God is Finished with Detroit

At last! Another installment of the evangelical art and kitch series!  Today I came across the photographs of freelance writer and artist James D. Griffioen.  Griffioen has an excellent spread on Detroit, the ultimate urban wasteland-turned-Arcadia.
I focus on the retro bumper sticker:  “Be Patient:  God is not Done Yet.”  I’ve seen many bad evangelical bumper [...]

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The Great I AM

After a long sabbatical, the evangelical art critic is back!  Plans are brewing for a full-scale analysis of evangelical kitsch.  But for now, I’ve been thinking about the scene in Exodus 3, where YHWH tells Moses that he must go to Pharaoh and demand to him that he let the Israelites go from bondage to [...]

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The Word of God in the Age of the Toyota Prius

*Special thanks to Stephen Greenblatt, whose clever palimpsest of Walter Benjamin may be the best title formula ever.
It’s time to discard your old Bible and purchase the new HarperCollins Green Bible.  That’s right, the Bible, much like just about everything else in our culture these days, is going green.  It has gone green.  No wait, that’s [...]

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Sarah Palin and Reasons Why Churches Should Not Have Tax Exempt Status

In the days since Sarah Palin emerged as the Republican VP candidate, droves of artifacts from her past have surfaced.  Apparently she’s a former beauty pageant contestant, sportscaster, PTA supporter, small town mayor, avowed hockey mom, and (unfortunately) a member of an Assemblies of God church.
A video from Wasilla Assembly of God in Alaska that [...]

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Evangelical Pastoral Bliss

In the age of Adobe Photoshop, artists and entrepreneurs can make the most pedestrian of connections between faith, feedom, politics, and God’s sovereign plan, all the well-worn motifs of evangelical devotional art. Consider the spate of pastoral panaceas that surfaced just after the September 11, 2001 attacks on America’s freedom. Each of these [...]

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Soldiers for Christ After All?

Like many people, I am saddened to hear of the recent shooting at Colorado Springs’ New Life Church. New Life has been in the headlines off an on for at least two years. It’s the church of Ted Haggard, former President of the National Association of Evangelicals and former pastor of the church who took [...]

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The End…Is Near: Don Thompson’s Apocalyptic Nightmare

If it seems like this blog is plowing along, that’s because it is. It’s the end of the semester, and I’m in an apocalyptic mood, not because I have a bunch of term papers due, but because I’m teaching my least favorite book of the New Testament, the Revelation. One member of my Sunday School [...]

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Central Christian Church in the Wake of Brad Fletcher

This post has been deleted… See the above post for an explanation of why.

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Open Forum: What Was Paul’s ‘Thorn in his Flesh?’

In II Corinthians, Paul speaks of a mysterious ‘thorn’ in his flesh:
“Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, taht it would leave [...]

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Happy Trails, Nickel Creek

Has anyone else noticed that Nickel Creek is breaking up (at least for now)?  I probably wouldn’t have noticed if Nickel Creek’s “Farewell (For Now)” Tour weren’t making a stop at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center, which I bike past every morning on the way to work.  According to the band members, Nickel Creek [...]

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