Benjamin L. Corey > Quotes

“When we look at the undiluted, radical message of Jesus, we see that it was never about wearing a theological label, subscribing to a particular theological structure, or even about becoming a Christian. The undiluted message of Jesus is, and always has been, a straightforward invitation to follow him, and to learn to be like him.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“Jesus is, and always has been, a person we can expect to be doing things we don't expect him to do, in the places where we don't think he'd be, with the people we didn't think he'd be with. His enemies were those who dedicated themselves to obeying every rule in the Bible. His best friends were sex workers, social misfits, and everyone else the religious leaders had declared were "out." I believe our spiritual journey gets much richer the moment we accept this, and accept that Jesus seems to have not just opted out of our boundary systems entirely, but is actually busy walking behind us and erasing the lines we've drawn.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“When we place the Bible on equal footing with God, we become paralyzed by how to deal with it--because any criticism of the Bible becomes criticism of God himself.

The cure for the religion of Biblicism is the realization that Jesus is the inerrant Word of God, and the Bible is just a collection of inspired and useful writings that introduce us to him.

Let me be clear: whenever we find tension between something Jesus taught and something taught elsewhere in the Bible, the tiebreaker always goes to Jesus. Always.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“In biblical Greek the word "repent" comes from a military term similar to the command "about face." In...sermons, repentance is all about "turning away' from sin, and certainly repentance would include an element of that. However, the deeper flavor of his word is less about turning away from something and more about turning toward something. As much as the word "repent" makes many of us recoil, what if it is enjoining us to turn away from our fear of God and to turn toward the love of God? what if we simply confess that God is love, and then put a period at the end of the sentence? God is love. Period.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“When the opening verses of Genesis say that we were created in the image and likeness of God, it is helpful to remember that this means we are actually created in the image and likeness of LOVE. We were created by love. We were created to receive love. We were created to reflect love. Our entire purpose for existing is to love.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“We must become people who remove barriers to God, instead of people who are busy installing new ones.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“We are rarely conscious of all these things that are killing our faith because they become so enshrined in our belief system. And when we enter into an unexpected process of shedding off those things that we have grown comfortable with... Well, that moment feels like a crisis. It feels like our faith is falling apart. It feels like everything has gone wrong. But I'm convinced it's not a crisis at all, but the birth of a true faith.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“I continued to find myself in a constant process of attempting to deconstruct values that were cultural and replace them with the legitimate teachings of Jesus - no matter how crazy that made me look to the world or Christians around me.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“A fear-based faith distorts a lot of things, but what it distorts the most is the reflection we see in the mirror. Fear has a way of reflecting ugliness and distorted realities--lies with the appearance of truth--and gives us the false impression that fear tells the truth while concealing the reality that fear is a liar. It may be a good liar because it mixes fact with fiction, but it's a liar nonetheless. The reflections of fear must never be trusted, no matter how many nuggets of truth may be mixed in those ugly waters.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“But what if there's really no such thing as a crisis of faith? ... What if it just feels like everything is going wrong, but really that instance is a moment when everything is about to go right? ... What if what we often call a faith crisis is actually a divine journey--not from God, or simply to God, but a journey with God?”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“Instead of concentrating on how we can include the “other,” too often in American Christianity the focus becomes on when, how, and finding the right justifications for excluding the “other.” When I truly begin to appreciate the inclusive nature of Jesus, my heart laments at all the exclusiveness I see and experience. I think of my female friends; women of wisdom, peace, discernment, and character who should be emulated by the rest of us. When I listen and learn from these women, I realize what an amazing leaders they would be in church—but many never will be leaders in that way because they are lacking one thing: male genitals. Wise and godly women have been excluded, not because of a lack of gifting, education, or ability, but because they were born with the wrong private parts. I also think of a man who attended my former church who has an intellectual disability. He was friendly, faithful, and could always be counted on for a good laugh because he had absolutely no filter— yelling out at least six times during each sermon. One time in church my daughter quietly leaned over to tell me she had to go to the bathroom—and, in true form so that everyone heard, he shouted out, “Hey! Pipe it down back there!” It was hilarious. However, our friend has been asked to leave several churches because of his “disruptiveness.” Instead of being loved and embraced for who he is, he has been repeatedly excluded from the people of God because of a disability. We find plenty of other reasons to exclude people. We exclude because people have been divorced, exclude them for not signing on to our 18-page statements of faith, exclude them because of their mode of baptism, exclude them because of their sexual orientation, exclude them for rejecting predestination…we have become a religious culture focused on exclusion of the “other,” instead of following the example of Jesus that focuses on finding ways for the radical inclusion of the “other.” Every day I drive by churches that proudly have “All Are Welcome” plastered across their signs; however, I rarely believe it—and I don’t think others believe it either. Far too often, instead of church being something that exists for the “other,” church becomes something that exists for the “like us” and the “willing to become like us.” And so, Christianity in America is dying.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“The version of Jesus that so many of us live out is something that fits snugly in our lives, existing in near-complete harmony with the culture around us. However, the radical message of Jesus was never intended to fit neatly into any culture—it was countercultural from the very beginning, and remains so today.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“If we want to rediscover the radical message of Jesus and experience a reorientation of our lives, we must become willing to let go of whatever else might be getting in the way—even if that’s a religious tradition named after Jesus—and return to the timeless invitation to simply become a follower of him.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“Orthodoxy and orthopraxy are both important and are both things that Jesus spoke to, but I no longer believe that either of these things belongs in the center of our circles. I think that spot should be reserved for the exact representation of love: Jesus. By erasing my central pursuit of orthodoxy and orthopraxy and replacing it with Jesus, the essence of love, I realized that perhaps Jesus was inviting us to pursue something even better than right thinking or right doing: he was inviting us to pursue a heart that is constantly increasing in is capacity to love.