is holiness.

When we're studying scripture and we read that God says "Be holy as I am holy," it means that God wants us to be like Jesus. This is because Jesus is the best revelation of what God is like.

When we say that "God is holy" we cannot mean that God is something other than like Jesus. We cannot mean God is cruel, vindictive, and unChristlike. That is how all other humans are, not Jesus.

We cannot mean that God can't look upon sin or won't allow sin or sinners in his presence. That is how the Pharisees were, not Jesus.

When God tells us to "Be holy,” it means that God is calling us to be like Jesus. Jesus said that when we love our enemies, overcome evil with good, and are kind to all, then we will be perfect as our Father is perfect. That is holiness.


"You cannot describe God as cruel, capricious, vindictive, and then justify it by saying, 'God is holy.' No. God's holiness looks like Jesus."
- Brian Zahnd

"The holiness of God is expressed as empathetic self-giving."
- Archbishop Lazar

"Holiness is love of God and of others carried to a sublime extravagance."
- Jean Baptiste H. Lacordaire