Past Listen - Almost Heretical: Episode 30: Jesus Ended Hierarchy (Released July 16, 2018)
“What happens naturally is people get power. And if your version of religion, Christianity or otherwise, is not explicitly subversive to that ascent to power, to hierarchy itself, if your version of Christianity isn’t anti-hierarchical, you will just naturally default to climbing the ladder. You will use whatever gifts, skills, talents, energy you have to persistently, subtly climb the social ladder. That’s why Jesus commands that what you have to do is not just not climb the ladder, not just not lord over others like the Gentiles rulers do... you have to race to the bottom. So the church is supposed to be the community of people in the world where everybody is racing in the opposite direction as the culture to become like slaves rather than become like rulers and leaders and people in charge.” - Tim Ritter
This is the first full episode in the Almost Heretical Gender Series. The foundation is laid for the remaining episodes, with Tim rooting the topic of gender in the teaching of Jesus from Matthew 20:25-28: “Jesus called them over and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” If you begin with episode 29 and listen through 38, you can explore the full Gender Series while seeing how each of the ideas presented build on one another and learn more about the cultural context in which some of the most controversial biblical passages were written.
What podcasts have you listened to recently?
#natehanson #timritter #almostheretical #podcast #podcastrecommendation #podcastrec #jesusendedhierarchy #lovingthebibleagain #loveyourneighbor #equality #genderequality #deconstruction #reconstruction #evolvingfaith #broadeningthenarrative
Account to Follow - Sept. 11, 2019
Account to Follow - Sept. 11, 2019
In the bio for The Lakota People’s Law Project on Instagram, you can see “Protectors of the children and the earth. #OurChildrenAreSacred #NoDAPL #NoMorePipelines” The Lakota People’s Law Project website states, “We partner with the Lakota to help renew Indigenous culture and secure Native autonomy and self-determination.”
The posts shared by The Lakota People’s Law Project are informative and many provide necessary steps we can take to show up to fight for justice.
#lakotalaw #accounttofollow #lakotapeopleslawproject #noDAPL #nomorepipelines #protectorsofthechildrenandtheearth #socialjustice #seekjustice #restorativejustice #lovemercy #walkhumbly #peopleoverpolitics #peopleoverprofit #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative
Book Rec. - Sept. 14, 2019
Book Rec. - Sept. 14, 2019
Current Read - Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions by Rachel Held Evans
“The problem with fundamentalism is that it can’t adapt to change. When you count each one of your beliefs as absolutely essential, change is never an option. When change is never an option, you have to hope that the world stays exactly as it is so as not to mess with your view of it...For fundamentalists, Christianity sits perpetually on the precipice of doom, one scientific discovery or cultural shift or difficult theological question away from extinction. So fearful of losing their grip on faith, they squeeze the life out of it” (Evans, 2010, p.18).
“I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime in my late teens or early twenties, it was as if Jesus packed his bags and moved from my heart into my head. He became an idea, a sort of theological mechanism by which salvation was attained…He was something I agreed to, not someone I followed...But Jesus rarely framed discipleship in terms of intellectual assent to a set of propositional statements...To Jesus, ‘by faith alone’ did not mean ‘by belief alone.’ To Jesus, faith was invariably linked to obedience” (Evans, 2010, p.105).
“Sometimes I wonder who really had the most biblical support back in the 1800s, Christians who used Ephesians 6 to support the institution of slavery, or Christians who used Galatians 3 to support abolition. Both sides had perfectly legitimate verses to back up their positions, but in hindsight, only one side seems even remotely justifiable on a moral level. On the surface, the Bible would seem to condone slavery. But somehow, as a church, we managed to work our way around those passages because of a shared sense of right and wrong, some kind of community agreement. Maybe God left us with all this discontinuity and conflict within Scripture so that we would have to pick and choose for the right reasons...He wanted us to make the right decisions as we went along, together. Maybe God wants us to have these discussions because faith isn’t just about being right; it’s about being a part of a community” (Evans, 2010, pp.193-194).
“Not once after graduating from Bryan was I asked to make a case for the scientific feasibility of miracles, but often I was asked why Christians aren’t more like Jesus...People didn’t argue with me about the problem of evil; they argued about why Christians aren’t doing more to alleviate human suffering, support the poor, and oppose violence and war. Most weren’t looking for a faith that provided all the answers; they were looking for one in which they were free to ask questions” (Evans, 2010, pp.203-204).
“Of course, we all carry around false fundamentals. We all have unexamined assumptions and lists of rules, both spoken and unspoken, that weigh down our faith. We’ve all got little measuring sticks that help us determine who’s ‘in’ and who’s ‘out,’ and we’ve all got truths we don’t want to face because we’re afraid that our faith can’t withstand any change...In a way, we’re all fundamentalists. We all have pet theological systems, political positions, and standards of morality that are not essential to the gospel but that we cling to so tightly that we leave fingernail marks on the palms of our hands” (Evans, 2010, pp.208-209).
“Love. It’s that simple and that profound. It’s that easy and that hard. Taking on the yoke of Jesus is not about signing a doctrinal statement or making an intellectual commitment to a set of propositions. It isn’t about being right or getting our facts straight. It is about loving God and loving other people...Whether we like it or not, love is available to all people everywhere to be interpreted differently, applied differently, screwed up differently, and manifest differently. Love in bigger than faith, and it’s bigger than works, for it inhabits and transcends both” (Evans, 2010, pp.209-210).
“Doubt is a difficult animal to master because it requires that we learn the difference between doubting God and doubting what we believe about God. The former has the potential to destroy faith; the latter has the power to enrich and refine it. The former is a vice; the latter a virtue” (Evans, 2010, p.219).
Rachel Held Evans’ first book, Evolving in Monkey Town, was re-released in 2014 as Faith Unraveled. I laughed, cried, thought deeply, and was changed by this book. Suzanne Stabile suggested reading books, in order based on year of publication, by an author who identifies with your Enneagram number. As an Enneagram 3, I decided to read each book written by Rachel Held Evans. The books I recommend the next few weeks will be books by RHE. My heart still hurts when I think about the compassion, wisdom, and humor Rachel exuded, which are evident in all of her books.
Has anyone else read this book?
#currentread #evolvinginmonkeytown #faithunraveled #bookrecommendation #bookrec #rachelheldevans #becauseofrhe #rememberingrhe #eshetchayil #womanofvalor #evolvingfaith #reading #learning #doubting #loving #growing #love #lovegod #loveneighbor #everyneighbor #broadeningthenarrative
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