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Articles by Morgan Guyton
My Messiah
My messiah is exactly the kind of man you’d expect without a human Y chromosome: offensively delightful; utterly gorgeous when he’s angry; a carpenter’s hands with fingers soft enough to open eyes that were blind from birth; every movement of his muscles a dance in which he retunes the wavelengths of the energy around him so when he tells a mountain to throw itself into the sea, it obeys him casually as though the universe were his poetry; the way his eyes shift so quickly from fierce to...
What Are The 'Weightier Matters Of The Law'? [Matthew 23:23] |
By Morgan Guyton, Contributor Director, NOLA Wesley Foundation What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “weightier matters of the law”? It sounds like they would be the parts of the Bible that are hard for a modern world to accept.
Lent Never Stopped
Lent never stopped because no one was raised from the dead and we didn’t make a thousand visitors’ bags, feeling hopeful that this Easter’s crowd would finally stick around, because there was no hallelujah as we looked into our phones to see fellow refugees in their pajamas every Sunday, not knowing whether we will ever pass the peace of Christ again.
Intuition and the Garden of Eden
I’ve spent much of the pandemic contemplating the meaning of the biblical Garden of Eden story that instills the mythological framework for Western Christian epistemology. Do we trust our bodies to tell us intuitively the truth about our world or are we supposed to submit our innately flawed personal intuitive experience to the orthodoxies of authoritarian institutions like the church that convey the knowledge of good and evil to us?
The Continuous Gaslighting Of An Autistic Mind
I’m needing to get out some feelings and thoughts about my experience as an autistic. I was at a virtual Christian gathering this past weekend that had a high percentage of autistic and queer participants. It was a really beautiful, grounding experience even though it happened online. I don’t know how to explain this but my body knew it was safe because of what I read on the faces on the screen. Part of it was that I saw myself in the other faces.
Why I Still Call Myself A Christian
I continue to call myself a Christian for two reasons: 1) because my mother is still alive and 2) because I believe I am anointed by God for good works not as a reward for believing anything correctly but as a gift discovered more fully the more I fully renounce proving myself to be right. It is out of loyalty to the core principle of justification by faith that I renounce all orthodoxy of salvation through correct belief as filthy rags the same way the apostle Paul did.
The Fools: A Group Proposal
We could be called The Fools, because we speak with the freedom of those who have been crucified enough by life to have no public reputation left to defend. Which means we are no longer trying to hide our real selves. We lack the calculated poise of people who are still trying not to fail. Fools fail continuously not because we are incompetent but because we risk everything for the sake of wisdom.
Why Does The Knowledge of Good And Evil Make Humanity Fall?
Why Does The Knowledge of Good And Evil Make Humanity Fall? December 6, 2021 Morgan Guyton Very few interpreters of the Garden of Eden story in Genesis 3 pay any attention to the identity of the fruit that supposedly corrupted humanity forever. In fact, the fruit is often labeled simply the forbidden fruit as though its actual identity has no significance.
On Getting Banned From A White Queer Christian Discord For Attacking Augustine
On Getting Banned From A White Queer Christian Discord For Attacking Augustine December 5, 2021 Morgan Guyton Well I just got banned from a white queer Christian discord space for attacking Augustine’s doctrine of original sin, which is such a bizarre thing to me that I needed to blog about it. I also got my feelings hurt a little bit. I think it was mostly because I was behaving like an unmasked autistic who thinks and types at a thousand miles an hour.
On Being A Christian Pagan Mystic
When I was in my early twenties, I called myself a Christian pagan, a memory which later made me cringe with complete embarrassment in my neoorthodox thirties. In college, I had discovered Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, art, and madness, as well as Hekate, the pre-Olympian goddess of witchcraft.
Mercy Not Sacrifice - The blog of Morgan Guyton
I have been largely dormant on my blog over the past year of pandemic largely because of the post I am about to write that I have been dragging my heels to write. My heart has been heavy with grief for the state of the United Methodist Church and the institutional church in general. There are so many amazing United Methodist pastors and denominational leaders who are trying so hard.
