For those paralyzed by fears

For those people who saw their security plan go down the drain

For those human beings whose health has declined

Special prayers.  Special prayers for these people.

Celebrations for:

Those with a new dream

Those looking beyond

Individuals experiencing growth

And celebrations for skeptics, who keep us honest about life as it is.  May their thoughts be a stimulus to us to have a more honest faith.

Dear Liberal Preacher,

Jesus says, “tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” (Matt 21:31) If that wasn’t shocking enough here’s the second kicker.  Notice to whom Jesus was speaking, the chief priests and elders of the people (Matt 21:23).

Signed,

Chris Ayers (Liberal Preacher)

Dear Chris,

What’s your point?

I’m a preacher.  You don’t think I’m going to be last in line do you?

Liberal Preacher

To the ONE who created some semblance of order out of chaos:

Amidst the agony and the ecstatsy

in the beginning, middle and aftermath of the uproar and exploded parts of our lives

When we say “pardon my French,” often because we just don’t speak the same lanuage

when life is mostly intrigue and buildup

make us – make us pause for a break

Signed,

Embattled

May the Creator

Give you peace and inner strength during any showdown today.

For all that taxes you let humor and absurdity be your medicine.

May your bosses give you and yours raises.  Got to feed the family and have fun.

Turn your anger into fruitfulness with the assist of curiosity.

Do you know, offhand, anyone who knows…………?  Find some folk who know life.  Hang out with them.

our life, our church, our marriage, our place of work is making us dumber or smarter.

Prayers for those who are:

reeling

robbed

torched

leaving for good

at a four-year low

not smelling the roses

gravely ill

have eyes peeled for naughty

on the run

who are ratting out the polluters.

Finally, forgive the Christians and the Church for running a huge Ponzi scheme.

So I’m weird.  At least I know I’m weird.  At least I am self-aware.  At least I enjoy being weird.

This may sound weird but I’ve started writing prayers from the Wall Street Journal front page.  I have this creative mind and well – I come up with strange ideas.

On the other the hand, Karl Barth, the famous way too prolific of a writer German theologian, said preachers ought to hold the Bible in one hand and the Wall Street Journal in the other.  Uh, on further thought, he said hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.

Well, I’ve got the Wall Street Journal in one hand. Actually, it’s on my desk at I look at it right now.  I don’t have the Bible in a hand either.  But, parts of the Bible are in my head and heart and soul.  So here goes. The words from the Wall Street Journal are in red.

Help us God with the walls, the obstacles with which we are dealing.  God knows life, our life, has its share of walls.  Sometimes we feel like we are just up against one wall after another, or five walls at the same time.  Relief, God.  How about some relief!

God, to protect ourselves, we build walls.  Help us to let down our walls when we are safer than we think so we can have the intimacy we desire but prevent because we are so dang busy protecting ourselves.

Help us to rebuke the right people, but to be careful about doing too much rebuking because we’ve got plenty of logs in our own eyes.

Help us to agree some.  Not too much. We don’t want to sacrifice our personhood, but help us to agree when our life is not on the line.  And if we agree, let it be honest agreement and not false agreement.

We confess we can slog through our mud pits.  We know we are a real piece of work. We know all that.  We need help.  So…………

Dear Liberal Preacher,

First of all, i love the blog. Great stuff!

I’ve been reading through the posts and you mention a couple of times that you don’t believe Hell exists. Could you dive a little deeper into the theological framework for your belief? I understand the whole “God is too loving for punishment” argument…I was just wondering if there was any more substance behind that. Is there any punishment for no belief and/or complete selfishness?

Thanks

Sincerely,

Dear Concerned Future Seminary Student

First of all,

I’m concerned that you are concerned.  I have a track record of not doing well with individuals who are concerned.  Believe me, it’s one of my core beliefs.  I don’t do well with people who are concerned.  No one has ever been concerned that I’m too nice or too Christian or too Buddist or too Universalist or too Baptist or too smart.  Or maybe they have.

Concerned sounds like disappointement on steriods.  And being trained to be a psycho psychotherapist (kidding about the psycho) my hunch is you tend to be uptight and I know what uptight folk can do to clergy and the church’s soup and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I’m not saying the steeples don’t need commitment and integrity, but concern is another matter altogether.  So yes, I’m concerned about you being so concerned.  Take a walk.  Worry about world hunger.  Breathe in.  Breathe out. Maybe that will help with your concern level.

You ask about  diving deeper into theological framework of my beliefs on hell.  First of all, I’m not a good diver so I’m not going to dive at all.  And as for the deeper, I agree the church needs to get deeper, deeper into the world’s needs, deeper into our hearts, but not deeper into some theological framework.  You are going to bore me to death.  I’ve set through seminary classes like that.  Here’s a clue:  all those theological systems are lies.  Hate to break it to you so bluntly.

