CLICK ABOVE FOR THIS WEEK'S GRACETALK MESSAGE


The Episcopal Bishop and writer John Shelby Spong has called Philip's theology "warm, gentle, profound, and moving."

Upcoming Appearances:

Dec. 11 Oak Hill Mansion
            Sunnyside Guild Town Hall
            5801 East 116th St.
            Carmel, Indiana

Jan. 30 First Christian Church
 &    31 of Naples
            1789 Mandarin Rd.
            Naples, FL

    See Complete Schedule      
             

At a recent speech, the woman introducing me used the word iconoclast.  It had been awhile since I'd heard that word, so when I got home I looked it up in my dictionary to discover what the woman thought of me.  Iconoclast:  1.) one who destroys religious images or opposes their veneration 2.) one who attacks settled beliefs or institutions.

I don't recall ever destroying a religious image, so I'm assuming she was referring to the second description.  I do enjoy dismantling settled beliefs, not for the sake of wanton destruction, but for the sake of building something more helpful and beautiful in their place.

For too long, American Christianity has been poisoned by a narrowness of mind and spirit, demanding we believe the implausible, affirm the absurd, and despise the different.  Thoughtful people are leaving the Church in droves, unwilling to diminish their lives or the lives of others for the sake of faith.

This website is my ongoing effort to build a Christianity we can live with - a Christianity that brings out the best in us, not the worst; a Christianity at home with people of other faiths; a Christianity grateful for scientific knowledge; a Christianity rooted in God's grace, and informed by the example of Jesus.  It is the Christianity many of us have longed for, but haven't found.  Perhaps it's time we looked somewhere else.  GraceTalks might be just the place to start.

The focus of GraceTalks will be wide-ranging, from peace to politics, to Biblical interpretation, to the role of Christianity in the wider world.  If you're an iconoclast, or leaning that way, I invite you to join me in building a new kind of Christianity, where love counts more than rules, and reason more than fear.  Enjoy this website, read and spread its message, change yourself, then change our world.

~Philip