Becoming Fools: A Vocation For White Men
[Trigger Warning: Coarse, Erotic Language About God] I want to propose a vocation for white men: becoming fools. What I mean is: learning how to engage in strange, whimsical, silly embodied behavior that is the opposite of disembodied rationalism, which is the cultural disease our ancestors bequeathed us and everyone else they tried to colonize.
My Light Blue Pink Messiah (a poem)
I have a light blue pink messiah who is exactly the kind of man you’d expect without a human Y chromosome: offensively delightful; increasingly gorgeous the angrier he gets; a carpenter’s hands with fingers so soft, they can open eyes that were blind from birth; every movement of his muscles a dance in which he retunes the wavelengths of the energy around him so when he tells a mountain to throw itself into the sea, it obeys him casually as though the universe were his poem; the way his eyes...
What does the blood of Jesus actually do?
A basic principle of Christianity is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. What exactly this statement means has increasingly come under debate in our time. For most of the modern period, Protestantism has almost exclusively understood Jesus’ death on the cross as a punishment that pays a debt, or “penal substitution.” Added to this has been the assumption that the primary problem resolved by the cross is God’s anger about our sin. These are two separate issues.
Donald Trump And The Exorcism Of White America
Donald Trump And The Exorcism Of White America September 30, 2020 Morgan Guyton “Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore 3,” Wikimedia Commons C.C. Trump and his supporters believe that he is a scapegoat. In their understanding of what that means, he is being blamed for things that aren’t his fault by “fake” news media and a “deep state” conspiracy that is trying to sabotage his presidency. It’s not entirely false. I actually agree that he is functioning as a scapegoat but in a different sense.
When God’s A Cop, Every Cop Is God
Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers who killed Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY, sent out a mass email to his colleagues on Tuesday in which he wrote, “It’s sad how the good guys are demonized, and criminals are canonized.” Though I have no idea what Mattingly’s theological background is, his outcry echoes the perspectives I have heard from many white evangelicals online regarding the recent protests of police brutality.
God, are you such a clown That you’re also the snake We have always feared Lurking in the leaves of Every forest we burned Down to avoid your bite? You have bitten me and I’m Intoxicated by your strange art Which lures me off the one right Path that would have promptly Taken me where I should have Gone without adventure. But you wanted a salty story So you have painted my lips And strummed at them to Make me utter words that Aren’t even words but the Aches that become words.
Impulse + Contact (A Poem About Divine Encounter)
This is a spoken word poem I made that was inspired by mystical encounters with God in the woods next to my house. I have an audio recording and the text of the poem below. You can think of it as a riff on Psalm 42:7: “Deep calls unto deep.” Impulse + Contact It starts with an impulse, Hiding like a snake In the leaves, growing More and more restless.
A thread written by @MAGuyton
Morgan Arthur+ Your Authors @MAGuyton My name is the juxtaposition of a Celtic goddess and a Welsh warrior king. I’m queer and autistic. I blog and make beats with apocalyptic spoken word poetry. Jul. 20, 2020 1 min read + Your Authors When I see Christians denigrate “feelings” and “personal experience” because they’re not trustworthy while “orthodox doctrine” is, what I see going on is a trust of deductive reasoning over mystical intuition.
My Best Teachers Are People I Cannot Win
I want to win everyone. I suppose it’s a fairly common problem among pastors. But there are two layers to this for me and they are very different. On the one hand, I have a sense of vocation about “winning people over” to experience the incredible joy I have discovered in my strange mystical journey in search of salvation and spiritual completion (though I’m way less interested in convincing people of one right set of beliefs than I was as an evangelical).
Celebrity-Driven Church Is Not Safe For Kids
I keep on thinking that I’m “over” what happened to me. At a shamanic retreat in December, I “completely” forgave the man who molested me at a church basketball lock-in, and I thought yes finally I’m done; this time it’s going to stick. But then I read the Menlo Park #ChurchToo story and the rage came back.
