In the strictest biological terms, sex is dichotomous (a person is either male or female), but this does not reflect the lived reality of intersex people: You can be born appearing female but have a 5-alpha reductase deficiency and grow a penis at age 12. Medically, this condition is known as 5-alpha Reductase Deficiency. You can be born legally male with an X and a Y chromosome, but your body is insensitive to androgens, and you appear female. Androgen... Read more
There are few things more tribal than our political affiliations. Groupthink and confirmation bias thrive in politically like-minded groups, which can blind us to anything that contradicts our existing views. New information can be overlooked, false assertions accepted without any checks on their validity, and we can isolate ourselves from discomfort by only getting our news from sources we already agree with. I want to reach out to a particular group of believers who are coming under enormous pressure... Read more
The recent US election has left many Progressive believers with a difficult choice. For most of us, the hope of making peace is always a draw, and wherever possible, this is the best choice. But what if it’s not the right time to make peace? What if doing so is far more harmful than standing up for the oppressed? Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a... Read more
As a Progressive Christian, I often perceive a pressure to ‘progress’ in all the ways others are, but why would I do that? One of the key drivers for becoming progressive in the first place was to escape group-think, and I won’t allow myself to be bound to a replacement set of dogma which can’t be questioned or divided up. In the run up to Christmas, I see a lot of folk discounting the virgin birth as if it... Read more
In light of the upcoming election, there has been a heated debate around the topic of Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism is the deliberate enforcement of religious beliefs through legislation. For example, if a law was passed in which every citizen of a country had to give 10% of their income to a church, that would be an expression of Christian Nationalism. The most obvious example in play today is the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which... Read more
Mysticism is often misunderstood but is in fact very simple, whatever faith a person follows – a mystical believer is one who emphasises the experience of the divine. There are mystics in every faith but, as a Christian, my mystical experience is of Jesus. My faith journey began with a divine encounter and over the years, bathing in the divine presence became the heart and soul of my practice. Despite the satisfaction of spiritual experience, I still felt like... Read more
Deconstruction is unavoidable for the thinking believer, but it can also be hazardous. As someone who has undergone both deconstruction and reconstruction, I want to offer advice on how to do it in a way that protects both wellbeing and aspects of faith that are precious. There is much that needs to be challenged, but in my experience, we can do that without losing our closeness to Jesus or our faith in his love. The key, for me, has been... Read more
I recently asked friends on social media what they believe about ‘original sin’ and got a ton of different answers. Admittedly, many of my friends are deconstructing their faith, so it’s no surprise that opinions vary, but the breadth of the variety revealed how much uncertainty there is around this topic. For the sake of clarity, the doctrine of original sin was developed by Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century. Even for Evangelicals, this should mark it as... Read more
In military terms, surrender is failure – the vanquished power bowing to their vanquisher – but surrender can also mean to yield, like one dancer to another, like one lover to another. It is this lover’s surrender that we offer to God. We are not vanquished; we yield to his love. Surrendering to God doesn’t happen overnight, and today I want to lay out some key steps in moving from rigidity to fluidity, and from defensiveness to trust. Step... Read more
Does God demand that we worship him? Is it a requirement for a believer? Wouldn’t a God who seeks to be worshipped be somehow incomplete? Why would the perfect being need anything from us? For me, the answer is simple; he doesn’t. Worship isn’t something God demands as an offering. He doesn’t sit around, sunning himself in the glow of our adoration. In fact, all my experiences of heartfelt, Spirit-led worship have demonstrated the opposite – rather than focusing on... Read more
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