Sharing Your Faith Is Not A Single Format Opportunity Those who know me know I am a talker. The corollary is that I tend to process my thinking out loud. Now you know why posts are sometimes infrequent and my podcast frequency is worse. Can We Talk? is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a fre…

Marv Levy takes his dry humor around the globe in the comedy series The Reluctant Traveler. Levy’s travels leave him perplexed and curious. His episode-ending reflections include themes he picks up along the way. Often sounding surprised, he finds that folks living in Finland enjoy life outdoors, even if it is cold. Smiles greet him, and he cannot …

We deconstruct everything so why the bugaboo? Mark Driscoll famously attacked deconstruction, or Deconstruction, with the caricature that the goal is to reduce everything to its nub so it may be dismissed. He used the schtick to strike fear in those who dared question what they had been taught, particularly at Mars Hill. We all know how that turned…

Claims that the Woke Left is indoctrinating students in Oklahoma Public Schools have been a talking point of Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters since he began his campaign. Once elected, erasing the Woke Agenda has been his ongoing mantra. My friend Greg Horton posted about the claims of indoctrination on his Facebook Page, to which …

“Is healthcare a right or privilege?” Maybe the question needs a better frame. Recently I was talking with my friend Marty about healthcare, high deductibles, and treatment costs. Amidst the ongoing cultural battles occupying congressional talking points I wondered on Twitter when would our legislators take up one of the more crucial human needs. D…

I tried to work in one of my favorite lines from Cold Mountain into the title. I imagine God is weary of being called down on both sides of an argument. Inman, Cold Mountain Next week Messengers to our denominations’ annual meeting may hear proposed Resolutions on Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. One feature of the debate over the past c…

Near the end of our last conversation on the subject of Critical Race Theory, Bradly Mason remarked that race is a social construct for the subordination of other human beings. His statement did not go without notice. One listener sent a series of questions. If Mason asserted that race was a social construct and Founder’s Ministry agrees with that …

In our best Schwarzenegger voice, “We said we’d be back!” Sojourner’s interviewed Nathan Cartagena on teaching Critical Race Theory to Evangelicals. When asked about the different assumptions students have when taking a class on critical race theory now that CRT is such a lightning rod subject he noted, Oh yes. When I first started teaching, most p…

Pastor, do you have time to read the near 500 pages of Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement?” Maybe you have time between weekly sermon preparation, pastoral responsibilities, and any administrative tasks that accompany your particular ministry setting. Try as we might to be aware and versed in every developing subject, i…

“The just shall live by faith,” represents the Scriptural hammer of the Reformation. Five hundred years later many Evangelicals have decided they are the hammer and everything else is a nail. Rooting out the greatest dangers to Christianity has become a favorite past time, if not as cottage industry, among some in my own Christian tribe. It calls b…

One of my friends once pointed out that any time -al is added to describe a theological perspective the emphasis is on the adjective more than on talk about God. Practically time is given to explain the adjective and what often gets obscured is the god/God under consideration. Enter John R. Franke. In his new book, released last year, John R., Fran…

What happened to the podcast? It would be easier just answering with, “2020.” To provide an illustration of the unusual difficulties, it took two days and three tries to finish the conversation I had with Thomas J. Oord where we talked about his latest book, God Can’t: Q & A. We had hit our stride in what is always a fun and ranging conversation ab…

Jemar Tisby, in his book The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, offers a number of To-Dos in his chapter The Fierce Urgency of Now. One is simple: Do Something. After a bit of an absence, Patheological returns with that in mind. What Tisby recommends is not different than the advice given by Dr. Barbara…

Plenty of space in print and on-air has been given over to discussions of masculinity. What if the better question for all human beings was, “How do we live wisely in the world?” Seventeen years ago Mark Horne published, The Victory According to Mark: An Exposition of the Second Gospel. In his words, “I never thought I would write a book like this.…

Every day we are being watched by the ghosts of history past. The hosts of Ryan and Philip’s Conversation Rules have a segment on their podcast; History Has Its Eyes On You. No matter the subject of each episode, they point up the value of knowing how it relates to the past. Somewhere in the past few years, I met Brad Raley through mutual friends. …

If you are a pastor or on a church staff, there is no shortage of suggestions for what to do during the current novel coronavirus pandemic. Many pastors find themselves forced to think about live-streaming services, using Zoom or Google Meet to offer Bible Study, and Youth Pastors are digging deep into their creative barrels to find some fun ways t…

Over time Dietrich Bonhoeffer has become something of a Rorschach Test for Christians. That is, everyone finds something in Bonhoeffer’s corpus to claim for their theological project. Jeffrey C. Pugh says not so fast. Instead of thinking that Bonhoeffer passed through phases, like early and late, one might better understand the German theologian as…