“All People Are Holy”: The Theology Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“All People Are Holy”: The Theology Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez June 29, 2020 Morgan Guyton Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez summarized one of my core religious convictions in a speech given on February 27, 2020 in a hearing about “religious freedom.” She said: “I know and it is part of my faith that all people are holy and all people are sacred.
Epimenides And The Plague Of Athens
[This is a guest-post from my father John Guyton who’s interested in the parallel between Athens’ great plague of 500 BC and the COVID pandemic today. Here’s a link to his personal blog.] A plague ravaged the young city-state of Athens sometime around 500 BC. The distressed citizens sought help from a revered sage on the island of Crete. Arriving by ship, he calmed the people and encouraged reforms, which they put into practice.
#AllLivesMatter: A Theology Of Generic Humanity
“Jesus is my buddy,” wishmerhill, Flickr C.C. Why do white evangelicals like our vice president Mike Pence continue to feel the need to “correct” others who say black lives matter by saying NO, ALL LIVES MATTER? Is it just racist dog-whistling or is there something deeper going on? Though I realize I cannot know anyone else’s heart, I would like to hypothesize a meaning for #AllLivesMatter based on the work of my seminary theology professor J. Kameron Carter.
Why Kevin DeYoung’s “Culture War Strategy” Fails
The Gospel Coalition published an article by Kevin DeYoung decrying the Supreme Court decision that extended workplace anti-discrimination protections officially to LGBTQ people. DeYoung calls for a “culture war strategy” in which conservative evangelicals have more babies and disciple them rigorously in order to take back American culture. Here’s the problem: rigorous evangelical discipleship doesn’t produce dutiful culture war foot soldier clones; it produces ex-evangelicals like me.
Do We Need Cops?
I need to confess something that will make me look unwoke. I was a bit spooked when I heard the Minneapolis city council is exploring dismantling their police department. I’m a radical who often shares radical ideas on my blog. Part of why it feels safe to do that is having a sense that nobody will actually take me up on my radical ideas which would suddenly feel half-baked and naive if they turned into actual policy proposals.
On Learning How To Be Compost
Friday night, I was antsy because I hadn’t yet been to a protest of the latest round of white supremacist police brutality so I decided to head down to Jackson Square. I’ve been to quite a few protests in Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the past six years. Usually we fill up the steps in front of the Washington Artillery Park across Decatur Street from Jackson Square itself. This time, the entire square was filled, so the crowd was about twenty times larger than usual.
Thugs (A Poem About Men In Uniform Who Shove The Elderly)
Thugs (A Poem About Men In Uniform Who Shove The Elderly) June 6, 2020 Morgan Guyton They’re doing what They’re supposed to do; The Bible even says that The role of cops is to Wield the sword with Terror so people live In perpetual fear and In that way there Can be law and order. The rich understand The cops aren’t for Them; they’re nephews Out making all of us Proud on the other Side of town.
I Want You To Get It
I don’t want you To be canceled; I want you to get it. And nobody gets it Until somebody Gets you first. So I want to sit Until I get you and You know I’ve got you. That doesn’t mean God will stop filling My bowels with fire And commanding me To spit swords that Shatter illusion.
The Serpent’s Fruit (In Poetic Form)
He understood clearly That all he had to do Was hold the Bible Courageously for all The cameras after The black people had Been removed by Tear gas; and this has Always been the purpose Of the Bible: to be held Courageously so that Moral high ground could Be established whenever Black people protest; It is the duty of a Christian Master to hold his Bible With authority and make It clear whose side he’s On and surely there Were many Bible-fearing Courageous Americans Who paused from their...
The Fruit The Serpent Holds
I was proud of our former president George W. Bush this week. He said the one thing white men almost never say, “We need to listen.” We don’t like to listen because we already have the answer. I’ve had some intense mystical experiences during this pandemic. I’ve written a lot of poetry and songs I thought I was supposed to share with the world. And I’ve been filled with rage when the world seemed to ignore the brilliance that I had to share.
