Writing Myself Into Being

A Response to Michael Brown (Part 1) #theology #queer #Pentecostal

Very recently, Pentecostal bible scholar Michael Brown published some “honest questions” for GLBT Christians in an article on Christian Post. His full remarks are here: Some Honest Questions for Professing ‘Gay Christians’. As most of my readers may be aware, my PhD work is in dialogue between Queer and Pentecostal theologians. This is the first post of a multi-part response to Dr Brown’s work. I…

Guest Post: Nevada Jane Arlow

Prompt: “Christianity will always be inappropriately anthropocentric.” (100 words or more) What kind of Man? [a woman lays in a grassy field at twilight. Someone she loves is holding her tightly. The air is full of fireflies and the sound of innumerable gibbons. She turns her head and speaks] SHE: Tell me, my love, does god live in the woods? Does his grace extend to dead deer being scavenged…

Writing Prompt 6 May 2021: "How would you explain [the] Imago Dei to someone losing faith in human rights?"

How would you explain [the] Imago Dei to someone losing faith in human rights?Tallan ALexAnDER, on FACEBOOK First I would say: Welcome to the club! For years now, I have found the Western human rights project to be deeply problematic. This is not because I think the truth “underneath” human rights is unimportant, but for two related reasons: Human rights currently lack an adequate…

Writing Prompt 5 May, from Nina Simone, "Dambala"

You won’t go to heavenYou won’t go to hell You’ll stay in your bed With the stench and the smell…Nina simone, “Dambala” (Prompt from Nevada Jane Arlow) I hope there is mercyFor a white boy like meI’ve never been a slaverBut a racist, I be.I don’t deserve heaven,Not sure about hell…I think it’s probably empty:And all shall be well.Doesn’t mean I can be lazyAbout my complicity, forThis world…

Writing Prompt 4 May 2021

300 Seconds: “Wombat! Wombat! Wombat!”Nevada Jane Arlow As I climbed out of my fighter (it was more like exhausted lurching, truth be told), I could hear them all chanting my callsign, even through my helmet: “Wombat! Wombat! Wombat!” What had I done to deserve it? Things had been moving so fast… When my feet touched the deck, I felt hands gripping me, steadying me, pulling my helmet and other…

Writing Prompt 5 May 2021 Respond to the following statement in 300 seconds (five minutes) using any form you wish): "Violence is good for something..."

Respond to the following statement in 300 seconds (five minutes) using any form you wish: “Violence is good for something…”Prompt by nevada jane arlow I remember preaching a sermon once in Trinity College [Toronto] Lady chapel. All the Bible readings except the Gospel basically said, “Rejoice!” The Gospel was John the Baptiser calling out, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the…

Can I be a Christian “ethical slut”?

Recently, many queer and Christian friends of mine have waded into questions of sexual ethics. Some of them are reading Nadia Bolz-Weber’s book Shameless, and they are apparently getting a lot out of it. Because I’m prepping to start writing my PhD dissertation on the intersection of Queer and Pentecostal theologies, I’m loving the chance to read Michel Foucault’s three-volume History of…

Lent 2018 – 8 March

Revised Common Lectionary Reading: Psalm 107:17-22

A simple thought, but one that goes to the core of my Christian experience. Healing is part of God’s character, part of his “steadfast love” or chesed. Wherever the power called Sin has touched human life with destruction, it is always God’s will to set it right, always God’s will that we sing songs of joy for our deliverance. (Those same songs…

Lent 2018 – 5 March

Yikes. I have a big gap to fill when I’ve got the chance. But God is good, so let’s get started again…

Revised Common Lectionary Reading: Hebrews 9:23-28

But as it is, he [Jesus the Messiah] has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, 28 so Christ, having been…

Lent 2018 – 21 February

Revised Common Lectionary Reading: Proverbs 30:1-9

5 Every word of God proves true;     he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6 Do not add to his words,     or else he will rebuke you, and you will be found a liar.

I first learned these words of Scripture in an Evangelical counter-LDS pamphlet, as part of the reason why orthodox Christianity rejects Joseph Smith as a false prophet and…

Lent 2018 – First Sunday of Lent (18 February)

Revised Common Lectionary Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22

This is one of the passages that some Christians turn to that suggests what some Jewish traditions call “the harrowing of hell,” which implies universal human salvation because of the ministry of Jesus. (That’s a much longer conversation!)

This passage also connects the Flood stories of Genesis to Baptism. I find it interesting that it doesn’t…

Lent 2018 – 17 February

Revised Common Lectionary Reading: Psalm 32

I just realised that this Psalm is the source for a line from one of my favourite worship choruses: No Longer Slaves, released by Bethel Music. “You surround me with a song of deliverance from my enemies.”

I love this Psalm because I am someone who has needed real and serious forgiveness for many things. I’m not just talking the daily misunderstandings…

Lent 2018 – 17 February

Revised Common Lectionary Reading: Psalm 32

I just realised that this Psalm is the source for a line from one of my favourite worship choruses: No Longer Slaves, released by Bethel Music. “You surround me with a song of deliverance from my enemies.”

I love this Psalm because I am someone who has needed real and serious forgiveness for many things. I’m not just talking the daily misunderstandings…

Lent 2018 – 16 February 2018

Revised Common Lectionary Reading: 2 Timothy 4:1-5

For me, this is one of my favourite texts in the New Testament; I’m also tempted to hate it, because it is one of my personal texts of terror.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time…

Lent 2018 – 15 February

Revised Common Lectionary Reading: Daniel 9:1-14.

Sometimes, our repentance has more impact than we know. As I read the passage in Daniel, I remembered three things.

Repentance is not just a ‘spiritual’ action, if by spiritual we mean individualistic, apolitical, and totally subjective. Repentance (choosing God’s agenda over our own) happens not just in our daily lives but in much wider social…

Revised Common Lectionary reading: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.

I always thought it was funny that Jesus, in today’s reading, tells his people not to make showy public prayers, and then his followers in catholic traditions make a show of their prayers by putting ashes on their foreheads! For myself, because I didn’t grow up in such a tradition (though I am now Anglican), I am uncomfortable going out in…