Tony Jones: January 2009 Archives

Is Ted Haggard gay or straight?  Neither.  Few of us are.  Most of us, instead, are on a spectrum between the two, as Becky knight explains.  Money Quote:

What was missing from the conversation was the awareness that sexual orientation exists on a spectrum. Between the polarizing categories of "gay" and "straight," there is a diversity of experiences and orientations. Intuitively, I think we understand this, yet our culture loves to categorize people into easily-definable boxes.

I'll take a break on substantive posts on this topic over the weekend, and launch back in by tackling Romans on Monday.  (It is interesting how many commenters on the last post were unwilling to deal with Genesis on its own merits but instead jumped straight to Paul. Also interesting how many already assume how I'll deal with Paul when, in all honesty, I don't know how I'll deal with Paul.)

I'll have a post on Paul up on Monday morning, just in time for me to go on Todd Friel's Wretched Radio program.  That should be a laugh riot.

In the meantime, let me direct you to Scot McKnight's lengthy interaction with Alan Jacobs's cultural history of Original Sin.  That should make for some good weekend reading.

Last night, I watched the HBO documentary, The Trials of Ted Haggard, and then caught the second half of Ted and Gayle Haggard's appearance on Larry King Live.

I went in quite skeptically.  I know a couple persons who knew/know Ted, and they describe him as something of a meglomaniac.  No surprise, Alexandra Pelosi paints Ted as a sympathetic figure.  In fact, using footage from her earlier documentary that features Haggard, it's clear that she has a real affection for him.  Through the doc and the LKL appearance, I couldn't really get a handle on Ted.  He's pretty circumspect on many issues; for instance, he just wouldn't answer the question when a caller from Orlando who described himself as a gay Christian man asked Ted about the possibilities of being a gay Christian. Ted's response was basically: read your Bible and get into a good church.  Ted obviously doesn't feel the authority to judge anyone right now, which is surely smart on his part.

What stunned me, both in the doc and more acutely on LKL, was Gayle Haggard.  Either she is one of the finest actors I've ever seen, or she is one of the most spiritually and psychologically healthy persons on this planet.  She answered every question with composure.  She's not the stand-by-your-man-no-matter-what, mindless, conservative evangelical woman that some have portrayed her to be.  Nor is she the unkempt, sexually uninterested wife that Mark Driscoll infamously insinuated when the scandal broke (of course, Mark's orginal post is gone, but the Internet never forgets!).

She is, instead, thoughtful, kind, gracious, and forgiving.  She has stuck with Ted through a truly horrific experience.  She has accepted his remorse and granted him forgiveness.  And, as a cherry on top, the Haggard's eldest son, Marcus, joined them for the last bit on LKL and he was even more composed than Gayle.  This is a truly extraordinary family...

...Or, they are positioning themselves for a new career.  I've been told by one insider that the Haggards, basically broke, are hoping to establish an income by writing and speaking about their trials.  Indeed, at the end of LKL, both Gayle and Ted said several times that they want to "communicate their story."  Fishing for a book deal? Speaking gigs? A reality TV show?  Very possibly.  So, my cynical side has to acknowledge the possibility that Gayle's (and Ted's and Marcus's) grace and composure is actually a patina, covering a family in great distress trying to dig themselves out of a massive financial hole.

I suppose time will tell.
 

Why does a close examination of the doctrine of Original Sin matter? Because it is the "foundation" upon which much other Western doctrine is based. Scott M, take it away: Hmmm. Part of the problem may be that we have...

Gallup has a new map up, rating each state by religiosity.  Respondents answered whether religion is an important part of their lives, and the map reinforces some of the usual stereotypes about the religiosity of the Deep South and the...

My friend, Patton Dodd, has a piece up on Slate in advance of Alexandra Pelosi's HBO documentary, The Trials of Ted Haggard, premiering tonight.  Patton used to work for Haggard and New Life Church, primarily as a writer and editor,...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionLet me start with some throat-clearing.  At least one friend and not a few commenters were bothered by the fact that I wrote about my own intuition before I started reflection on the biblical passages at play. ...

Noah, a self-described conservative, makes a calm and helpful comment under Same Sex Marriage Blogalogue: Press Pause,To be really honest, the comment section makes me sad. It is sad to me that people become so ugly when discussions arise over...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionSome commenters are concerned that I'm setting up a straw man -- that is, I'm leaving the doctrine of Original Sin undefined so that I can then dispute an unformed doctrine.  So I will defer to the...

Scott M points out some of the most significant intellectual problems with the doctrine of Original Sin:There are many ways in which this peculiarly Western variation of Christian belief distorts the faith. I mentioned one, the fate of infants who...

Several of you have been dropping comments under other posts, asking why this much-pimped series petered out so quickly.  Well, here's the deal: Rod chose to stop the blogalogue very shortly after it started. Both of us were inundated by...

"Come Let Us Reason Together" is the governing document of a group attempting to bridge the chasm between evangelicals and political progressives.  I signed on, not because the document is a comprehensive statement of all ways that these two groups...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionWell, much to the chagrin of my biblicist commenters, I'm not going to start this series of reflections on Original Sin with the Bible, but with my own intuition.  (Don't read too much into this.  I will...

