Rev. Carson Hollis

When Israel and America claim that this war is God’s will, remember that Jesus said that peacemakers are the children of God, not the warmongers.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei killed, senior Israeli official says Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who turned the country into a powerful anti-U.S. force and extended its military influence across the Middle East while crushing repeated domestic unrest,...

The Ayatollah is dead.

I’m asking because I reacted to a post about Rev. Adam Hamilton running for office and someone replied to me with, “Yes—but he’s a Methodist,” implying that my view that Church and state should be separated wasn’t necessarily the position of his tradition.

For those of you in the more magisterial, state-sponsored churches: if you believe in the separation of Church and state, how do you reconcile that with your tradition’s historic posture? Thinking, as an example, of Anglicanism’s historic wed to British imperialism, the Catholic state churches, etc.

“[Theology] that claims to be Christian hearkens the voices of the vulnerable, broken, and downtrodden, because they claimed Jesus and Jesus claimed them.”

—Dr. David H. Jensen, _Graced Vulnerability: A Theology of Childhood_

open the door of your love

It’s so BORING. It’s like unseasoned chicken.

That’s how I feel about the ESV. Thing makes me feel so icky.

The KJV 💕💕💕💕💕

The Bible of my Mawmaw and her Crisco anointing oil!

As for my household, the hubs and I are huge fans of the NIV (well, I use the TNIV mostly for personal devotions; he uses the NIV2011). I use the CEB for youth ministry. And that’s okay!

I’m gonna need you to take a deep breath and hold my hand when I tell you this, Mainline Protestant beloveds: it is okay to read, use, and like translations other than the NRSV/NRSVUE.

“US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee argued that Israel has a biblical right to the land stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers, saying, ‘It would be fine if they (Israel) took it all,’ on a podcast released Friday.”

⚓️

“The Christological importance of Jesus Christ must be found in his Blackness.” —Rev. Dr. James H. Cone, _A Black Theology of Liberation, Twentieth Anniversary Edition_ (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1990): 120

What Wondrous Love has been my favorite hymn for easily fifteen years at this point and nothing burns me up more than when people mess with its lyrics.

The chief offender of this is the version in the Episcopal Church’s hymnal. It’s literally atrocious.

When I was sinking down
Beneath God’s righteous frown
Christ laid aside his crown

For my soul

As an ordained minister of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: I invite you, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word.

Blessed Ash Wednesday, my friends. May this holy day—and this holy season of Lent—be filled with introspection, repentance, and grace. Lots and lots of grace. Grace enough to carry us through these forty days and into the glorious mysteries of Easter.

⚓️

May your Ash Wednesday be blessed, beloveds.

Same energy as Christoph Froschauer serving sausages to his poor and tired workers during Lent because Scripture does not even teach the concept of Lent. Zwingli’s 1522 sermonic defense of Froschauer is infamously known as the Affair of the Sausages.

Something tells me that if my Appalachian Scotch-Irish ancestors heard they were lumped in with the English, they’d be infuriated.

Have a blessed Transfiguration Sunday!

“Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his exodus, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” —Luke 9:30-31

📸: Mt Tabor, where the Lord transfigured. Photo taken by me.

Happy Valentine’s Day, theo-nerds!

I just finished this book and I must say it was quite good. Some of Dr. Tanner’s arguments felt a bit overdrawn, but I think the main thesis is quite strong: that modern queerphobia has ancient roots in wealth inequality.

Amazing.