Tuesday, November 5, 2013

"Bolz-Weber’s liberal, foulmouthed articulation of Christianity speaks to fed-up believers"

"In her body and her theology, Bolz-Weber represents a new, muscular form of liberal Christianity, one that merges the passion and life-changing fervor of evangelicalism with the commitment to inclusiveness and social justice of mainline Protestantism. 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."
“You show us all your dirty laundry! It’s all out there!” the Rev. John Elford of the University United Methodist Church booms, as if he is introducing a rock star, leading the cheering crowd into an impassioned round of hymn-singing.

Bolz-Weber springs onstage to do a reading from her book, but first she addresses the language that’s about to be unleashed on the pulpit: “I don’t think church leaders should pretend to be something they’re not.”
The crowd erupts into applause.
Wapo's Michelle Boorstein

43 comments:

Icepick said...

I saw this via Drudge the other day. The shock for me was that she allegedly isn't a lesbian. (She has a husband.)

Methadras said...

Yawn. Wow, bitchy sermonizing for the disaffected bored parishoners. lulz.

Palladian said...

I hate people who boom and spring.

Palladian said...

Isn't it time for tattoos to be over?

chickelit said...

She looks hardcore. Are those mutton chops?

Palladian said...

Muscular liberal Christianity means ministers yelling at empty pews instead of whining at them.

Palladian said...

Mutton chops should never be muscular.

Palladian said...

Muscular liberal Christianity is like checking out a hairy-chested hunk in workboots and a hardhat and then hearing him lisp into his phone about nail polish.

Shouting Thomas said...

What really distinguishes United Methodists is that their potential parishioners are staying away in droves.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Yawn.

If I wanted that in a sermon, I would go to some comedy club.

test said...

There's little more disingenuous than someone telling you how your religion should effect your politics. I'm imagining a tent revival put on by ACORN.

ricpic said...

I'm IN YOUR FACE!!!

YoungHegelian said...

@Palladian,

You've earned your keep for the year with your comment @7:24.

Lydia said...

This is pretty good, though: “I never experience God in camping or trees or nature. I hate nature,” she told the Austin crowd as she paced the stage. “God invented takeout and duvets for a reason.”

YoungHegelian said...

After reading the article, while this woman isn't exactly my idea of a pastrix, I think that in her own way she's as subversive of the pieties of the religious left as she is of the religious right.

She really seems to understand that God's saving grace precedes all else, and that a church is much more than a social justice good deeds club.

Not my cup of holy water, but I can see her attraction.

Paddy O said...

I'm not a fan, but I'm not the market.

Here's the thing. It's about reaching into a crowd who have no interest whatsoever in anything anyone says about Christianity. They think they know it, they reject it.

It's about incarnation into a group. Of course it offends and turns us off. That's part of the intent.

We're in a post-Christian society filled with people inoculated from Christ by television preachers, Joel Osteens, Pat Robertsons, their own experiences.

Subcultures the Church doesn't reach, there's still a work of God in reaching them.

I'm neither liberal nor foul-mouthed. I don't like it even. I have a lot of disagreements. But the people they are reaching? They'd never listen to me.

And it's not traditionally liberal. There's talk of resurrection and living out the life of Christ. There's a message of hope and renewal, not idealism, real hope in the power of God.

Offending you all, me, is part of the point, because if it offends, its reaching people who wouldn't have any entry to listening to the Gospel.

I've never met Nadia Bolz-Weber, but I have met others in the movement she's part of. It's a real, genuine, deep, transformative passion for Jesus. Not a wishy-washy culturally baptized faith in its liberal or conservative forms.

I disagree with her conclusions on issues, and almost certainly don't fit her politics, but I know there's a shared desire for truth. Even as the New York Times wants to co-opt it for their own purposes.

john said...

Shouting Thomas said...
What really distinguishes United Methodists is that their potential parishioners are staying away in droves.


South America is where the Catholics are. Africa is where the Anglicans are. The south is where evangelical Christain strains flourish. Could she even preach in Africa, or in South or Latin America, or in our South? What would she say? Is the "universality" of her message limited to disaffected youth and (mostly upper middle class) liberal whites?

This isn't meant to be harsh on her, there is a huge Anglican schism based along similar lines. My Episcopal leanings are "so be it", as I have no wish to be aligned with either camp. Maybe, as YH said above, she is equally subversive to both. If so, then good for her.

Palladian said...

I'm sure she's fine. But the article is an irresistible target for japery.

Palladian said...

Her personal style makes the cross and collar look like fetish gear.

Unknown said...

Whatever it takes to get the liberals off Barack Obama, I'm down.

Unknown said...

She doesn't seem so bad.
The NY Times still sucks.


Paddy O said...

