Katharine Jefferts Schori’s Public Relations Efforts

He would be always alive in the hearts of the Korean people and global progressive humankind forever and his exploits in the international working class movement and global independence would shine forever.

Tuesday, February 7 • 12

Jonathan Grieser: Why I Despair of the Future of the Episcopal Church

It doesn’t matter, ultimately, exactly when the Episcopal Church’s fate was sealed, or even if it can be pinned down to one incident or period in its history. All that matters is that it’s done, and nothing that happens in Indianapolis this summer can change that.

Sunday, February 5 • 29

Three Ways Christians Rationalize Voting for Pro-Abortion Candidates

Comparing abortion to bad economic policy is like comparing the inept driver who accidentally swerves into oncoming traffic and kills another driver, to the very good driver who purposefully drives into a crowd on the sidewalk at full speed.

Wednesday, January 25 • 140

Winnie Varghese and Social-Justice Salvation

The “overarching theme” of the Bible is not “a preferential option for the marginalised and the need to offer them justice,” but “a preferential option for the repentant and the faithful, and the mercy to offer them salvation.”

Sunday, January 22 • 14

A Few Comments on American Culture, Barbarity, and These Stunning Photographs from Saipan

So last week I walked into an office and conversation turned to headlines and the news of the Marines urinating on the dead bodies of their enemies. The client announced that he didn’t care what they did.

My own thoughts are… um… “nuanced and contextualized.” [See—I’m an Episcopalian; I can use those words.] The very first thing I thought as I read the trumpeting headlines about the “barbarity” of it all was “yeh… sawing Nick Berg’s head off with a rusty, blunt sword and uploading the five minute video of his agonizing, shrieking death is just precisely equivalent ‘barbarity’ as urinating on dead people.”

Monday, January 16 • 34

Sermon: Book of Jonah, Part VI:  Salvation Belongs to the Lord

The other way leads to death—and beyond death, torment. Our gods lead us to hell if we follow them. We look to them for life but they prepare our bodies for death and our souls for damnation.

Thursday, January 12 • 0

Minchin, Messiah, Mockery, Missing the Point and Missing Out

By mocking Jesus and deliberately missing the point Minchin is, ultimately, missing out. He’s barring himself from any possibility of truly knowing someone as incredible as Jesus. Of course, he might argue it’s too good to be true. But perhaps the next time he comes across something like that the better response might not be to mock that thing, that person, but take a closer look. As things stand his view of Jesus is quite myopic and the only person that really misses out is Minchin himself. Which is tragic.

Friday, January 6 • 12

Sermon:  Book of Jonah, Part IV, God Appoints a Fish

You’re never too dirty, never too mired in sin, never too surrounded by turmoil of your own making, you’re never too far gone. God delights to deliver us from the pits we dig for ourselves. Cry to him.

Thursday, January 5 • 0

Sermon:  The Book of Jonah, Part III:  Jonah and the Storm

Its possible to gain some real insight into your own soul by listening to your own words, the repeating themes of your own conversations, facebook statuses, journal entries, blog posts, things you think about while you drive from place to place in your car. You may think you’re a hard cold steely eyed go getter like Jonah, but if you’re on some path you shouldn’t be on and you think its just a secret between you and yourself, its also possible your speech is giving you away.

Sunday, January 1 • 1

Sermon:The Book of Jonah, Part II:  Jonah runs from God

He is, however, full of dread—the kind of dread that comes from knowing that you must do something, that God wants you to do something, and yet the thing is so painful to contemplate that it sets your heart into turmoil.

Monday, December 26 • 0

Sermon:  The Book of Jonah, Part I:  Pride and Prejudice

In the book of Jonah human pride, prejudice, and contempt goes toe to toe with God’s unrelenting grace. What we cannot do as we study Jonah is imagine that it’s a story about someone else.  Jonah is Israel. Jonah is the Church. Jonah is you and he is me.

Friday, December 23 • 2

Hitchens and Hagiography

There is a striking paradox at the heart of the Christian response to the unbeliever, particularly the virulent anti-believer like Hitchens. On the one hand, we recognise that they are responsible for their own actions, their sin, and yet we also see that, as Jesus put, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin”. We are utterly culpable, yet at the same time utterly incapable of saving ourselves.

Friday, December 16 • 7

Silence is a Bad Idea

Either we believe in openness or we don’t. If we believe in openness for others, then what does it say about us if we start talking about the virtues of a “respite” when openness becomes inconvenient for us or our allies?

Monday, December 12 • 27

episcopalienated

Wild Goose:  The Chase is on

Instead of Bible studies, there were labyrinth walks. Instead of praise-and-worship music, there was hymn-singing in a beer garden and a bluegrass liturgy presided over by a tattooed female Lutheran minister.

Monday, November 28 • 37

Simony: Making Friends and Influencing People

Next to the cross a posted memo informed us that the plaques were part of the parish’s capital campaign. Five thousand dollar donors were identified by the golden plaques at the top of the cross. The silver plaques identified two thousand dollar donors and the bronze plaques identified anyone who donated more than one thousand dollars.

Thursday, November 17 • 9

Praying Like a Disciple

It was Jesus’ custom to attend synagogue on the Sabbath where he would’ve necessarily continued the habit of using memorized set prayers and we can be sure that as he did so our Lord did not engage in vain repetition or empty phraseology. The key to the modern confusion comes from the fact that we tend to equate emotion with sincerity. If I don’t feel it, I don’t mean it…

Thursday, November 10 • 1

The Faith that Justifies

I might say, “I ‘believe’ that airplanes are statistically less likely to crash than automobiles.” And yet still remain unwilling to actually board an airplane. In that case, the word “believe” refers to my intellectual agreement with a factual proposition but does not imply that I trust the proposition enough to stake my life on it. On the other hand, when I was a little boy learning to swim my dad used to stand in the swimming-pool, hold his arms out, and call me to jump in. “I’ll catch you” he said. I trusted my dad, “believed” his promise, and I jumped.

Wednesday, November 2 • 10

Willow Creek Responds

Episcopalienated posted two articles (here and here) that raised questions about whether Willow Creek, a large mega church, had changed their position on several Biblical issues.

Sunday, October 30 • 21