Inappropriate Conversations

In 2021 for most American Christians, Christmas will be celebrated on December 25th. No surprise there. For those with good recent memory, Easter was celebrated on April 4th. Not as easy to recall as 12/25, but a simple date to find on any secular calendar. This upcoming Sunday, May 23rd, is Pentecost. I'd bet that very few Americans know that, including politically-active Christians who are outspoken about perceived attacks like "cancel culture" as a form of marginalization. I'd argue that the Holy Spirit is far more marginalized than any church group, often by church groups.

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/walk-the-earth-26/

Considering whether Easter is the most important day on the church calendar, I lay some groundwork on the difference between a disciple having a Good Friday worldview versus an Easter worldview. Even this comparison feels too narrow, not quite a false dichotomy but insufficiently broad in perspective. The answer to which day on the church calendar I find to be the most significant probably explains why.

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/walk-the-earth-25/

It's too easy within the church and among politically-active Christians to find examples of people preaching that children should be "seen and not heard" rather than smiling and saying "let the children come" as Jesus did. Then again, these are many of the same people who want to make it a crime (in Georgia, for one example) to give free water or snacks to anyone stuck in an hours-long line on election day. Make me think they have no idea what Jesus said about feeding hungry people or giving the thirsty something to drink ... or what Jesus warned he would do, as Lord and judge of all, to those who refused to offer such grace. 
I wonder what Jesus would do to those who presume to make it a crime to extend his love in tangible forms like food and water?

Ignoring the spiritual gifts of women is a mistake I do not tolerate. While this wasn't foremost in our minds when my family left one congregation, and denomination, to find a new church home. As this early Walk The Earth episode documents, it quickly became impossible to ignore -- sometimes from first impressions, but often from more lasting ones. 

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/walk-the-earth-6/

I'm probably less sure now than I was 7 years ago about whether the Sunday School hour in most Christian churches is the best type of small group. It was the type I was most familiar with then. Now, I'd say the main requirement isn't location or time of meeting, but the ability to speak very freely about a challenging range of topics. Today, that range would include double-standards and miscarriages of justice from the halls of Congress to local district attorneys offices. Any small group that cannot handle conversations like that fails to achieve its mission. And any notion that conversations like that have no place within the church fundamentally misrepresents what "church" should be.

In the process of considering whether the message, or a worship service itself, was fundamentally different inside a sanctuary or some other form of cathedral versus a more ordinary room, my family ended up encountering a church that didn't have a building at all. No sanctuary. No roof over their heads at all, so to speak. And that's where we ended up, too. 

TalkBack episodes in podcast form exist largely due to Spotify. That's also among the places the new Harmony Springs Gives Voice podcast can be found.

Whether racism is more prevalent and toxic within, rather than outside, the church?

Robert P. Jones of PRRI

Preview for White Savior: Racism in the American Church