Sounds like you are pretty sure about hell too.  I wonder how you got so sure during your short life.  My guess is you have lived in your little mind and provincial neighborhood for far too long.  Not throwing stones. I did that for years myself.

How many homeless people/transitional people speak with you on a daily basis?

Do you know anybody who is so messed up they are beyond even the repair of God?

Were your parents concerned parents?  How do you feel about your momma and your daddy?

Rahter than being too concerned I would submit you nurture a wild curiosity about yourself, your theological framework, your osbession with hell, and with any and all  theological frameworks built on sand, which is all of them.

Now on God being too loving.  I’m worried about Christians who worry about God  being too loving.  My guess is such people aren’t very loving of themselves and therefore try to make life hell for the rest of us.

The punishment for no belief and complete selfishness shall be delivered by Christians going on crusades or Christians singing in the choir.

Little or Liberal Baptist Rev.                                                        

From Alie

Dear Liberal Preacher,

I have noticed most Baptists do not drink alcohol.  Why is that?  Is there a Biblical reason for this, or just a personal preference?  (After all, Jesus didn’t turn water into milkshakes!)

Alie

Dear Alie:

You are not seriously buying the idea that most Baptists do not drink alcohol are you?

Whath goes on beyond closed doors?  There’s a song with those words, isn’t there?

You’ve heard the joke?  You know the difference between a ___________ (fill in the blank, Methodist, Presby, Whiskeypalean, etc.) and a Baptist?  A ______ will talk to you in the liquor store.

On the other hand, we all know and believe Jesus drank Welch’s grape juice.  It’s right there in John 999:99 (Goofed-up Bible version). 

Will Baptists ever be honest?

Submit questions to askaliberalpreacher@gmail.com

Dear Liberal Baptist Preacher,

It is my understanding that the Baptist church has traditionally believed in the “Four Freedoms.”

1) Soul freedom: the soul is competent before God, and is capable of making decisions in matters of faith without coercion or compulsion by any larger religious or civil body (the priesthood of the believer)

2) Church freedom: freedom of the local church from outside interference, whether government or civilian (the autonomy of the local church)

3) Bible freedom: the individual is free to interpret the Bible for himself or herself, using the best tools of scholarship and Biblical study available to the individual

4) Religious freedom: the individual is free to choose whether to practice their religion, another religion, or no religion – also, religious freedom in separation of church and state.

My questions: Are these four freedoms still a part of the Baptist tradition? Do Fundamentalist Baptists believe in these four freedoms? Does the SBC endorse these traditions? If this is NOT still a part of Baptist tradition, when did it change? Thank you for your time.

Rosie

Dear Rosie:

There’s nothing I would enjoy more – well, that’s an exaggeration – there’s nothing I would enjoy more than raking a few Baptist fundamentalists over the coals.  I went to a Southern Baptist seminary during the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC. The church I serve as pastor is a former Southern Baptist Church.  (We couldn’t take any more of their sexism, homophobic statements, anti-Semitism, dishonesty about the Bible, etc.)

I’d love to rake them over the coals and tell you they are not true Baptists, but I don’t think that would be accurate.  During the big SBC debates there was a lot of talk about who was and wasn’t a true Baptist. True this or true that, true Baptist or a sorry excuse for a Baptist, true Christian and you aren’t a Christian – all that talk makes me nervous.

I’d like for you to read Leon McBeth’s mammoth work, The Baptist Heritage. He makes Baptist history interesting, and there is some funny stuff in it too!  It’s a big, big book, though.

There are currently so many different “brands” of Baptist I wouldn’t even want to start to define Baptist these days.  And I think a good case can be made for there being diversity among Baptists from the start of Baptistdom. 

Walter Shurden – I once heard him give a lecture, I believe, at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary - spoke of different strands or traditions among the early Baptists/Southern Baptists. 

In Jane Wagner’s book, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, the main character, played by Lily Tomlin on Broadway, says:  “when I look at my family I feel like a detached retina.” 

When I look at my Baptist kinfolk, I sometimes feel like a detached retina.  On the other hand, there are more Baptists who live in my neighborhood (I’m a baptist, Jewish, Universalist, Agnostic Christian) than you might believe.  Baptists, like me, stand in the great heritage of John LeLand.  In 1791 John Leland, an outspoken Baptist in America, wrote his major treatise on religious liberty, “The Rights of Conscience Inalienable.”  In this treatise, Leland argued that the real motives for establishment of religion are not to benefit religion, but to buttress the power of civil clergy and augment the purposes of ambitious clergy.  Leland concluded that: “Government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men than it has with the principles of mathematics.  Let every man speak freely without fear, maintain the principles that he believes, worship according to his own faith, either one God, three Gods, no God, or twenty Gods, and let government protect him in so doing.”

