Archives for August 2023

You ever meet one of those true believer college football or basketball fans? These diehards still criticizes NFL and NBA players as being all about the money while praising the NCAA's tradition of pure amateur athletics. I sit there listening and am inwardly marveling, 'It's been three decades since Blue Chips burst this bubble. How is this level of continued naivety even … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Doesn’t Subscribe to the Myth of the Church’s Mandatory Goodness

The term "ecclesiology" refers to the theological study of the Church. It's a multifaceted field that explores the origins of Christianity, the relationship between Jesus and the Church, its role in the process of salvation, the Church's means of spiritual formation, the beliefs and practices around ordination, the nature and culture of its institutional structures, how … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Is Terribly Conflicted About High vs. Low Ecclesiology

Every thoughtful American Christian I've ever known understands that our 21st century, Western culture differs significantly from the Ancient Near Eastern or Ancient Greco-Roman cultures in which the Bible was written and edited. But even then few grasp how different those worlds truly were. Cultural anthropologist Joseph Henrich describes us as The WEIRDest People in the … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Accepts the Reality That Scripture Doesn’t Prescribe WEIRD Kinship

There's a heartwarming scene in Remember the Titans where Julius visits Gerry in the hospital after he's paralyzed. They started off as bitter adversaries, became respectful teammates, then grew into best friends, and finally emerged as brothers-in-arms policing the racial turmoil around integration. As Julius quietly walked into the hospital room, the nurse says, "Only kin's … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Leans Hard Into Cultural Anthropology’s Fictive Kinship

Here's a disturbing quote from John MacArthur in 1976: "A woman, whether she is married or single, must recognize the fact that in general, as a woman, she must have a spirit of submission to all men." Oh, but that was a long time ago. Surely the guy's thinking evolved over time, right? Yeah, not so much. Here's MacArthur again in 2000: "There was an original, divinely planned … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Sees the Redemptive Movement for Women in the Biblical Story