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Jared Witt l May 17, 2018 This is based on a real conversation that I had a while back, though I've frequently inserted what I would've said if not for kindness. If I were this condescending in real life, everybody would lose, no matter how right a side. Nonetheless, there is something strangely cathartic about reviewing such exchanges in safe anonymity. The name of my conversation partner has been changed. Btw, avoid conversations like these if at all possible.
Smitty (S): All of scripture was intended to be read literally. Anything else is a cop out that people use to avoid any commands that they just don’t feel like following. Me (J): Sucks for your eyeballs. S: What? J: Sucks for your eyeballs. Maybe you can donate them to science? S: What are you talking about? Jared Witt l May 10, 2018 My soul needs a biergarten.
It's a national health emergency in my country. Loneliness is epidemic. I mean that. Literally and officially: epidemic! I’m being neither figurative nor hyperbolic. Vivek Murthy, the former United States surgeon general, has written that loneliness and social isolation are “associated with a reduction in life span similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.” Even Britain has recently appointed it’s first “Minister for Loneliness.” Jared Witt l May 3, 2018 Quick note: you don’t have to be a soccer fan to read this theology blog. Fans of soap operas, rap beefs, or any of the “Real Housewives” shows will enjoy as well.
It’s just, how does anyone talk about Hebrews 4 without first talking about what’s going on in English football right now. I certainly can’t. Arsene Wenger has been the manager of Arsenal Football Club for almost 22 years, an institution of the game as both player and coach. Last weekend, either by choice or by "choice," he announced his retirement. 22! That’s 132 in Premier League years. Bear in mind, we’re speaking of a league where it’s not unheard of for a team to see three managers in a single season. If you’re wondering, the second longest active tenure in any of the English professional leagues is Sean Dyche of Burnley at 5 years. The record for shortest reign in the modern era is Les Reed, who cleaned out his desk just 40 days after setting it up with Charlton Athletic. Jared Witt l April 27, 2018 The epistle of First John is deceptive. It lulls you into a false sense of security with some very beige sentences. If you're not paying attention, it might even lead you to believe that he is just talking about the same stodgy old platitudes that you would expect of, say, an aging Evangelical tv preacher or one of those self-styled, pan-denominational aunts, who never seem to tire of generic moralisms and conservative protestant party lines.
Example A: “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him.” (K, great. But how do you define sin and how do we know when we’ve been born of God? What happens if I'm born of God, and it takes for a bit, but then I sin a couple times?) Jared Witt l April 20, 2018 For almost as long as humans have been a thing, until just the last several decades, the vast majority of the world’s population never got to travel.
That fact always strikes me as almost offensively unjust whenever it occurs to me. Even in the era of great marine explorations and colonialism, some rich people, military men, sailors, and a handful of oddball criminals and adventurists might have a couple great excursions in their lifetime, but even among that very small minority, the idea of seeing multiple exotic locations for no reason but to see them was rare if not mythological (to say nothing of slavery, but I didn't want to include that in a list of people getting to "see the world"). Even today, it is very much a privilege and a luxury. Jared Witt l March 31, 2018 I’m not wired to be a very religious person.
I say that knowing that not everyone will understand what I mean by it, and the ones who get me right away are likely wired in the same way. When I first went to seminary in 2008, I was sort of surprised that there were pockets of otherwise normal, healthy people who were really into the whole bit. And whether it be the featureless praise songs or the plodding organ dirges, the Greek tattoo and pompadour haircut or the clergy collar and Great Clips haircut, the professional stage-lighting or the incense burning made no difference to me. This rendered the red-faced debates over "traditional" vs. "contemporary" worship somewhat humorous, seeing as I was what you might call a neutral third party. Without knocking any of it, for me, it all just kind of lumped together as so many different shades of generically religious shtick. I accepted that certain types were just more inclined toward that whole thing than others. One barrier to entry for me was it all seemed so horribly made up. I couldn’t get over the feeling, “Wait, so you’re telling me some guy just started lighting that candle and this time a while back, and so now we all have to do it?” Jared Witt l March 22, 2018 One sees it in every farmer’s market, in every seasonally sourced restaurant, in every documentary about human rights in the clothing industry, in every Netflix show on the sustainable food movement (my favorite is Chef's Table). There is a deep desire, that is surfacing in communities all across the country, to re-humanize the things that we buy. And we’re starting at the most basic level: with the things we put on and put into our bodies.
It’s not like we all got together and planned this. There was no conference where grass-fed beef farmers in Wisconsin got together with “buy local” activists in so-Cal and said, “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do.” In fact, none of us who are a part of whatever this is can even fully say what binds us together or what the movement is called. Some of us have very high-minded ecological concerns. Some of us, just a gut yearning to live in a tastier and less artificial way. None of us even fully sticks to our ideals a hundred percent of the time (for my part, I can’t seem to quit the cheaply made queso sauce from the tex mex place near my house). But we know it when we see it. We can sense when a dish we’re eating was seasoned with a little bit of love. And we recognize each other from across the room. Jared Witt l March 15, 2018 Consider for a moment this well known line from the United States' Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” As kids, most of us were probably taught in school that the founding documents of our nation—the Constitution, the Declaration, the Bill of Rights, that preamble that we all had to memorize before knowing exactly what a preamble is—were something like the boundaries beyond which power and law in our country must never stray. Jared Witt l March 8, 2018 Anthony de Mello (1931-1987) was an Indian Jesuit priest, who became well known for writing pithy parables and koans, which drew from his deep engagement with both eastern and western spiritual traditions.
One of my favorites is this: “After many years of labor an inventor discovered the art of making fire. He took his tools to the snow-clad northern regions and initiated a tribe into the art—and the advantages—of making fire. The people became so absorbed in this novelty that it did not occur to them to thank the inventor, who one day quietly slipped away. Being one of those rare human beings…he had no desire to be remembered or revered; all he sought was the satisfaction of knowing that someone had benefited from his discovery. Jared Witt l March 1, 2018 You hear it constantly...
“Oh, these days you have to protect yourself…” “Anymore, you can’t be too careful…” “When we were kids we used to…nowadays, you wouldn't even think of letting…” …this gnawing assumption, everywhere present but scarcely ever analyzed, that the world is somehow more dangerous and the people less trustworthy now than back in the “good ol’ days.” This is just a straight up devil's lie. |
Mashing in.On how Castle Church is stirring up a movement from a brewery in Florida. Archives
July 2018
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