So many great comments under Original Sin: A Depraved Idea, so I'll just highlight Virgil's.  Do yourself a favor and go read the others.There is very little that is "traditional" about the doctrine of original sin, until we get to...

All of the Beliefnet blogs have been dropped from Google Reader because of some silliness with Feedburner.  If you, like me, are a Google Reader user, please resubscribe by clicking on this:http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/rss.xml...

In a move that I bet the Vatican wanted to happen with no media attention, Benedict  XVI un-excommunicated four ultra-conservative bishops over the weekend.  But it turns out that one of the bishops had recently gone on a radio program...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-Conclusion When I was growing up in a moderate, centrist church -- somewhere between mainline Christianity and evangelicalism -- Original Sin was a given.  I first learned about it in youth group, and we regularly talked about...

Here's the next installment of an on-going conversation with Mark Patrick, my spiritual director.Tony: Mark, I wonder if you're willing to tell us a bit about the last ten years of your life.  It seems like it's been quite a...

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."-George Bernard Shaw...

Do you like to read theology? And you've got a blog?  Then check this out from Tripp Fuller:I am helping to organize a series of conferences as part of a grant at school called Transforming Theology.  We will have a...

Mike Morrell got off his ROM long enough to serve up this beauty under Announcing Queermergent:Well, I'm coming in on this discussion late - which is probably merciful. I think that, before posting on such things, we need to do...

I'm in Louisville today, meeting with others who've won grants this year from the Louisville Institute (mine is to allow me to finish my dissertation, ahem).  Relfections to be written on the flight home tonight....

My dear friend, Carla, and her co-blogger Caryn over at TheMommyRevolution answer with a robust No!  Money Quote: It boarders on idolatry. Dave made a statement that troubles me to no end. It is just the kind of statement that sends...

Geez, I had no idea.  It's actually Interfaith Heroes Month, at least according to David Crumm, late of the Detroit Free Press and now the editor of ReadTheSpirit.com.  Today he asks one of my favorite persons in the world, Sheryl...

Billions of words have already been written and spoken yesterday and today regarding the inauguration, everything from the Justice Roberts oath flub to Michelle Obama's ball gown.  I've got opinions, of course, but nothing particularly new to say.  So, instead,...

As usual, lots and lots of mean-spirited commentary around GLBT issues here yesterday, but a couple of poignant comments stuck out under yesterday's Comment of the Day and Sunday's Announcing Queermergent. First, Kristi:done talking? done listening? i don't understand what...

Peter Rollins and Stephen Shields have begun a bit of a back-and-forth under the post, Ten Years of Emergent/ing.  Here's Pete's response to Stephen, and here's hoping they'll continue the conversation (here or elsewhere):Hey there Would love to chat, and...

I'm a regular commentator on Doug Pagitt's daily radio show, The Question. (Yes, I believe that is a velour shirt.) His show runs from 10-11am Central Time on Blogtalkradio, and I join him most Tuesdays from 10:30-11:00 to talk about...

Preson takes issue with my post, Announcing Queermergent, as did many others.  What's interesting is that I merely pointed out this new group, with no editorial comment.  Yet my even publicizing it raises the ire of many. I guess that...

Over the past several years, on my various blogs, I've pointed to or republished the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, written to the white clergymen of that city, to honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Here it is...

Well, there's a lot to choose from this weekend.  Several of the Methodist ministers who were at the contentious conference last week weighed in on What Happened in Missouri. Of course, it's disheartening to read on Susan Cox-Johnson's blog that...

Adele Sakler, whom I've known for a few years, has started yet another "hyphenated" group within the emergent network-of-networks.  She's calling it "Queermergent," and, as you might guess, it's focused on GLBTQ issues....

One of the theme's of BO's campaign for president that was most enthralling for me was the potential he holds to really bind our country together for the good of the whole.  Whether it be the massive investment into roads,...

Next Wave E-Zine has a ten year retrospective of the emergent church movement by Stephen Shields that is, as we would expect from Stephen, comprehensive and even-handed. Money Quote:And so the tenth anniversary of Next-Wave arrives at a critical moment...

Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" Priest: "No, not if you did not know." Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?"-Annie Dillard...

If so, Third Way, a think tank in Washington, D.C. might be a good place to start.  I have signed their "Come Let Us Reason Together Governing Statement."  If you are interested in civility in our cultural conversations about abortion,...

In the movie, Milk, there is a poignant scene in which Harvey Milk answers the phone and on the other end of the line is a wheelchair-bound boy who says that his family is abusing him because of his same...

Back when Patton Dodd asked initially asked me to consider blogging for Bnet, he wanted to play on the "Dispatches" subtitle of my book.  That is, he wanted to take advantage of my frequent travels to write about how the...

Bob is not going to be happy, but I'm posting robroy's response to my Rick Warren vs. Gene Robinson, and I'm doing so because I think, regardless of robroy's rudeness, it shows a particular perspective on why Gene Robinson (and...

God Spam has some suggestions for inauguration apparel....

