Religion Dispatches
…an advanced adept no bodily experiences can be legitimately identified as spiritual; and points out that Christians who have acknowledged the meditative role of body practices avoid the “exaggerations and partiality” of eastern methods, which are often recommended to those insufficiently prepared. These warnings reach far beyond the question of whether or not the Catholic is putting her or his soul in danger by embracing monistic ideas that confl…
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…ysical journey is only one level of the pilgrimage, which is at its core a spiritual journey. So going on tour with Grateful Dead is not just an exercise in community building and tribal identity, but more importantly, it is an opportunity for personal transformation and spiritual growth. Perhaps no song better represents the role of pilgrimage in the Grateful Dead experience than “Truckin’” from their classic 1970 album American Beauty. The song’…
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…romises. Promise #3 Integrity: A Promise Keeper is committed to practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity. Promise #4 Family: A Promise Keeper is committed to building strong marriages and families through love, protection and biblical values. Promise #5 Serving: A Promise Keeper understands that Jesus calls him to be His hands and feet, serving others with integrity. He purposely lifts up the leadership of the church and his nation…
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…ated in this book, but also the fact that his actions which arose from the spirit and biblical message burst through this preconception. Since that era, the images have grown more self-consciously intentional (hence the proliferation of Jesus images in art, across the internet, and elsewhere), and there has been as well a self-conscious repudiation of “white Jesus.” And yet Jesus often remains, as we argue in the text, “white without words,” meani…
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…s the time for a “Third Reconstruction” resonates with both my mind and my spirit. Such a kindling is rare in the age when identity politics rule the day. His righteous mind is un-bought and un-bossed—governed neither by corporate interest nor likes on Facebook or retweets on Twitter. I see him not as a singular prophet among the people, but in the spirit of Black Lives Matter, one out of the many who hope for a better America. Barber does not jus…
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…the locus of decision-making, albeit with flowery rhetoric about the Holy Spirit and some claim to local input. The process maintains a clear distinction between lay people and clerics, reinforces the myth that persons in religious congregations are not lay people, and leaves all the final decisions in papal hands. Some people have found it a useful framework for raising important questions—notably some Germans who have progressive views and the…
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…plained. “We’re at a moment in time where we can follow the leading of the spirit. … The Holy Spirit always enlarges our vision. It never narrows it. It never says some people are in and some people are out. It always says, ‘No, in fact the circle needs to be wider.’” The alternative begets a dark future, the bishop warns: “If the church of Jesus Christ, the body of Christ, can’t show that difference is not a bad thing, and it’s a sign of God’s di…
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…ecipice of the ultimate battle between good and evil came with Wikileaks’ “Spirit Dinner” tweet alleging that Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta was invited to a satanic “Spirit Dinner” where human blood, breast milk and semen would be included in the meal. Wikileaks, and the media response to this accusation, brought forward the conspiratorial link to Hillary Clinton working for Evil, and Donald Trump as the hero for Good. The linking of cons…
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…sible for the legalization of homosexuality in Texas. Left unchecked, this spiritual warfare isn’t likely to stay in the spiritual realm for long. Burden himself recently told his congregation that if believers “get really good at extending the Kingdom of God and taking cultural ground back [from] Satan, [it] might mean that we accidentally start a war.” At the time, Burden was participating in a church event with NAR leader Jim Hodges, who insurr…
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…the star of C. Peter Wagner began to ascend. Wagner honed his ideas about spiritual mapping, spiritual warfare, and “power encounter” while teaching alongside other “power encounter” teachers at Fuller Seminary like John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard denomination, and Charles Kraft, missiologist. He was good friends with the now-deceased Wimber. Wagner’s empire began to grow after he left the seminary in the early ’90s to establish a ministry i…
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