Why True Christianity Is Anarchist
I wanted to take a few moments to talk about anarchism since Donald Trump has predictably tried to scapegoat anarchists for “riots” and “looting” in an attempt to take back control of the national narrative around white supremacist police brutality in our country. I should first of all concede that no two anarchists are the same. There are anarchists who believe in using physical violence strategically; I don’t. My anarchism is entirely intertwined with my Christian faith.
The Last Battle (A Poem About Narnia)
We were trapped in A stable that was Burning and it Seemed like the Entire world had Become an echo Chamber where Breathing was getting Harder each day And everyone was Hyperventilating Trying desperately To prove they’re Getting it and they Were dancing around Saying please see how Hard I’m trying not to Take up too much space; And some were calling Fire down from heaven And others tried to offer A balm from Gilead; And others were watching To see who was doing It wrong so they could Offer...
All Poetry Is God-Breathed
“Bible with Cross Shadow,” David Campbell, Flickr C.C. All poetry is God-breathed And useful for divine teaching Not because the words are Right but because the teacher Is patient and will constantly Nudge and redirect until The pen is finally moving In the right direction. As Paul said to Timothy, This is a process and I Am still working it out; Some of what I say for Corinth is wrong for Philippi Because letters are always Pastorally prescribed for Specific communities.
Dehumanization Is The Real Enemy
We are living in demonic times. Whatever you believe about Satan, I use the word metaphorically to simply communicate that our real enemy is not “rioting hoodlums” or “authoritarian pigs” but dehumanization itself. We are caught up in what may increasingly become a dangerously escalating reactive cycle of rage.
Star-Spangled Virus (A Poem About America)
America, when will you stop Punching yourself in the face? Are we really going to do Fight Club now? Will the racists really get Away with scapegoating, Sabotage, and posing As their enemies in order To discredit them? Why is all this a surprise? We built a nation around Two idols — a red white And blue war banner And Caesar’s coin that Declares in God we trust. Which God? The generic One who has no tradition Other than Enlightenment Reason, who secretly looks More like Zeus than Jesus?
Bloom: Prophetic Poetry for Pentecost
Get newsletters and updates Close get the latest from Sign up for our newsletter Get updates from Mercy Not Sacrifice delivered straight to your inbox Also, send me the Progressive Christian Newsletter and special offers. Also, send me the Progressive Christian Newsletter. Bloom: Prophetic Poetry for Pentecost May 31, 2020 Morgan Guyton Over the past six months, I have created 25 different musical tracks combining spoken word prophecy and electronic dance music.
I Can’t Do This (A Lament)
I can’t do this, Lord; It’s all blasphemy When we make your Blood into white-out That exonerates us After having made other People suffocate when That’s literally how you Died because we don’t See you in the face Of every black man Who walks our streets In perpetual danger Since he is the son Of man just like a Carpenter out of Nazareth which isn’t A city that’s allowed To produce kings from A race of people who Had been conquered And thus didn’t have Coins with emperors Embossed onto them.
Satan As The Virus of Enmity
Satan is a virus. Forgive me if it sounds facetious or opportunistic for me to write that sentence amidst a viral pandemic. I honestly believe that’s the best way to understand the strange spiritual phenomenon that is labeled “the enemy” or “the evil one” in Christian scripture and accounted for differently in other religions. We get infected by enmity; it harms other people and spreads to them; it’s only partly our fault; and we need to be rescued from it by a power greater than ourselves.
Autism As Rebellion Against Correctness
When I was in sixth grade, the drum corps was the coolest part of the pep rallies and football games at my 98% white private school in Houston, Texas. It was the golden age of hip-hop and having rhythm was the primary way to be cool (like the black people whom we worshiped and feared). So I danced at the annual football game behind the drum corps. One of the popular kids came up to me with a guilty look and let me know that I was doing it wrong.
