Recently I came across an old notebook that I had when I was in college. I wrote a number of things on these pages at a time in my life when I really began to read the bible. Below are a few of those thoughts of my pre-blogging years: circa 2000.
LGBT:
Within a redwood forest there grows a pine tree. Does that mean the pine tree has a wrong "orientation" or is it just a natural growth of creation?
Early Process Theology before I knew what it was:
Perfect love is love that is able to change in order to meet the beloved where they are. God love perfectly, therefore God constantly changes.
Revelation:
Popular interpretation of Revelation tells that evil is defeated by God by making Christ a warrior, thus making power the ultimate thing in the world - not love. Rather Revelation is really a story about how evil is beaten by love and not power.
Submission to God:
When we submit to the rules of soccer we can have endless freedom within the game. However, if we make the rules up as we go, as a child would, then the game sucks and no one has any fun. Submission to God is a sign of maturity not of weakness, it is the only way to live in love with others.
Patience:
Not everyone is ready when you are. You must learn to be patient to know people may not need to know what I know or how I come to know it.
Exclusive claims of Christianity:
When the gospel of Mark tells us the curtain between the holy of holies was torn at the death of Jesus, that was symbolically marking the end of God as exclusively mediated by priests. Why then do some Christians think God is exclusively mediated by Christianity? Didn't Jesus die for that?
Liturgy and Creeds:
The point of liturgical words and creeds are not about intellectual content. These words serve the function of creating thin places. The point is to let the drone of these words that we know by heart, to become thin places.
Image of God:
Why is it insufficient to simply understand God to be forgiving and compassionate, who is also not punitive?
LGBT:
Within a redwood forest there grows a pine tree. Does that mean the pine tree has a wrong "orientation" or is it just a natural growth of creation?
Early Process Theology before I knew what it was:
Perfect love is love that is able to change in order to meet the beloved where they are. God love perfectly, therefore God constantly changes.
Revelation:
Popular interpretation of Revelation tells that evil is defeated by God by making Christ a warrior, thus making power the ultimate thing in the world - not love. Rather Revelation is really a story about how evil is beaten by love and not power.
Submission to God:
When we submit to the rules of soccer we can have endless freedom within the game. However, if we make the rules up as we go, as a child would, then the game sucks and no one has any fun. Submission to God is a sign of maturity not of weakness, it is the only way to live in love with others.
Patience:
Not everyone is ready when you are. You must learn to be patient to know people may not need to know what I know or how I come to know it.
Exclusive claims of Christianity:
When the gospel of Mark tells us the curtain between the holy of holies was torn at the death of Jesus, that was symbolically marking the end of God as exclusively mediated by priests. Why then do some Christians think God is exclusively mediated by Christianity? Didn't Jesus die for that?
Liturgy and Creeds:
The point of liturgical words and creeds are not about intellectual content. These words serve the function of creating thin places. The point is to let the drone of these words that we know by heart, to become thin places.
Image of God:
Why is it insufficient to simply understand God to be forgiving and compassionate, who is also not punitive?