broken eikon

Blogging again

Chad — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:06:02 +0000

Hey all. Some good news. Please add politicaljesus,com to your blogroll. I have been invited to be a regular contributor to political Jesus, which was started by the esteemed Rodney Thomas Jr., and is on the list of top 50 bible blog sites on the net. See you there!

Barth a universalist?

Chad — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:28:25 +0000

Barth on Election

My paper on Karl Barth’s theology of election and universalism.

Struggle

Chad — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:39:39 +0000

So here is what I am struggling with at the moment. If I am being honest, I am having a hard time thinking that my blessings come from God when there are so many others in the world who aren’t blessed. How can I thank God for my meals when so many do without? How can I thank God for my house when so many are homeless? If I do, it seems like i put God in the place of not caring about them as much as about me. It seems more appropriate to think of life as the blessing and the earth and the universe as the blessing. Everyone is blessed that way, and God doesn’t seem to play favorites.

Another way to say this is why would God bless Americans with materialistic things and unhealthy food while leaving other nations so impoverished and without basic needs? Is it because of God’s blessings, or because human action? I tend to think the latter. Therefore, why would I thank God for myself benefitting from a system of inequality put in place by humans that allows me to have more than others? I don’t think I should.

Can anyone help me with perspective here?

All New, All Different… Video Blog! Q&A with your Q’s and My A’s

Chad — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:05:12 +0000

So this was longer, with more of my train of thought, but I was having trouble uploading due to the length of the video. So here is the chopped version, witch can seem disjointed at times, because it is. Next time, I will know imovie better, as well as being more succinct with my answers. I would love any feedback or follow up questions. Thanks to all who participated!

Just added

Chad — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:43:52 +0000

I will be answering the recent questions via video blog very soon. Thanks, and please keep submitting them. In the meantime, i updated the blog to the new wordpress version. Also, there is now a handy little button on the left side of the page whereby you can subscribe to the blog via any rss reader, like google reader or….click the place to subscribe via email! viola.

loves me new stuff.

Something new – video blog (vlog?) experiment

Chad — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:47:50 +0000

Hey you guys! I’m not quite sure exactly how many of you read the blog (I think somewhere between 5-6 million), but I wonder if you would help me with an experiment. I was thinking about doing a video blog similar to an old blog that I used to do on myspace. First, there would be a call for questions (spiritual, theological, pastoral, or otherwise). Then, I would collect the billions of questions and choose some to answer. Then I would do a video blog answering the questions. That simple. So send me your questions, from the theology of Karl Barth to the proper way to evangelize a Christian. This should be fun…

Do yourself a favor and check this out

Chad — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:59:32 +0000

My friend (of of my best) Michelle is an absolutely amazing artist, and I didn’t know she had a site to display her beautiful art. So go here and check it out. Follow it because she is going to be bigger than Garfunkel.

or for the peeps who don’t like links: http://michellebrandley.blogspot.com

Presbos, i dig…

Chad — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:19:16 +0000

So I was reading the Presbyterian book of confessions today. I came across the confession of 1967, and I have to say… I was blown away. In 1967, the Presbos adopted this confession of faith as a response to “racial discrimination, nationalistic arrogance, and family and class conflict”. It was very responsive to biblical scholarship and asks the church to read scripture with literary and historical context in mind. There are many really really cool parts, but this really stuck out to me is line 9.45, containing the following words…, “this search (for reconciliation and peace) requires that the nations pursue fresh and responsible relations across every line of conflict, even at risk to national security, to reduce areas of strife and to broaden international understanding… Although nations may serve God’s purposes in history, the church which identifies the sovereignty of any one nation or any one way of life with the cause of God denies the lordship of Christ and betrays his calling”.

“Even at risk to national security”?

Can anyone find me another statement of faith that states that nations should pursue reconciliation even at their own risk? That sounds too much like Christ for me…

And that last part about identifying any one nation or way of life with God’s will means denying the Lordship of Christ. Dang.

love it…

and now… some poetry

Chad — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:51:10 +0000

i don’t want to be a fan,

hanging on someone’s every word.

every word is too many,

everybody gets it wrong sometimes.

i will not be a foe,

rejecting all that someone is.

all of them has some of me,

and I love me, except when I don’t.

trust in what you say?

you will pardon my mordancy.

smile at me, and do for me, and give to me,

on the backs of the others.

work for you, you say?

you will despise my meekness.

curse at me, do to me, take from me,

for the fun of others.

will there be that place?

will I ever see it?

the avatars go back and forth,

pawns of the powers that they were formed to fight.

the avatars are we,

taken the form of might, mammon, movement, medication.

humility, goodness, peace, compassion – lost

supposed to be found. lost.

hurt.

crushed.

This is the kind of third option we talk about – for Afghanistan

Chad — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:46:30 +0000

Check out Brian Mclaren’s open letter to President Obama. He encapsulates both my frustration with Obama and my hope that he can make better choices. It is time for a third option to be tried in America.