The Light That Will Not Be Seized
[This is a poem about reinterpreting the Genesis 3 Garden of Eden story and how many Bible teachers throughout Jewish and Christian history have emulated Lucifer’s attempt to play god by eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.] He wanted to be the light-bearer; He did not understand that light Clutched tightly becomes A fistful of darkness.
Home (A Poem About A Mother Who Waits)
Mom wants you to come home: I am not the older brother, Only a goofy dad with teenage sons Who is also a teenage Lucifer Constantly trying to make my way Back to the one whose heart Burns for me to sit at her table And accept that I am her child.
Can We Have a Queer, Erotic God?
My Rublev Trinity icon One of my more mischievous hobbies during the pandemic over the past few days has been getting sucked into the culture wars between evangelicals and queer Christians that have heated up on Twitter. As shouldn’t be surprising, I’m 99.9% on the queer Christian side of the debate. At the same time, I’m good friends with at least one prominent evangelical with whom I’ve been texting, and I love him and I agree with several concerns he expressed.
Babel (A Poem About Empire, Heresy, and Speaking In Tongues)
Babel (A Poem About Empire, Heresy, and Speaking In Tongues) April 30, 2020 Morgan Guyton She is gathering the trumpets: Maybe there are 7; Maybe a prime number Like 29 or 47 or 71.
Erotic About God (A Poem About Holy Feelings)
Feelings are not things To be condemned but Things to be refined. The reason Sunday lunch Is the worst day for tipping Is because too many patrons At that time have been taught That joy is not a feeling and Love is supposed to look Like a father murdering his Son to manipulate the world Into singing how great he is.
This Is My Body (A Poem About Having A Queer Christian Body)
This Is My Body (A Poem About Having A Queer Christian Body) April 29, 2020 Morgan Guyton Jesus is teaching me how to live In a body that is always dying And yet also a temple that Grows more holy the more I learn to breathe and not See bodies as meat, the more I am a trumpet played by the Wind, not a sarcophagus of Regrets and fears and rage, Because the body keeps score, And everything we do either serves The meat or the breath, even though Almost every Platonist who read Paul Didn’t...
The Book (A Poem About Hegemony)
This may not be the right question but Are you a character in a book Or a living, breathing fire who Speaks to every prophet even when We use words like shakti and sattva Instead of cross and resurrection? What happens when some words that Are God-breathed give birth to poetry That cannot be written if other words That are God-breathed are presumed to Seal the door shut? What does it mean for None to come to the Father but through you?
Judas (A Poem About The Freedom To Be Wrong)
I will arrive when I Can be wrong without shame, When I know that I am Judas And I have kissed Jesus every time Before I give him away and take Whatever silver my ego needs; Judas was fine when vibes were Good, when miracles were on A growth trajectory and the Movement was growing; It was that woman’s waste of Spikenard when he turned; it is When Jesus says I’m wrong and I know I’m right and I’m offended To the core of my being that he Took the side of some bitch Who deserved to be corrected...
Gardening Alone (A Poem About Making Beats)
I’m gardening alone In my headphones And I get to create An entire universe from Thirty hertz to twenty thousand; This is what it’s like to be God: Perpetual experimentation — No backspace; no going back to erase; There are no mistakes; only Unexpected transitions, Surprise atonalities, and Somehow the fugues always Lock into place; how do two Sounds become lovers once They meet?
The Elves (A Poem About Poets, Especially Autistic Ones)
The Elves (A Poem About Poets, Especially Autistic Ones) April 25, 2020 Morgan Guyton We are elves on a secret mission; Our mother has anointed us with dew That permanently stained our trousers After many hours crying deep among The leaves since no one else could see The magic and we had been sent to Sit in the corner for studying things that Fall outside the purview of standardized Testable reality; we were fascinated by our Tongues and our fingernails and our nostrils So we touched...
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