February 10, 2009 all things tripp, chad, blog, music, and PODCAST is now to found at the one and only HOMEBREWED CHRISTIANITY home page. If you haven’t updated your RSS feed do it because things are just getting better here at the HBC.
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January 16, 2009 In a couple of recent surveys of American religion some not so radical conclusions were drawn. Wow, Americans like to come up with their own religious ideas! Some Christian people in America have internalized social individualism into their personal theology. I am not sure how surprising this is or exactly how recent this is. It seems to me only naive ministers think their congregation is towing their version of orthodoxy. But none the less, this article does seem to assume some beliefs are not orthodox that have a place in may orthodox theologians thought (at least in my understanding of the history of Christian theology).
You are not a heretic and individualistic American Christian forsaking your faith just because you think…
- “Some non-Christians go to heaven”
- Other faith traditions can contribute to one’s own understanding in redemptive ways
- Satan doesn’t exist
- You broadly reject religious exclusivity
Then there are questions that assume a common understanding of words and concepts that have hugely diverse meanings. I bet if you asked people to define them you would get more heresy to report…
- “eternal life”
- “route to salvation”
This is just one more reason we need to have a grass roots level theology conversation. What people are responding to and rejecting is out of date and well in many cases shallow versions of beautiful statements from the past. It is time for theology to actually assist people in living a gracefilled life in their world. Our theology needs to evolve and transform. A good survey of Church History will point out that it always has been reforming, but now we need to let the “theologians-in-residents” in on the conversation. Then maybe people won’t feel obligated to ask such stupid questions for religion surveys.
Drew diagnosies the causes for this theological confusion well.
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January 14, 2009 So Obama got a ton of flack for asking Rick Warren to pray at his inauguration. The firestorm from it led Rick Warren to end up in the news, discussing how his presence does not mean their beliefs are completely the same and other nice level-headed moderate religious and political statements. Now the public hears about two other ministers that will be a part of the shindig next week, Gene Robinson and Sharon Watkins. What does this mean? Just how smart is Obama?
Very. The initial news of Rick Warren being present, news that many more progressive people were bothered by, turns out to be one part of demonstrating the huge diversity of the church. As it turns out we will have at least these three Protestant ministers present. The California conservative evangelical mega church pastor, the first openly gay bishop, and a female head of a major denomination will be a part of a historic moment for our country and in particular the church in America.
Now if we could only get this kind of diversity around something Jesus called us to do.
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January 12, 2009 This week the new Homebrewed Christianity season and website will be revealed. I know all the Homebrewed Christianity Listeners (aka our Deacons) are excited, but sometimes it is hard communicate just how much hype we can bring. Well the undefeated Wake Forest University Basketball team beat the one loss - but for some reason ranked higher - UNC team. This victory is inspirational and has all the hype tobacco road can bring on the hardwood, but it is simply an imitation of the new Homebrewed Christianity season. Enjoy this clip from a hype-filled victory and get ready for the HBC 2.0 drop this week! Ohhh and my Duke Div readers, get ready for January 28th when you too get hypeified by the WFU Demon Deacons!!!!
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January 6, 2009 
Pope Benedict XVI may not be Leo the Great, but in his Epiphany sermon the current Pope addresses some very important issues. The Pope draws attention to a number of pressing ethical issues on the horizon, namely the ecological crisis, the financial meltdown, and the waring conflict of religions. If these issues aren’t in need of some epiphinating, I am not sure what are.
I also found this sermon by the post-colonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan very moving.
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January 6, 2009 In “Religion in the Making
Why? One could assume that Religion is, or at least has become, part of the world’s problem yet Whitehead is insistent that true religion in its various expressions shares a commitment to the world we live in. As a Christian who believes that God is with us, in Christ and in life, I want to echo his claim that religion is world-loyalty. Not only does a healthy expression of the Christian religion have a strong world-loyalty, but we believe God does.
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January 3, 2009 I have been thinking a bit about what I should do with the blog in 2009. I had a bunch of ideas but decided that I would pick a few things and try to post on them 20 times during the year. Who knows how this will work out, but in my head it is a good idea. So here’s the year long topics in the best of all possible blogging worlds.