That’s my kind of Baptist!

But, alas, your questions.

Those four freedoms you mention are still alive and well among REAL, TRUE Baptists – O.K., among some of the modern Baptists.

I don’t speak for fundamentalist  or SBC Baptists.  You’ll have to ask them.  But watch them.  I find them squirmy.  I find them dishonest.  They are trying to be honest.  They are good people, for the most part.  They are just – they just think you have to be the way they are to be Christian and they are flat out wrong.  I don’t find their Christianity very Christian.  It sure doesn’t appeal to me.  Or put another way, I’m not going back, but I do appreciate many wonderful things about my conservative Baptist upbringing.  [I bet I can whip you in a Bible sword drill.  "Sword"? - "Sword Drill"?  That should have been a clue!]

When did it change?  Well, that’s the old “what’s the original” angle.  Christians spend too much time worrying about originals we never were or had and will never get or retrieve.  What a waste of time and energy and ink. 

When did it change?  Did it ever change?  I’m not getting into that debate too much.  I spend my time using the Bible, experience, reason, science, church tradition to make persuasive arguments about what God is asking the church and Christians to believe, and more importantly, to do today.

[Speaking of the original debate, original in this case being Baptists as the originial Christians - God help us.  There's a book, The Trail of Blood by J. M. Carroll, which traces Baptists all the way back to John the Baptist.  I can buy that.  He was one weird dude.]

What’s your next question?

You sure have a lot of questions.

That’s a good thing.

Be careful about putting “periods” at the end of your sentences, metaphorically speaking, of course.

Happy Easter! (And watch out for those Baptists)

submit questions to askaliberalpreacher@gmail.com

Dear Liberal Preacher,
 
I am a young college student who is questioning their sexual orientation.  My question is what does the bible say about being gay?  I have always heard it is wrong to be gay and I want to know what you are supposed to do if you can not be straight?
 
Thanks
Anonymous

Dear Anonymous College Student:

I am so glad you are in college.  You will learn that many things you were previously taught are wrong, including that your sexual orientation is a sin.

I am a liberal Christian.  We typically are not certain of much, but I am certain your sexual orientation is not a sin.

I wish I could explain my position in a blog entry but I can’t.  I’m writing a book titled The Sex Education of a Baptist Ministry which explains how I became convinced, with not even an ounce of uncertainty, that one’s sexual orientation and gender identity is not a sin.

Now here’s the bad news.  In my opinion, there are probably two Bible verses which disapprove of same sex.  What they don’t tell you is that many of the verses which are supposedly clear are, in fact, unclear.  Either way, parts of the Bible are simply wrong.  I know that may be shocking news but I want the chance in the book to convince you such is the case.  I also want to convince you that in thinking about God and life and sexual orientation, etc. we (if you are a Christian) need to consider that all sources for our theology are equally valid (experience, reason, church tradition, Bible, science) and are our sources are problematic, including the Bible.

Now I don’t mean to be “smart,” but Dale C. Martin has taught me in Sex and the Single Savior that the Bible does not “say” anything.  Put a Bible in the room and be quiet for two or three hours and listen to if you hear any the Bible say any words (literally, now).  All that is to say that simply referring to the Bible is not enough. The Bible requires interpretation.  Now all interpretations are not possible and not interpretations are equal.  The church throughout its history is forced to use more than the Bible.   Actually, when you consider Christians disagree about what books should be in the Bible, that we have tons of manuscripts and have to pick which ones to use, and when you consider many other factors – well, it’s really just more complicated than many Christians want to be honest about.  Regardless of what I just wrote, for starters I would encourage you to read the Bible and start highlighting all the horrible things in it.  Buy Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer’s book Jesus Against Christianity.   Read the first 100 pages and then check back with me.

Sorry for the delay in responding to your very important question.  I’ve been in intense pain the last five weeks and am recovering from gallbladder surgery.   (Sorry for not having a drawing at the end of the post.  Just not up to it yet.)

You need to recover from the untruths the church has taught you.

Now here’s a prayer for your healing.  Here are the lyrics of Easy To Be Me (Lifehouse).

“Easier To Be”

Lifehouse

Chasing fireflies
Elusive dreams
This pre life crisis
Is killing me
Beautiful tragedy
Who I was wasn’t me
Yeah yeah

Do do do do
You make it easier to be
Easier to be me
It’s hard to believe
You make it easy…

We speak in silence
Words can’t break
It feels like we are
Falling awake
In a place and a time
Of our own
Yeah yeah

Do do do do
You make it easier to be
Easier to be me
Hard to believe

It felt like the world
Fell from my feet
Gave up on myself

You didn’t give up on me
Let myself go
You were still there
Like coming home
Coming up for air
Yeah yeah