This past weekend (April 5-6) theologians, pastors, clergy, and anyone else interested in the future of the church descended upon Drury University in Sprigfield, Missouri for the Subverting the Norm conference tackling the big question: “Can Postmodern Theology live in the Churches?” From the website: Can the actually existing churches speak meaningfully and [...]
I first read Things Fall Apart in a World Civilizations course at Westmont College. World Civ was supposed to be one of the most challenging classes at Westmont, at least as far as gen eds were concerned, so I decided to take it during a Mayterm when I had nothing else going on. True to reputation, that class involved a [...]
I once heard Maurice Manning tell a story before a reading about how, in his native Kentucky, he had given a reading in a library hall. During the course of it he noticed a woman up front in an everyday, country dress chewing tobacco. He said that afterwards, she came up to him and said that she didn’t know anything [...]
In the past few weeks (like almost everyone else), I’ve been thinking about guns. Their place in our society, government’s role in regulation, activist groups’ responsibility, and so on. There are arguments to be made for both sides of the gun control debate. It’s not my purpose here to address those arguments. The unfortunate fact is (and speaking as one [...]
Perhaps “More” is a misleading title for this post, considering I’ve never actually written about Zinn’s work here before. But, come on. Who hasn’t read A People’s History of the United States? Mr. Zinn, who passed away just a few years ago at the age of 87, has–I hope–taught us all some very important life lessons; or at the very [...]
Please note: the author of this article has a larger than should be permissible obsession with the Oscars and this information was thus, very hard to come to terms with. Every year I am my most excited from November-February, because it is the time of year when all the best films are released and culminates in the Academy Awards. [...]
Editorial Note: We are excited to post part two of this interview. Can I give you a few housekeeping notes? Thanks. First off, part one of the interview can be read here if you missed it. Secondly, We need to give a giant thanks and shout out and high five and a wink to Simon. He transcribed the entire interview. [...]
Guess what guys? I am not the only female writer who totally adores baseball! I mean, I know it’s Super Bowl season (GO NINERS!) and spring training doesn’t start for another few weeks, but I have to share with you this memoir I just read by Doris Kearns Goodwin called Wait Till Next Year (1998). Based on the cover, I [...]
Editorial Note: Here at The Public Queue, we had heard rumors of Ken Fong, senior pastor of the Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles and were intrigued by his unorthodox approach to the LGBT issue. We were privileged to be invited by Pastor Ken into his home to discuss his views on this topic, his experiences with the LGBTQ community and the upcoming [...]
I’ve been doing a lot more writing than reading lately. It’s good–my creative juices are flowing. But it also means that coming up with books to review takes some strategic thinking. As I reflected on my predicament, I realized that the situation itself offered the perfect solution: books on writing. There are so many good ones out there, so many [...]
The Supreme Court handed down its ruling on Monday in the case of Monsanto’s seed patent infringement case against farmer Hugh Bowman, in favor of the corporation. Mr. Bowman was ordered to pay a fee of over $84,000; according to the decision, his re-use of the seeds from the crop without paying the extra fee destroyed the value of Monsanto’s [...]
About halfway through the movie 42, the new Jackie Robinson biopic, Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey, played by Harrison Ford, says to Jackie, (and I may be paraphrasing slightly) “It doesn’t matter what you believe, only what you do”. This serves as both a succinct bit of character exposition for Ford’s character (a Methodist, interestingly) and for the seeming approach [...]
This past weekend (April 5-6) theologians, pastors, clergy, and anyone else interested in the future of the church descended upon Drury University in Sprigfield, Missouri for the Subverting the Norm conference tackling the big question: “Can Postmodern Theology live in the Churches?” From the website: Can the actually existing churches speak meaningfully and [...]
In a recent poll taken by CBS, 53% of Americans support same-sex marriage, while 36% do not. Interestingly 33% of respondents who support same-sex marriage have shifted their views on the issue. Across the board support for the LGBT community has been on the rise, even among groups traditionally associated with taking the opposing stance. When asked why they changed [...]
Churches, pastors, priests, lay-people and just about everyone else has been following the Supreme Court hearings concerning the constitutionality the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA). And all the while, we’ve been hearing voices from varying traditions on how the Church and Christians should respond. Scot McKnight gives a (in my opinion, helpful) broad overview of four paths to take: [...]
What matters most in Christianity today? What is it that makes one a Christian? Is there a list? If you check off a list of non-negotiables are you secure in the hope of Christ? Perhaps another way to approach this matter is to flip the question. What issues are NOT make or break issues facing the Church. C. Michael Patton of [...]
The majority of my life I did not observe Lent. I didn’t really even understand what Lent was. More and more, however, this season of the church calendar has been embraced by typically non-liturgical (read: Evangelical) Christian traditions. While a renewed interest in elements of church liturgy is generally welcomed and should be encouraged, is Lent becoming too commercialized? Is [...]
Sometimes the world gives you TWO NEW Vampire Weekend songs. And you just have to think to yourself, “what a wonderful world.” In support of their third album Modern Vampires of the City out on 5/7, Vampire Weekend have released two new tracks ‘Diane Young’ and ‘Step’. Listen to them below and pre-order the album on their website.
Rob Bell of Love Wins fame, former Pastor of Mars Hill church and star of his NOOMA video’s has recently come out for Marriage Equality. It seems, according to Greg Carey on HuffPo that Rob Bell at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco had this to say: “I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a [...]
Is it cool to like these songs? I’m not really sure. I work with kids and they listen to a lot of stuff. I generally disregard their taste as high school-ish and uninformed. I mean the other day Nelly’s “Country Grammar” came on and they didn’t who it was, so we can all agree that kids today don’t know good [...]