1. Question of the Year: What is Religion?
2. Gospel of the Year: Matthew
3. Theologian of the Year: Paul Tillich
4. Doctrine of the Year: Ecclesiology
Well that would be 80 posts of seemingly decent content. In addition I will post on current events and not just think ‘that would be a funny blog post.’ I am going to be intentional about using the “posts brewing elsewhere” sidebar to point toward cool posts out and about, so check them out.
As for media posts, I am thinking of posting a new song each month. I have received a couple requests of covers, so maybe I will give that a try. If I can think of something to blab about I want to try to video blog. I envisioned a little video post where I try to spin an idea around and see what kind of response I get. Maybe I could even do it as a character or something. Who knows if that will happen or go anywhere
I am going to aim for 42 episodes of the Homebrewed Christianity Podcast this year. Just how the time investment necessary will work while being in the middle of a PhD program is anyone’s guess, but Chad and I will do our best. As for just what the HBC will do stay tuned for 09 hype, but you are welcome to send us topic or guest suggestions. I have five goals for the podcast this year.
1. Create a small\house\pub group or sunday school class curriculum and test it out with some HBC deacons in their faith communities. Holla if you are interested. I think this format might get the HBC word out to more people.
2. Do at least one podcast with Chad in person while drinking his Homebrew.
3. Expand the theological diversity of our guests. For some reason more conservative theologians and biblical scholars reject Chad and I. I don’t know if it is because we use the metaphor of brewing or because we have had plenty of more progressive guests. Well some have said the second in email, but none the less, I will try.
4. Continue to attempt to get NT Wright on the podcast. Perseverance of invitation. For some reason 20k podcast listeners and a read-up fan to interview you just doesn’t get the Bishop of Durham to bite. Maybe I should move on to Rowan Williams?
5. Have my favorite theological bloggers on the podcast. Gordon Atkinson, Anthony Smith and Leron Shults were a bunch of fun, so this year I want to do more. Any suggestions? I was thinking of Ben Myers, James McGrath, Andy Rowell, Scot McKnight, Ben Witherington, Jason Clark, and Michael L. Westmoreland-White.
Well there are my Blog-o-lutions. As for my resolutions, I have two.
1. Get to my high school graduation weight. The last two degrees I earned brought with them plenty of excess weight. Since graduating Divinity school I have managed to loose 65 pounds. If I can keep it off and drop 25 more pounds this year I will be back to my high school size with just enough on the love handles for Alecia to pull me in for a big smooch.
2. Ween Elgin and let him hangout with his grandparents for a whole week while Mom and Dad go somewhere with shotty cell phone reception, no internet, only one theology book (to read while Alecia is sleeping) and a fireplace for cuddling.
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January 3, 2009 One of my assignments before PhD classes start up in a couple weeks is to figure out where Alecia and I’s retirement money from church is going to go. I have been looking around the internet and reading articles on just what choices we have to make and such, but the tenor of most ‘investment’ talk makes me suspicious. It is as if the entire goal is simply profit, even if it is at the expense of other people’s well-being.
As a minister I would hate to find out that I invested people’s tithe in sweat shops, child labor violations, slash and burn farming, or some other human or ecological nightmare just to make sure I visit Europe a few more times in retirement. It is weird thinking that most of us invest in all kinds of companies who may be diametrically opposed to our ethical sensibilities and religious convictions, but it appears that there isn’t many options for the ethical investor. Daniel Radosh pointed me to some more disturbing news, the real money makers are the vice-based stocks. Ugh.
Who knows if I will be spending extra time in purgatory for my retirement investments, but considering the time I have already racked up for my taxed income that went to our most recent military debacle I guess I should do my best and hope God weaves something redemptive out of my portfolio.
The best resource I have found for ethical investing is the Social Fund web page (Thanks Ed). Hit me up with more if you got’em.
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January 2, 2009 What do you get if Deacon Parker of Pop Theology and Marjorie Suchocki of the Whitehead International Film Festival talk film and theology? A great conversation! I hope you enjoy this final episode of Homebrewed Christianity Season 1. If you live in SoCal you should think about joining Marjorie, Ryan, and myself at WIFF in Claremont California. Should you decide to come give me a Homebrewed Holla so we can hang out between films.
Here are some short videos I made of Marjorie talking about the WIFF.
Marjorie Suchocki discusses Sin, Salvation, and Creative Transformation in Film: Homebrewed Christianity ep.39 [47:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Posted in media, podcast, theology 6 Comments »
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