Tony Jones: June 2008 Archives

One of my new favorite blogs, is "Spiritual Politics" by Mark Silk, professor of religion and public life at Trinity College. Last week, he unloaded on a particular televangelist. Guess which one:

Of all the vile, fake, lying-ass, money-grubbing shyster scumbags on the face of this planet, there is perhaps none more loathsome than [NAME REDACTED], a human haircut with plastic baseball-size teeth who has made a fortune selling the appalling only-in-America idea that terrestrial greed is actually a form of Christian devotion.

Answer HERE.

[UPDATE: It wasn't the relatively objective Prof. Silk who uttered the quote, but Rolling Stone's Matt Taibi. Mark sets me straight.]

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Doug and I pulled out of Bend, Oregon at about 10:30pm on Tuesday night, following the final show of the West Coast leg of the tour. Over the next 42 hours, we drove, slept, ate like crap, and saw the wide-open expanses of our country that make up Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota.

The most visually stunning part of the drive was surely on Wednesday afternoon and evening, when we skirted the western and northern boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. And I'd place the Badlands of North Dakota in second place.

On Thursday morning, somewhere in western Montana, we put "coffee" into our Garmin Nuvi GPS, and it showed us Serendipity Coffee House in Dickinson, North Dakota, 56.6 miles ahead. (When you're driving 1,800 miles, 56.6 miles does not seem very long to wait for a decent cup of coffee.)

We pulled into Dickinson around 11:30 and dragged our sorry selves into Serendipity. And there, on the counter was Thursday's issue of the Bismarck Tribune with a large headline reading, 'Emerging Ministry.' What followed was a feature article on Prairie Table Ministries, started by Lutheran pastor, Scott Frederickson.

When I showed the article to Doug, as he emerged from the bathroom, he almost fell over.

We caught up with Scott by phone later in the day, and he and Doug had a nice chat.

And I could only think, That's the most appropriately named coffee shop I've ever heard of.

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Earlier this week, Bruce Reyes-Chow was elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA). This is great news, for various reasons. First of all, Bruce is a great guy and I count him as a friend (even a real friend, not just a Facebook friend!). There's been a lot made (at least in Presby circles) that Bruce was unique among the four candidates for several reasons: he was the only non-white, the only one not to wear a tie, and the youngest.

And, the word "emergent" has been thrown around a lot, too.

Bruce is, indeed, emergent. He pastors a church that he planted in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, a church that he planted. He's a part of the Emergent Village cohort there, and he affiliates with Presbymergent. I had the pleasure of speaking at an emergent event with him at his church last year.

Bruce offers great promise to the PC(USA) in his two-year term - and, let it be said, the PC(SUA) has been about the most interested in emergent ideas of any denomination. Bruce will push the organization in a missional direction, he'll open doors for younger people, and he's just got a great, warm, and inviting personality. On our West Coast leg of the Roadshow, younger Presbyterians repeatedly told us how excited they are about Bruce's election. Bruce is to the PC(USA) what Tiger Woods was to golf and Barack Obama is to politics.

But here's my big caveat: the PC(USA) is a huge, hegemonic, and possibly intractable bureaucracy. Bureaucracies are really excellent at only one thing: self-sustenance. They mitigate against significant change and they chew up and spit out entrepreneurs. Bruce may be able to provoke a two percent change, or even a five percent change, in his two year term, but will that be enough? And who will succeed him? Will the next moderator continue Bruce's agenda?

All this, of course, remains to be seen. Regardless, I'm looking forward with great anticipation to see what Bruce can accomplish.

Darrin at Precipice Magazine says, "After some sweet hymn-singin' from the older clan, their 21st century offspring each took a turn on stage, either to read from their books, or to shed light on the context that gave inspiration for their writing. Doug Pagitt shared his (quickly becoming classic) experience of the 1980's truth train, with its engine of fact, carriage of faith, and its functionally-pointless caboose of feelings/circumstances... Tony talked about his experience with a conservative evangelical campus ministry from his time at Dartmouth, when he was cast off under accusations of an unteachable spirit. And Mark shared thoughts on the compassion of Jesus and how it had led him and others to seek out community faith experiments in the here and now." READ MORE

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From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

It's not often that you can go out for an evening and enjoy book readings, musical theater and a spiritual message - all in the same place. But that's exactly what happened for those who showed up for "The Church Basement Roadshow: A Rollin' Gospel Revival" Sunday night at Christ Lutheran Church in Pacific Beach. READ MORE...

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Pomomusings says, "In addition to simply being a time of book promotions and craziness and zany antics (all of which will keep you laughing), there are moments of beautiful poetry, autobiographical reflections and being challenged theologically. Doug shares about pursuing...

SEE THE RIGHT SIDEBAR FOR INFO AND TOUR DATES Julie flew in to SFO last night and joined us halfway through the show. We had a great night at the Inn, including a midnight burrito on the streets of the...

We had a great time in the 'burbs of Sacramento last night in a bright, gleaming new church on a hill. After a beverage in the parking lot with some of our volunteers, we pulled out the RV for the...

(See right sidebar for info and tour dates) Three forty-year-old guys in an RV all summer, pretending to be revival preachers from a century ago. Sounds unlikely? Well, it is. And just about every night, sometime during the show, I...

Click here for Info and Tour Dates We received this nice note from one of our opening weekend hosts: A quick note to say how thankful we are that you rolled through our town. The Spirits fires been a blown'...

The 40" Country Coach Tribute 260 that we're driving is not our own, nor are we renting it. It is owned by a longtime friend and all-around great guy, Michael Toy. Michael is also a sporadic blogger, and he's...

View the Tour Schedule Here On Saturday, after we groggily got up in the RV and packed everything up in Santa Monica, we drove into LA and lunched with our friends at IKAR Synagogue. Sharon Brous, the rabbi at IKAR...

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I'm busy returning emails and neck-deep in last-minute planning for the Roadshow, and, in the background, I'm watching Scott McClellan perform his umpteenth interview about his book, What Happened. And I wondered, what has happened to him in the gauntlet...

Against all odds, a long lost recording of the Ben Johnson Boys, which included The Professor, the Preacher, and Big Brother, has just surfaced. Here it is!!!...

They're available HERE....