Peripatetic Pastor

Category: Biblical Reflections

  • INSIGHT AND IDOLATRY

    For the last long while in this blogspace, I have mostly had my nose to the proverbial grindstone, sharpening my responses to decisions made by recent Christian Reformed synods—synods which adopted for human sexuality a punitively rightwing version of church teaching. In doing so, these synods have purposely excluded churches and church leaders who differ…

  • SEEING WHAT’S THERE: THE NEED FOR THEOLOGICAL RECONSIDERATION

    When a few years ago I set out to read some of the great writers of the American West, I started with Wallace Stegner. It turned out to be a good choice. The first Stegner I read, Angle of Repose (1971), was a revelation. In the book, 1972 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Stegner adopts…

  • THE FUNDAMENTALIST IMPULSE: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT HUMAN SEXUALITY V

    Fundamentalism is not about fundamentals. It’s about drawing lines. Where the line gets drawn is dictated by cultural developments. Fundamentalists often claim that they represent what has been the historic stance of the church, but this is not true. Fundamentalism is as much a product of the culture as is whatever fundamentalism opposes.  In this…

  • WHAT’S THE SIN? WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT SEX, PART FOUR

    What’s the Sin? Let’s talk about sin. Queer sin, to start with, although I will come around to straight sin before this piece is done. I want to talk about sin for two reasons. The first is that many people seem to assume that living queer is living in sin. This is often true even…

  • WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SEX: PART THREE. THE JUDGES STORY

    My last post was about Leviticus—well, Leviticus and how to read the Bible—and Leviticus won. The post was much longer than I would have liked. The writing was boggy. The reading was probably no better, a slog. And worse, for all that I may have not made clear what I was trying to make clear.…

  • A CONVERSATION: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SEX. PART 2

    This is the second in a short series of posts addressed to the common perception among Christians that the Bible stands squarely opposed to queer sex. Anyone who would argue differently, so this goes, has to do so in the face of the plain sense of the scriptures. To support same-sex marriage is to oppose…

  • A Conversation: What Does the Bible Say about Sex? Part One

    Lately, I have had people approach me —often people who have encountered my blog for the first time—to say that they find what I have written troubling. They are not hostile. Their approach is diffident and respectful. They do not wish to contradict me, but they find the idea to be unthinkable that the church…

  • WHAT WILL BE

    A Post Synod and Post Debate Reflection It’s been a tough week for many of us. Make that a tough month. Beginning with what in too many places is happening to the church. Those of us who are Christian Reformed sadly watched last month as the synod systemically took steps to push out long loyal…

  • WHAT’S NEXT: WISPS OF A DREAM

    Dwell not on former things; Ponder not the past. Look, I’m doing a new thing. It’s already sprouting up; do you not see it? (Isaiah 43:18-19a) I confess I do not yet see it, the new thing sprouting up. Perhaps it is still too early. Perhaps the past is too much with us, with me.…

  • WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE REFORMED: THE REFORMED VIEW OF SCRIPTURE

    Traditions must sometimes be saved from those who claim them. In this series of posts, I’ve been asking the question, “What does it mean to be Reformed?” There are those who give ready answers to that question. Their answers might include the early 20th century acronym TULIP. Or penal substitutionary atonement. Or declaring that same…