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“I think people are hungry for Jesus, but they are starting to realize they have been fed a cheap American version, and they are rightly rejecting this counterfeit. Their rejection should be seen not as a rejection of Jesus, but a rejection of obscured versions of him.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“When we reorientate our lives on the person and teachings of Jesus, we become free to follow him wherever he leads—even if it is in an opposite direction as where our religious tradition might lead us.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“saying out loud and naming what you don’t believe anymore breaks the power that fear holds over you. When you do this, you can grow and reshape your lenses, and ultimately yourself and your image of God.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“Usually, these services went something like this: an aggressive message on why going to hell would be like putting your face in the fire while listening to AC/DC, and that the solution to hell is to “ask Jesus into your heart.” In this paradigm, Jesus becomes the ticket out of a bad situation, and all that’s required to get your free pass is to “repeat this simple prayer after me.” And, poof…you’re “saved” and now a fully vetted Jesus follower. American Christianity has been poorly marketing Jesus in this way for years. The deep, mysterious, and beautifully difficult message of Jesus becomes diluted to the point that we sing, “I have decided to follow Jesus” or “All to Jesus I Surrender” as we make our way up the aisle—thinking that following Jesus is actually that simple. What’s worse is that often our motivation for “asking Jesus into our hearts” is that we’re petrified of the myriad of ways that Jesus will have us tortured for eternity if we don’t properly pray the “sinner’s prayer” to show him that we love him back. From that night forward, we’re supposed to faithfully attend a “Bible-believing church” and destroy our Guns n’ Roses CDs in order to show that we actually meant it when we prayed it. In American Christianity, we’re often sold this bill of goods that makes following Jesus look relatively easy…as if it were a singular event instead of a radical new lifestyle. Said the magic prayer? Check. Willing to go to church? Check. Going to work really hard to cut back on how much I use the “F word”? Check. The rewards of following this simple, relatively easy checklist of what it means to follow Jesus supposedly has a huge payout. Not only do we get to claim our “get out of hell free” card, but”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“It's important to remember that Israel's story is a story of being in the process of getting to know God, all before Jesus presents himself as the ultimate revelation of God. It is not unlike other relationships where we need time to fully understand and appreciate the true self and identity of the other person in the relationship. The story involves moments when Israel truly sees God, and moments when they profoundly misunderstand God--both of which are normal parts of any relationship.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“God, the awaited Messiah, the Savior of humanity, has had his message reduced to: Don’t drink. Don’t smoke. Abortion is murder. Gay marriage will destroy us. Don’t forget to vote republican.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“Those who fit in neatly at church, those who are hyper-focused on the “law” are told to repent, but the sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes are invited to sit down for dinner, to share a glass of wine, and to build a friendship.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“Some might argue that the current generation seems uninterested in Christianity because they want to avoid issues like sin and repentance, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think people are hungry for Jesus, but they are starting to realize they have been fed a cheap American version, and they are rightly rejecting this counterfeit. Their rejection should be seen not as a rejection of Jesus, but a rejection of obscured versions of him.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“What Jesus teaches in regard to violence is so radical that it almost doesn’t even make sense. When we serve an Americanized version of Jesus, we tend to subconsciously imagine that Jesus would have said something to the effect of, “Don’t use violence unless you really and truly fear that your life may be in danger.” However, that isn’t what he taught—Jesus repeatedly taught that those who actually “follow” him must adopt a position of nonviolent love of enemies. This new ethic of nonviolence was not what people were expecting; the Mosaic Law had established principles that justified retributive violence (much like in our own culture), condoning tit-for-tat responses to injustices. Jesus insists, however, that the Kingdom he came to establish was going to operate by different principles from anything they had experienced previously, and that the use of previously justified violence had no place in this new movement God was starting.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“Let me be direct: the Bible says that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but one of power and love.7 If this is true, which I believe it is, it means that fear-based faith is not of God. It’s not from God,”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“While it may be tempting to believe that GenXers and Millennials want less of Jesus, I believe the truth is that they want more of him. Those disillusioned with Christian culture simply long for a more authentic portrait of him. They just want the real Jesus.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“Someone once asked Gandhi for a sermon, and his reply was, “My life is my sermon.” In the same way, we see how Jesus chose to live his adult life as perhaps one of his most potent sermons of all. While our contemporary Christian culture places value on the unholy trinity of buildings, bodies, and bucks, Jesus—the wisest teacher who ever lived and central figure in human history—was a homeless man who instead lived his life investing in authentic community with twelve close friends. We see them wrestle with the radical nature of his message together, share meals together, serve the poor and hungry together, and share life’s burdens with one another.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“I slowly began to realize that I had been wasting my time with a hyper-focus on why all the “others” were doing it wrong and began to release the icy grip I had on everything I thought I knew. I finally accepted that I would be much happier if I just focused on myself and taking my own faith journey seriously and stopped worrying so much about everyone else. As soon as I gave up on the idea of changing everyone else and exchanged it for a commitment to change myself, I saw my heart begin to change.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus

“[re: 'keeping the commandments'] I believe that "keeping" speaks more about focus than measuring success on a pass-fail basis. When we keep something, we hold it close to our hearts and allow it to progressively become our object of focus. The action of keeping becomes personal and intimate, not regulated by an outside authority. Whatever we keep becomes an object we love and cherish, and it becomes a center point from which the rest of our lives flow--like a compass.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“Through a lens of navigation, then, we can see that "keeping" isn't about having a perfect, linear or flawless journey; keeping is about having a focus point that you want to keep moving toward.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

“If there's one thing that moving beyond a fear-based faith taught me, it was that I wanted to be different, or rather, I began to see myself in my full complexity and realized that I was different--and I liked it.”
― Benjamin L. Corey, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith