God Changes God’s Mind

God Changes God’s Mind.

That is a very thought-provoking statement, one with which you might either agree or disagree. Growing up I was taught that God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient; but now I often wonder if this is not the case, perhaps God can be self-limiting and perhaps God only sets events into motion.* But what if instead of describing God as being omni-this or omni-that, God is self-limiting, in order that God enters into the struggle and the process of human life and creation?

I recently read a journal article by Yair Lorberbaum and he described the Genesis 6-8 flood story as a “bildungsroman, a story of education and maturation…of God…” I do not think that this will ever become a popular view of God, especially in Evangelical circles, but I think it is certainly a point of view worth considering. Essentially, in the flood story God recognizes the evilness of both creation and humankind, this evilness is not met with anger but grief.

God is grieved by the wickedness, in fact this seems to be one of the common themes of the flood story: the evil and wickedness of the human heart contrasted with the heart of God. And this evilness troubles the heart of God (Gen 6:6). But what happens in the flood story? All of humankind, every living being except eight people, are utterly destroyed, subjected to a catastrophic flood and look what God says after the flood:

Genesis 8:21 “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”

The condition of humanity is the same as it was before the flood. Lorberbaum suggests “”God says to Himself that, if the Flood would have corrected the ways of mankind, that would be acceptable; that would have been a justification for the unavoidable harm caused to the earth and to the world of living creatures. But since man is ‘evil from his youth,’ no Flood can change his nature or his way of behaving.”

If God was omniscient then God would have known this, thus it causes us to question whether or not God really knows exactly what we think God knows…

*I am not advocating a Deistic belief in a deity who is far removed from its creation.

Coexistence and Interfaith Dialogue

Oh! How times have changed…How I have changed… Six or seven years ago, the thought of coexistence or interfaith dialogue was apostasy in my mind. To entertain even the idea that religious observers from Christianity and Islam, or Christianity and Judaism, or some other religion, could come together and peacefully dialogue was tantamount to full blown heresy. (And as we all know, heretics are burned upon fires stoked with green wood). And let’s face it, if you are not talking with them in order to convert them then you are just wasting your time /sarcasm.

As I have grown, matured, learned and been introduced to various faiths and ideas in my spiritual journey I have learned that we (as a human race) must allow room for interfaith dialogue. We must encourage and work towards developing a society that empathetically interacts with those of whom are of different ideologies and faith traditions.

What Makes Me a Liberal: Equality for All

This post is long overdue. Lately, I have not felt like writing anything but this post is rather scary for me because I know my beliefs about this topic automatically puts me on the fringe of most Christian communities–although this minority group gained much traction in 2011 and has a bright future in 2012 and beyond.

The process I took that led to this belief relies heavily upon fully embracing the historical-critical method of Biblical studies. Some people, usually the conservative/fundamentalist Evangelicals, want you to believe that the historical-critical method is destructive to the Bible, your faith, spirituality, and your relationship with God. However, once one has been properly introduced to the historical-critical method the Bible becomes open to all different possibilites and is no longer restricted by just one interpretation. Perhaps this sounds like a scary thing (i.e., multiple interpretations) but I feel that society is long overdue for a new system, a new hermeneutic, a reinterpretation of the Bible. One that looks to the past for guidance, recognizes where we have gone off course, where we are on track but also has the future in mind. But also a translation/interpretation that is malleable to the future of our society.  

What Makes Me a Liberal: Women in Ministry

Feminism is a relatively new movement and ideology in the history of humanity and even more so among biblical scholarship (and I still know very little about it). It seems as if now we are only beginning to grasp some of the work that was done in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and now in the 21st century I think we can all recognize that we have come a long way but still have so much more to go in the liberation of the continued oppressive ideologies that are still scattered throughout modern-day Christianity.

We must continue to work towards liberation of all people in order that our Churches might become places of inclusion, of welcoming, of peace, love and joy, that the Church might become a shelter for those in need and not a place where people are excluded for their race, gender, or sexual orientation.

What Makes Me a Liberal: Genesis, Creation, and Mythology

Before I being I would like to apologize for the silence on my blog, it took far too long to research and write on this topic. I sat down several times and wrote but believed that my words were unsatisfactory, so I hope that this post proves to be, both, useful/informative and delightful to read. Enjoy!

In this area of the country, West Texas, supporting evolution is highly unpopular and has recently become a topic of debate for the Texas Education Agency. The Texas Education Agency has urged schools and science teachers to begin to teach the weaknesses of the theory of evolution, I can agree with this, one should have a fair view of all sides of an argument: the strong evidence and the weaker evidence. But, ultimately, I feel that this debate has more to do with religion than science. What is even more ridiculous and unfortunate is that those advocating such a view (that is, creationism) have been notorious for abusing the creation (e.g., oil production, hunting species into extinction, pollution, etc.).

“The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it.”  Genesis 2:15

This is creation care not abuse. However, creation care is not the thesis of this blog post.

What Makes Me a Liberal: The Bible

So as I discussed in the introduction to this series (here), I believe  we are products of our environment, our education and our upbringing. Like I said before, when I began at LCU I considered myself to be a conservative Christian, but now, that I have graduated and had time to mull over some of my education, I consider myself to be a liberal/progressive Christian.

I know that by saying this I immediately set myself at odds with the majority of my peers and those who live in this area of West Texas. And I know that I still have a lot to learn and that some of my ideas and beliefs are continually changing but I want my blog to be a place where I can be honest and open. I appreciate disagreement, discourse and debates. So if you disagree with me, please let me know, I hope that we can have a conversation and challenge each others ideas and grow together. I try to keep an open mind and I hope that you do too.

A Generation of Fear

I was born in the late 80′s, 1987 to be exact. So don’t exactly recall very many disasters or terrorist attacks that would strike fear in my heart and mind until I was at least 6 or 7. I don’t recall the Gulf War or any thing to this magnitude.

I don’t really remember the 1993 attack on the Twin Towers but I think the first major disaster that I remember from my childhood was the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, where approximately 168 people lost their lives and more than 600 people were injured. I remember the images on TV and in the newspaper, I remember the faces, the blood, the tragedy and the heartache. I also remember the anger, but perhaps more significantly – the fear.