Christian Piatt's Blog, page 78
July 4, 2012
Christian Patriotism: Love for the “Other”"
While at Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina recently, Deborah Arca (our progressive Christian portal editor here at Patheos) asked us to respond on video to how we reconciled both love of God and love for country. I struggled with the question, mostly because of the typical baggage that comes along with Christian patriotism, much [...]
July 2, 2012
Why Anderson Cooper’s Sexual Orientation Matters
Cable News Network (CNN) anchor Anderson Cooper didn’t exactly rattle the rafters with a collective gasp of public surprise when he announced that he was gay. Though it’s been something many speculated about for some time, he had never spoken about his sexual orientation in the public forum until today. In fact, according to a [...]
July 1, 2012
Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Twenty
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry, but it’s true. We’re twenty weeks into the Church Sign Epic Fails series and going strong. Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Nineteen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Eighteen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Seventeen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Sixteen Church Sign Epic Fails: Volume Fifteen Church [...]
June 27, 2012
When All the Church Can Say is “I’m Sorry”
Two weeks after we arrived in Portland, Amy (my wife and new senior pastor at First Christian Church in downtown Portland) decided she needed to do something meaningful to express her voice as a person of faith in the community. There already were the folks handing out tracts down on the campus of Portland State [...]
June 26, 2012
Wild Goose 2012: An Exercise in Mindfulness
How do you know when someone has a Prius? Don’t worry; they’ll tell you. We got a Prius about four years ago, and immediately we bought into the hype about milking every gallon of gas for another tenth of a mile. We read the hyper-miler blogs about how to employ the gas and brake pedals [...]
June 25, 2012
Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Nineteen
Apologies for the tardiness, as I’ve been at Wild Goose all week. More on that soon, but for now, down to business… Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Eighteen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Seventeen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Sixteen Church Sign Epic Fails: Volume Fifteen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Fourteen Church Sign Epic [...]
June 20, 2012
Love Greater Than Our Differences: My Interview on ChurchNext
I spoke with Chris Yaw recently, host of an online program called ChurchNext. On it, he has dialogues with a number of church leaders about the current state of organized religion, the changing face of Christianity and what our churches may do to remain (or become) relevant, vital ministries in the world. Here’s a video [...]
June 19, 2012
WWJB (What Would Jesus Brew)? Tapping Our Franciscan Roots
There’s a well-known saying, often attributed to Ben Franklin, about God and beer. I’ve even seen it on T-shirts and the like, but it turns out it’s mis-quoted. The one I see and hear is generally some derivation of, “beer is evidence that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” However, on further, [...]
June 18, 2012
Mad Men, Catholics and a “Moral Revolution”
Amy and I have been working (translated: watching lazily) our way through the first several seasons of Mad Men. The writing is remarkably subtle, and I was particularly struck by the fact that such a long-standing show could effectively have little or no plot focusing instead on rich character development. For a writer, this is [...]
June 16, 2012
Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Eighteen
You’ve got to ask yourself: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk? Well, you should since it’s Sunday, which means… MORE CHURCH SIGN EPIC FAILS! Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Seventeen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Sixteen Church Sign Epic Fails: Volume Fifteen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Fourteen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume [...]
