My appreciation for the atheist contrarian Christopher Hitchens was cemented by a Vanity Fair article entitled "Unspoken Truths" that was written shortly before his death. The piece chronicled his experience losing the ability to speak as the cancer attacked his vocal chords. In it Hitchens expressed a core value that had been subconscious all my life: "For me, to remember … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Reprioritizes Friendship As One of the Most Important Things in Life
William S. Burroughs
Beatnik Christianity Refuses to Participate in Conservatism vs. Progressivism
N.T. Wright once observed, "From where many of us in the UK sit, American politics is hopelessly polarized. All kinds of issues get bundled up into two great heaps. The rest of the world, today and across the centuries, simply doesn’t see things in this horribly oversimplified way." Totally agree, but it's worse than that. It's this all-encompassing hodgepodge of politics, … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Refuses to Participate in Conservatism vs. Progressivism
Beatnik Christianity Doesn’t Judge A Book By Its Cover
The insistence upon people wearing their "Sunday best" to church has never sat well with me. On a theoretical level, I understand the purpose of a church dress code. The idea is that people are entering into a reverential headspace of worship that's set apart. They're wanting to look and feel distinct from the rest of the week, so they're coming before God with … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Doesn’t Judge A Book By Its Cover
Beatnik Christianity Minors on Progressive Revelation and Majors on Incarnational Revelation
Progressive revelation is the belief that Scripture steadily uncovers more about God's character, nature, and purposes through the passage of time. For many theologians and ministers, it's the linchpin for how they make sense of the Bible's inner-continuity. This framework is used to explain an awful lot of disharmonious ideas like the slow evolution from polytheistic language … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Minors on Progressive Revelation and Majors on Incarnational Revelation
Beatnik Christianity Eschews Toxic Positivity for the Liminal Space of Holy Saturday
Brené Brown and others have recently normalized the term "toxic positivity." My preference remains "oppressive optimism," but it's the same basic idea. According to the psychology website Right as Rain, "Toxic positivity involves dismissing negative emotions and responding to distress with false reassurances rather than empathy. It comes from feeling uncomfortable with negative … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Eschews Toxic Positivity for the Liminal Space of Holy Saturday
