Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The "Really" File... (God's "B....?")

Pray she finds truth
"AUSTIN — Nadia Bolz-Weber bounds into the University United Methodist Church sanctuary like a superhero....plastered with tattoos, her arms are sculpted by competitive weightlifting and, to show it all off, this pastor is wearing a tight tank top and jeans.
To Bolz-Weber’s bafflement, this is now her congregation: mainstream America.
These are the people who put her memoir near the top of the New York Times bestseller list the week it came out in September. They are the ones who follow her every tweet and Facebook post by the thousands, and who have made the Lutheran minister a budding star for the liberal Christian set.
She’s a tatted-up, foul-mouthed champion to people sick of being belittled as not Christian enough for the right or too Jesus-y for the left." WashingtonPost

"In the book, she likens herself to "a Lutheran Nikita," the fictional teenaged drug addict whose death was faked by the government so she could do their dirty work. "I was allowed not to die in exchange for working for God," Bolz-Weber writes, "I'd have to become God's b****."
"The book is vulnerable, to have all these stories about myself and these truths about myself out there. It's not like the book is going to impress anyone—nobody's going to say, 'Wow, Nadia Bolz-
From the "Really" File
Weber is a f*****g spiritual giant.'

I only preach from my scars, not my wounds. I don't mind putting my stuff out there....A lot of preachers from previous generations were taught not to talk about themselves in sermons because "it's not about you." Well, nobody wants to hear about your addiction to internet pornography from the pulpit because that makes them uncomfortable in a way that's not going to illuminate the gospel, it's only going to point to you. I'm very careful about that.
When I am attacked from the liberal flank it bothers me. But, when I'm attacked from the conservative side, that's just jet fuel. I feel like I can keep going for another couple of months. I have such a defiant personality that if you're going to take the time to put it out there, I'm going to take the time to convert it into jet fuel for myself. If my detractors have a problem with what I'm doing, they should shut the f**k up." USCannenberg

So now, we enter a phase in Christendom, where the shepherd of the flock justifies "filthy communication" from their lips in His service? Slipping up & making a mistake is one thing- doing it on purpose so as to gain a following & sell books is something else.
A "Godless" Christianity.....

But now you must put them all away:
anger, wrath, malice, slander,
and obscene talk from your mouth.
Colossians 3:8 ESV
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.
Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them
a great number of teachers to say
what their itching ears want to hear.
2 Timothy 4:3 NIV
P.S. - "The more I studied the gospels the more intrigued I was by Mary Magdalene and how she seemed to always be around. I called her "the patron saint of just showing up," because she's always there.... I love that text in John 20 where she doesn't recognize him. She thinks he's the gardener—which I suspect she never lived down. I'm sure her friends, for the rest of her life, when they'd be drinking, they'd be like, "Hey, Mary, remember when you thought Jesus was a gardener?"
USCannenberg

 REALLY?