"the article is an irresistible target for japery."

Indeed! It's counterculture conformity. All the pastors do it. It used to be blue blazer, tan slacks, then jeans, t-shirt, and soul patch.

John, it's loosely connected to the Fresh Expressions movement in the Anglican church.

And I don't think she'd fit in an African context. That's not her audience. It's contextual missions.

Palladian said...

Indeed! It's counterculture conformity. All the pastors do it. It used to be blue blazer, tan slacks, then jeans, t-shirt, and soul patch.

There is (or was) a "hipster" church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn when I lived there.

I prefer my church services traditional.

Unknown said...

Paddy O - You wrote a book, I recall. Will you kindly plug it again. I have a new kindle and I'm looking for some reading.

chickelit said...

When I first read Drudge's headline, I thought of the preacher's sermon in "Cold Comfort Farm:" link

bagoh20 said...

“I don’t think church leaders should pretend to be something they’re not.”

It's usually the ones saying that who are doing it.

Freeman Hunt said...

I like it. Maybe not my style, but anything that reaches the unreached with the real Christian faith is okay by me.

Paddy O said...

April Apple, two books! :-) Here's the first.

And now the first is on Kindle too.

Palladian, hipster church is a great way of describing a lot of those kinds of churches. Hipsters need Jesus too. In fact, Jesus might be the only one who loves hipsters...

Aridog said...

April Apple ...both appear to be on Kindle: Second and First

A link by Patrick is messed up.

Unknown said...

Thanks!

Paddy O said...

My html-fu has failed me...

Thanks Aridog!

Michael Haz said...

I prefer my church services traditional.

Ditto. And in Latin.

MamaM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MamaM said...

I once heard someone say that my belief in Jesus makes them suspect I intellectually suck my thumb at night. But I cannot pretend, as much as sometimes I would like to, that I have not throughout my life experienced the redeeming , destabilizing love of a surprising God. Even when my mind protests, I still can't deny my experiences. This thing is real to me. Sometimes I experience God when someone speaks the truth to me, sometimes in the moments when I admit I was wrong, sometimes in the loving of someone unlovable, sometimes in reconciliation that feels like it comes from somewhere outside of myself, but almost always when I experience God it comes in the form of some kind of death and resurrection." from Pastrix, by N. Bolz-Weber

Thankfully, I don't need Latin to understand and appreciate what she is saying, as I too have experienced something I can't deny that feels like the "redeeming , destabilizing love of a surprising God."

I'm on a road trip, and stopped at a Barnes and Noble to pay the long dollar for her book. So far, I've not been disappointed. Her journey reads as real to me.

KCFleming said...

"A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all – and more amusing."
Screwtape

Leland said...

“I don’t think church leaders should pretend to be something they’re not.”

While I think that's a good comment to many other preachers, it would work on her just the same.

ndspinelli said...

I prefer my services in Tongues.

Unknown said...

The most popular church on the front range is an alternative church. Flatirons Community Church.

Eddie Izzard relates one of the reasons why traditional church-going/traditional services are dying. Those dreary hymns.

Hallelujah joyfully we knock-about.
@3:42 makes me laugh.

chickelit said...

I prefer my services in Tongues.

Bullshit. People know you'd prefer a decent plate of linguini.

"Feed men and then ask virtue of them"

Aridog said...

ndspinelli said...

I prefer my services in Tongues.

Sure nuff, and you can git some snake handlin' and cloggin' thrashin' about along wit it!

Or, just take the linguine with clam sauce.

Michael Haz said...

Ditto. And in Latin.

Try one of my favorite local churches....you can get Latin, Polish, and Spanish all in one service.

Aridog said...

As for Bolz-Weber ... I'd suggest he/she/it with the "I fuk 1/2%'er bikers" tattoos and a mouth to match, has forgotten that faith isn't about the preacher...on purpose I suspect.

MamaM said...

"A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all – and more amusing."

Is it the Latin or personal comfort that causes people to forget what went on before the good news of Jesus Christ and the Early Church was moderated?

I wonder what kind of "mouth to match" and tattoos the fisherman, prostitutes, con artists, Samaritans, demoniacs and he/she/its of Jesus' day might sport were they to find themselves and Jesus in today's culture?

Faith that "isn't about the preacher", doesn't disparage based on outer appearance alone.

Aridog said...

MamaM...the tattoo crack was my disgust, however the disparagement of the hipster it-lady has to do with her use of the pronoun "I" in the authoritative sense.

In short, who gives a shit what she/he/it thinks per se about how others relate to the Gospels, Torah, and Talmud.

In my youth we had Father Charles Edward Coughlin in my town who was equally self centered and just as batshit crazy. The raiments may change but the lunacy remains.