Maps. More maps. The summer term of my last year of my M.Div. in Seminary included the course, Biblical Backgrounds. Looking back it may have been better to take that course over a normal fall or spring semester. Compressing all the material covered into a few short weeks was grueling. Today much of the same material may be found in resources from …

Don’t blame Scott Coley. Though Scott was my last podcast guest, he had nothing to do with the long hiatus. I hope to have Scott back. He is working on a new book and if nothing else, we will hop back on the Zoom and discuss his work.. So what happened? Today’s podcast provides a look at podcasting. Specifically, the elements of podcasting solo. Do…

I am more near retirement than Scott. I have grandchildren older than his newborn. He has more hair. And, fortunately for me, he did not turn the old guy away when he reached out for a conversation on the Twitter platform. Who In the World is Scott M. Coley Not long after Scott and I were talking about a podcast episode and discussing his work, I r…

How many times have you read a Facebook/Blog post that insists, “If your pastor didn’t say anything about [most recent social injustice], you need to find a new church?” Maybe you have used this lede in an attempt to raise attention to the latest illustration of failed immigration policy, how racism has gone underground or the ways our current econ…

“I forgive you.” We generally think those words follow, “I’m sorry.” The Good News of the Gospel is that God’s, “I forgive you,” comes first. That is how Jason Micheli describes Grace. God’s one-way love. Many couples at one point or another have reached for a book on marriage to help negotiate those difficult periods. Reading with a highlighter in…

Just two days after Stan Grenz died, David Dockery began his concluding paragraph warning Baptists, specifically Southern Baptists, that Grenz might lead his readers into orthodox inconsistency. Unfortunately, his pietism didn’t translate into evangelical coherene or orthodox consistency. That was fourteen year ago. Reading some of the responses to…

We are all addicts. Amidst a culture bent on positivity, Karsten’s maxim could not be considered good news. He did not back down. Let’s give Karsten his conclusion. When we do we admit that we are all at the same time captive. At some point, these circumstances, addicted and captive, will lead to incarceration. When a person has served his or her t…

Five years ago the iconic Mummers Theater, also known as Stage Center, was demolished. Considered a modern architectural marvel, it served an interesting feature for the annual Oklahoma City Arts Festival for years. Then it flooded. Efforts to save the building failed. What eventually takes the now vacated space will be influenced by the experience…

Are you spiritual but not religious? Maybe you are religious but not spiritual. What do those categories even mean? Are we always going to find ourselves in an Inigo Montoya moment, “You keep using that word . . . “ Religion observers and Christian leaders have for some time been offering explanations for a decline in church attendance in the West.…

Oklahoma incarcerates more people per capita than any other State in the Union – men and women. Legislators work to reform our justice system. The gears turn slowly. Part of the issue turns on how we talk about justice. Last year, a group of Evangelicals, some from my tribe of Southern Baptists, developed what is referred to as the Statement on Soc…

Many resist preaching, listening to preachers, that is. Preachers may be the worst. I have attended denominational meetings and watched folks get up and leave when the preaching begins. Imagine thinking mundane business to be more interesting than the preacher you may not have heard before. Over the past thirty years, I have read less than a handfu…

A local meteorologist described the recent F-4 tornado in Alabama. We know a thing or two about tornadoes in Oklahoma. The scene of the 24-mile swath cut by the massive tornado brought back memories of what we simply refer to in our area as, The May 3rd Tornado. It was hard to imagine the area described by a resident who lost her home as something …

There is not going to be a return to things as they were. Or are. Think of it as the notion that to step into a river at the same place, does not mean you are stepping into the same water. The water in which you stepped in downstream. It is not hard to become captive, enslaved, to things as they were. Marriage counselors often hear, “We would like …

No matter what you have been told, there are things you may not pray away. The Apostle Paul noted that he had prayed three times for a thorn in the flesh to be removed. It wasn’t. Three times may be a euphemism for over and over and over again. “I’m a lifer,” Scott Curry. Pastor New Year’s Day for many is a time to reset, restart. It provides the o…

Business disruptors. Sports disruptors. How about Church disruptors? The story is told of a pastor who, while preaching, noticed his son chewing gum. He is said to have stopped the sermon and instructed his son, “Paul, go spit out your gum!” It Will Take More Than Gum More than 50 years later, gum is the least likely disruption in a Sunday worship …

If you did not read carefully, you may have mistaken a conjunction for a noun. Spelling is key. Taking note of words and how they are used both spares of embarrassment and enlightens. When it comes to words and provocation, the Crackers over at Crackers & Grape Juice work hard. Consider the title of their new book. I Like Big Buts When the gang loo…

The canopy caught the wind. We slowly drifted toward the steel cable barrier that kept us a safe distance from the dam. Our anchors could not hold the 21’ pontoon boat from which we hoped to reach our limit of rainbow trout for the day. We pulled in our fishing lines. After firing up the motor, we fought the wind to free ourselves from the barrier.…

