beloved, with Brian Recker

As far as I can tell, Ms. Rachel cares about one thing. Children. She is not a politician or a theologian, but her passion has dragged her into both political and theological controversy. This says a lot more about our politics and theologies than it says about Ms. Rachel. How do we evaluate political or economic success? Mainstream publications ask if the economy is doing well, and measure numbers like GDP or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Ms. Rachel doesn’t seem to care about those things.

For Pride month, I’m featuring guest essays from queer writers. My friend Ciarra Jones aka the gardening theologian has a powerful voice and story worth hearing. In her journey to find God, she had to ditch a bad one to find a good one. Follow her on IG and subscribe to her Substack. As a Black Queer Theologian, I think the God of Fundamentalist Christianity is just plain bad.

For Pride month I am featuring the stories of Queer writers. I am finding their journeys urgently relevant to me, even (or especially) as a straight man. This post, from Mike Maeshiro, Follow Mike’s Substack here. Growing up closeted in a deeply religious home is a gauntlet of shapeshifting. From the time I understood that what I felt was something I needed to hide, my baseline way of existing became a performance. Every room I walked into required a rapid assessment. Who was there?

For pride month, I will be sharing essays with stories and experiences from some of my queer friends! The first one is from Dr. Lana van Essen, a former evangelical worship leader who is now the Executive Director of Operations for Transmission Ministry Collective, a community dedicated to trans flourishing. Follow her here. Six years ago, deep in COVID times, I was a worship pastor at a large church in the Pacific Northwest.

Here is my response to a relatable and common question many of us encounter through deconstruction: Question: I’m reintroducing the word ‘God’ (and it feels weird), after using Source, Universe, etc. for YEARS because my mom would say that when I said God, it wasn’t the God of the Bible and we were talking about two different things. I know when I say God, I definitely don’t mean the eternal damnation one.

The last ten years of Trump tweets and rants have left us understandably numb, but even the most jaded of us were shaken by his post on Tuesday morning, where the President of the United States announced, “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” As a point of clarity, he added, “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” As if his hands were tied. It’s not his fault, the empire demands blood—always has, always will.

Greg Laurie, a mega church pastor who was recently embroiled in a sex abuse cover-up, just appeared on TBN to reassure viewers that our violent assault on Iran would be used in God’s greater purposes. The host cued up Laurie, saying, “We are living in bible times no doubt.” Laurie responded, “Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if that could break out…if we could have a spiritual revolution in that nation and that we would see millions of Iranians turning to Christ.

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I’ll never forget when I was first cursed with the knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein. It was the first weekend of Advent 2018. The Miami Herald had just published its blockbuster investigation, Perversion of Justice, detailing his crimes against underage girls and the grotesquely lenient deal he received from prosecutors despite overwhelming evidence. By then, I had already deconstructed my belief in Eternal Conscious Torment—the idea that God punishes unbelievers in hell forever.

I’m continuing a series on shifts to unf*ck your spirituality (see here for part 1: shifting from escapism to incarnation, and part 2: shifting from christian separatism to human solidarity). These are the shifts that have helped me hold onto the Christian story in a new way that is not only more loving and human, but also a better reflection of the spirituality of Jesus. This shift? Shifting from personal salvation to collective liberation.