An Open Letter to Pastor Worley

I was horrified to see this.

So horrified, in fact, that I decided to write a quick letter to the Pastor. Please consider doing the same, his e-mail address is pastor@prbcnc.com.

Hi Pastor Worley -

I’m sure you’ve received some angry responses to your now infamous “electric fence” sermon.

I’m not angry, as much as I am confused. There may not be many “queers and lesbians” in Maiden, North Carolina, but for those of us outside your small community, homosexuals are our friends, neighbors, and coworkers. They are God’s children, like you and I. Why do they deserve harsher treatment? Why do they deserve our hatred?

In your understanding of Christ…who else would he round up and kill?

I am grateful for a God that, above all, loves his children. All of them.

I ask that you consider apologizing for those hateful words. What an amazing witness to Christ’s love that would be.

Thanks,
-Aneel

The Shack by William P. Young

The Shack by William P. Young
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book came very highly recommended to me from several different friends. It certainly lived up to the recommendation – I couldn’t put it down and finished quickly over two days just before Christmas.

I had a very emotional response to The Shack, and I imagine that many of Young’s descriptions and ideas will be a part of my understanding of God going forward.

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Portofino by Frank Schaeffer

Portofino by Frank Schaeffer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of my all-time favorite books. Schaeffer brilliantly and hilariously nails (and destroys) the theology of strict Calvinists. Calvin (the character) is my hero. And the octopus incident makes me cry laughing every time I think about it.

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Go Alabama and Go Jesus

Seriously? Seriously? Plus, we all know Jesus is a Notre Dame fan.

christian facebook status of the day

christian facebook status of the day

Nine Years Later

For the last nine years, October 25th has been a killer. My mom passed away on October 25, 2002, and each year on this date, I allow myself to be a little dramatic. Writing about it seems to help.

What makes this day hard for me is, not just that she died on this date, but that she suffered for so many years leading up to her passing. It’s taken me nine years to be able to say this, but I’m okay. I’m angry, and I’m okay with that. I’m frustrated, and I’m okay with that. I have so many unanswered questions, and I’m okay with that.

For nine years I’ve held on to that anger and frustration, and I’ve allowed it to dictate my relationship with my family, and with God. But something has happened over the last 12 months: I’ve found peace. My understanding of God has changed and grown drastically, and I think I’ve realized that God wants me to come to Him as I am – anger and bitterness included. God doesn’t need me to pretend that I’m okay with my mom’s suffering. Want to tell me that “everything works for the good”? Want to tell me that “God’s plan is bigger & better than I can understand, and that I should accept her suffering as a part of that plan”? I say, with full confidence: fuck you. The God I love mourns with me.

And you know what? I’m blessed with a family who mourns with me. And now, double-trouble, I’m blessed with an amazing community that mourns with me too. I don’t have to pretend to be okay with it in order to have a relationship with God.

I’ll never be okay with what Parkinson’s did to my mother, and yep, I’ll never be okay with God allowing it to happen. I prayed my ass off, and she suffered none-the-less. But faith in Christ has freed me to embrace that anger. I don’t have to pretend anymore.

No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me. Nine years in, and I’m finally free.

Crazy for God by Frank Schaeffer

Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back by Frank Schaeffer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book.

Full disclosure, “Portofino” is one of my all-time favorite books, and I was more than a little excited to get a behind-the-scenes look at the real family that inspired Schaeffer to create the Becker family.

But this book turned out to be so much more than just a glimpse into the real life Beckers. There’s real, honest, serious critique of the evangelical-Calvinist view of scripture:

“John’s crime was his interest in how the Bible states things and how you draw meaning from the biblical text. John knew that if you push the so-called Sola Scriptura Calvinist approach and the ‘inerrancy’ ideas to their absurd limit, all real study of the Bible stops. It becomes a magical text. It is no longer open to interpretation. Dogma replaces study, because scholarship can only be meaningful when you are allowed to ask real questions and let the chips fall where they may.”

And crazy-hilarious rants against the evangelical culture:

“And I learned that if you talk ‘too fast,’ all those huntin’, fishin’, shootin’, lifetime-NRA-member types, the ones that worry about the United Nations, have their eyes too close together and have wives caked with abuot forty pounds of makeup per square inch, start to look at you funny. And if they can’t understand what you’re saying, pretty soon you feel this suspicious wave of squinty-eyed, do-you-think-you’re-better-than-us fucked-upness rolling toward you over the banquet tables and the flower arrangements somebody stuck tinsel and balloons in, and up around the head table and past the lime Jell-O topped with some kind of nameless sweet shit and sprinkled with nuts.”

“Crazy for God” also reads like a tell-all history of the political religious-right from a (biased) insider. And yeah, of course Schaeffer is biased, but he never pretends to be otherwise.

I loved this book. And I learned that Pat Robertson would literally shoot his dog dead if he found out it was gay. Bonus.

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I Repent

I Repent
Words and music by
Derek Webb

I repent, I repent for pursuing America’s dream
I repent, I repent for living like I deserve anything
My house, my fence,
My kids and my wife
In our suburb where we’re safe and white
I am wrong and of these things
I repent

I repent, I repent of parading my liberty
I repent, I repent of paying for what I get for free
The way I believe that I am living right
By trading sins for others that are easier to hide
I am wrong and of these things
I repent

I repent of judging by a law that even I can’t keep
Wearing righteousness like a disguise to see through
The planks in my own eyes

I repent, I repent of trading truth for false unity
I repent, I repent of confusing peace and idolatry
Of caring more what they think
Than of what I know we need
And domesticating you until you look just like me
I am wrong and of these things I repent

thank you god for ford

NASCAR – the perfect example of how the church and the culture of the south are all up in each others business.

The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven by Kevin & Alex Malarkey

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven by Kevin Malarkey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What can you say about a book like this? It’s an amazing story, and little Alex is a truly exceptional kid. As a father of two young boys, I found myself choked up more than once as Kevin described the trials facing his family.

But it bothered me how neatly Alex’ visions fit into his preexisting world view. I’m both a believer and a cynic – and Alex’ interactions with spirits and angels does not automatically give credibility to his family’s particular brand of Christianity… just as an answered prayer does not prove the existence of a loving God.

I believe the Malarkey family is sincere, and Alex’ experiences shouldn’t be ignored. But the most powerful part of this story, to me, is that “heaven” was experienced by the whole family through the good works of other believers.

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