Martin Luther King Jr. is something of a Rorschach Test for Southern Baptists. Enter the recent MLK50 event co-sponsored by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC as evidence. On the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the Ethics and Religious Liberty co-sponsored the MLK50 event. Here is a link to the C…

Recently a young friend mused in a text message, “Where are our (SBC) theologians?” His angst was palpable even if the question appeared on my phone. My friend Alan, who will be on my next podcast episode, expressed genuine concern. From his vantage point, working for the Evangelical Immigration Table, the responses to immigration issues from leade…

No matter what else goes on during a week in the life of a preacher, a pastor, Sunday always comes on time. For many, likely most, Sunday anxiety does not come with wondering who will fuel the jet, maintain the vacation house, or gas up the boat at the marina. Often any inner conflict is repressed. On occasion, it breaks out. Faithful Are the Wound…

Just two weeks after the Parkland School Shooting my friend Mary Duren invited four people to contribute to a discussion on the right to bear arms. The traffic on his posts was poor. It seems the news cycle had passed. If you don’t seize the moment within 24-hours, or maybe 48-hours, you miss the modern attention span. Maybe Hauerwas and Willimon A…

Rick Saccone sensed a closer than expected 18th Congressional District race in Pennsylvania’s Special Election. “They hate America. They hate God.” Reactionary. Rather than touting his vision, goals and plans the moment he realized he might lose where President Trump won by more than 20 percentage points, Rick Saccone responded with phrases intende…

Maybe pastors still haven’t found what they are looking for. Even if LifeWay is no longer strictly a resource for Southern Baptist Churches, one wonders how it is, after the dust has settled for most in the SBC on the matter of inerrancy, what does it mean a that Biblical Hermeneutics tops the searched for data on its Pastors site in recent months?…

Who needs me? That may be a more helpful question today than, Who is my neighbor? Familiarity may breed contempt. It also may create indifference. Neighbor or Friend? The Good Samaritan became the means for one of Jesus’ conversation partners to consider, “Who is my neighbor?” We hear Good Samaritan stories often. A person in distress is helped by …

Just four years ago it was reported, “that 1500 pastors leave the ministry for good each month due to burnout or contention in their churches.” What is a pastor to do just five years in when he or she realizes there already exists lessons from failure? Not Much Has Changed? Thirty years ago this coming December I recall a denominational leader rela…

Some time ago a friend discovered I had been reading Jurgen Moltmann’s, The Crucified God. He suggested I leave Moltmann alone. If you know anything about me, that is like pouring gas on a fire. It called to mind moments in college and seminary where friends, even professors, indicated there is a “Do Not Read” list. They forgot the way negative pro…

Most lands us in trouble. The word most gets us in trouble, not most people. When we want to lay claim to the popular position or opinion we use most; even if we know it runs into the wall of fallacies. Sweeping generalization or not, Jimmy Doyle’s conversation with Israelis and Palestinians led him to conclude most want peace. Not Always Convinced…

If I had known Peter‘s birthday was Tuesday, I would have dropped this podcast then. After all, what better birthday gift for Pete than for our conversation to drop on the Interwebs! You know he will agree. The Bible Tells Me So Jesus loves me. In the 1860 novel, Say and Seal, the words of the song many of us grew up singing aimed to soothe a dying…

Wall calendars. Day planners. Bullet journals. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Holidays. School schedules. Fiscal years. Just some of the ways we mark time. Bruce Hornsby lyrically wrote about marking time because “that’s just the way it is.” If all we do is buy into the way things are, then shouldn’t we expect life to be viewed as it always is? Making A…

Long before electronic billboards, the Internet, and mobile apps, the bumper sticker served as a means to communicate how a person saw the world. Eddie Chiles radio commentary sign-off triggered a spate of bumper stickers that exclaimed, I’m Mad Too, Eddie! Who is Eddie and why is he mad? I often wondered. Whatever the subject of his commentary, th…

Who knew the sloganeering of a Presidential campaign would afford us a way to highlight the great mystery of the Incarnation? Consider it much like the Apostle Paul flipping, “Ceasar is lord,” to, “Jesus Is Lord.” Here we are one year later and my friend Tripp, along with Mike Morrel and John Pavlovitz, decided to flip, Make America Great Again in …

The Youth Minister gave a new meaning to, “throw the book at him.” Originally the phrase meant to charge someone with as many crimes as are possible. Consider it throwing all the law at someone. Maybe, that is in fact what happened. Rather than take his questions seriously, the Youth Minister found it easier to apply as many legalisms as possible t…

The idols we create become burdens too heavy to bear. Scott Curry references Walter Brueggemann on Isaiah 46 to point out the caricatures we create for God become the idols in our heads that let us down when suffering comes. Not Speculative Suffering comes. When we least expect it. At the most inopportune times. To us all. Though he is working on h…