I'm sitting in an airport, reading in the USA Today that it's now been two years since a commercial airline crash, the longest crash-free period in aviation history, and I'm watching on TV as rescuers fish passengers of a downed...

A while back, I mused at the exceptionally long news cycle of the story that BO had asked Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.  That story had a lot of legs, in the blogosphere and in the...

Dan dissents regarding the post, Is Mysticism Gnostic?:Tony writes: "In my Monday post, I mused that the "secret knowledge" vibe expounded by some conservative Christians opens them to the charge of gnosticism. Some commenters mentioned that the other primary characteristic...

Matt Cleaver, a seminary student who visited last Sunday, has a good take.  Money quote:I thought this would be a cool opportunity to see in real life all that I had been reading and hearing about, and it was honestly...

In my Monday post, I mused that the "secret knowledge" vibe expounded by some conservative Christians opens them to the charge of gnosticism.  Some commenters mentioned that the other primary characteristic of gnosticism is a strict, platonic dualism.  This, too,...

Darren King weighs in on the post, Are Conservatives the Real Gnostics?:Tony, I agree. And I've often thought about this in terms of how we handle parts of scripture - such as the epistles of Paul. Rather than seeing Paul...

One of my favorite dogs in the world, MOL's Jack, just completed his final duck hunt.  I'm missing Beaumont these days, so I'll share a Jack video to assuage the grief: In Search of Jack's Last Duck Part 3 from...

I've arrived on the shores of the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri, where I'll be addressing a couple hundred Methodist ministers over the next three days.  Updates forthcoming......

Mark Patrick is my spiritual director, though we don't act like a traditional director-directee pair.  I've had other spiritual directors, and Mark is different. For one thing, we usually meet at a cigar shop. He's been a pastor, therapist, and...

Eric Glover continues the discussion of the Trinity:First I just want to say that I'm not arguing for or against the traditional understanding of the trinity in this post, I just merely want to engage the applicability of the aforementioned...

More than once, my Google Reader has shot me a link to a conservative blogger who's accused me of gnosticism.  Here's one from a few years ago that makes that claim, and there have been several more since.Gnosticism is a...

Wow.  There was a slew of great comments from which to choose this weekend.  The best comment string, methinks, is under The Orthodoxy of Down Syndrome.  But the top comment goes to Steve D., who commented under Is the Trinity...

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."-Albert Einstein...

Last night I watched The Fog of War, in which Robert McNamera reconsiders his participation in LBJ's escalation of the Vietnam War by the addition of ground troops to the campaign of air bombing approved by JFK.  Of course, there's...

Garret asks a good question in regards to Who Decides Orthodoxy?Tony, Thanks for asking good questions and getting us to think. I deeply appreciate it. Maybe another part could be added on to your statement discussion and consensus on orthopraxis......

Several readers, when considering the Trinity, Mormonism, and orthodoxy, are wondering about the authority of Nicaea.Master Doyle:The two arguments I've heard most often to explain why Mormons aren't Christian are 1) they believe in extra-Biblical scriptures, namely the Book of...

Over at Experimental Theology, Richard Beck has responded to Keith DeRose's post, "Really Believing in Hell."Money Quote:Going back to Keith's post, my hunch is that hell is most terrifying for children in the Concrete Operations stage. In this stage children...

Yesterday I posted about the optionality of the Trinity.  A good debate ensued, which is exactly what I hoped.  And that brings me to my thought for the day: I think those of us committed to the social web will...

Seth R., a practicing Mormon, weighs in on the Trinity and, in particular, my chosen trinitarian formulation:Tony, it's interesting in the same article where you conclude that Mormons are not Christians, you admit that you yourself are a "Social Trinitarian"...

Scot had a nice post on blurbing last week.  My own endorsement requests have dropped significantly of late.  I guess "blogger" doesn't have as much cache as "national coordinator of Emergent Village" on the back cover.In general, I agree with...

After his much debated post, The Bible & Homosexuality: Enough with the Bible Already, Adam Walker-Cleaveland is now tackling Jack Roger's book, Jesus, The Bible, and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church chapter-by-chapter.(Rogers is a polarizing figure in the...

Over the holidays, my mother was attempting to explain Mormonism to a 14-year-old boy who lives with her and my dad.  He's got a Mormon friend and he was wondering about that faith, especially because he's in confirmation class this...

A fine dissent from Mike to my still-debated post, How I Went from There to Here: Same Sex Marriage Blogalogue:I think the conclusion from this is that you have "caved to the mushy inclusivity of pluralized nothingness" from the simple...

Rod, Happy New Year!  I'm glad that we've decided to get back into our blogalogue this month.  I know that lots and lots of readers want us to tackle the biblical evidence one way or another regarding same sex marriage. ...

Thanks to the brilliance of Jon White, TonyJ.net has undergone an overhaul.  Once I decided to blog here at Bnet, it became clear that my own domain would serve a significantly different purpose, so Jon and I have worked together...

My deep, deep thanks to my guest bloggers last week: Keith DeRose, Carla Barnhill, and Anthony Smith.  They may continue to post this week to run out the string on their thoughts.  And I hope to have them back in...