{"id":10246,"date":"2016-11-10T23:24:29","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T07:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=10246"},"modified":"2016-11-10T23:24:29","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T07:24:29","slug":"we-need-a-new-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/we-need-a-new-theology\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need A New Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This was the third time in my schooling that I have read, <em>\u201cWho Needs Theology?\u201d<\/em> by Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson. I love this book. Every time I read it I come away with something fresh about the way I look at \u201cdoing theology.\u201d This time was no exception.<\/p>\n<p>I always appreciate the authors\u2019 assertion that we are all theologians, but this time I was struck by their idea that \u201cnot all theologies are equal\u201d (22-35). These levels of theology are really helpful in explaining why I do what I do (study theology and leadership full-time) and why others, well, don\u2019t. One is not better than the other. I work on the stuff that lay theologians and ministerial theologians use to study. I guess, according to Grenz and Olson, that makes me a professional theologian (32). I feel like my job is to study and write and teach people to study and write and teach. I think that is a pretty great job, especially as a part of my personal calling to tell people that sometimes \u201cbad is better\u201d (but that\u2019s for another post).<\/p>\n<p>I thought I had a lot to say about this chapter in the book until I wound my way toward the end and found something I highlighted and dated the first time I read this book in 2003: \u201cA Christian is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God. Good theology fosters this in us.\u201d Wait, good theology is what helps us live a life that makes it easier for our neighbors to believe in God? Well if so many of us are doing theology at the ministerial and professional level, then why are so many people so disinterested in believing in God, much less knowing God intimately?<\/p>\n<p>You know I couldn\u2019t write a post this week without talking about the election, right? To say I\u2019m struggling with the outcome would be a massive understatement. I\u2019ve never experienced an election like this before. I\u2019m used to people being disappointed and angry when their candidate loses, this time is different. On Wednesday, I did very little besides cry and communicate with people who are scared, angry, and or ready to quit. I cried because people I love are afraid for their well-being and their lives. These are STRONG people who have been fighting prejudices and biases their whole lives, but they aren\u2019t sure they can fight this. Tonight, a queer friend told me that the little hope she had left is gone. She wants nothing to do with the church or God. Another friend told me that her child came home from school and asked why God hates Muslims. Apparently somebody told him that the \u201cChristmas boxes guy\u201d is friends with Trump and God told him Muslims are bad. I bet you all have stories that follow this same thread if you are friends with non-white people, Muslims, LGBTQ people, or immigrants. This may not be our theology, but it IS a theology being represented across this nation.<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks ago, I was talking with a woman who told me that she is tired of Christians being persecuted and tired of people turning their backs on the church. I told her I don\u2019t really attend church right now because I am still trying to get over some trauma I experienced in churches. I asked her how she saw persecution happening and she gave me a list of discomforts that don\u2019t really amount to persecution but are more a loss of privilege. As I sat here on Wednesday reading triumphant posts from some of my friends (some of the 80% of white evangelicals) who voted for Trump, I realized that, for many of them, their joy is based on the hope that they will get their privilege back. They talk of returning to prosperity, prayer in schools, and having their tax dollars go to educational choice. They talk of protecting innocent unborn babies and not having to spend so much on insurance. They talk of legislating morality and they believe God is blessing these hopes through this election. This is such a stark contrast to those who are making contingency plans should they have no insurance or lose the government aid that helps them feed their children, or who are worried their immigration papers will be revoked, or who are walking their children to school this week because the taunts that \u201cTrump is gonna send you back where you belong\u201d are constant and loud. They are hoping God is still listening to them.<\/p>\n<p>Something is wrong with our theology. As evangelicals, we used to be the voice of hope. We shared the good news of the present and coming Kingdom. We were the ones who built soup kitchens and worked to teach children how to read. We championed the orphans and the widows and offered refuge to the oppressed. What happened to us? When did we stop living in such a way that made it easy for our neighbors to believe in God?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was the third time in my schooling that I have read, \u201cWho Needs Theology?\u201d by Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson. I love this book. Every time I read it I come away with something fresh about the way I look at \u201cdoing theology.\u201d This time was no exception. I always appreciate the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[534,128],"class_list":["post-10246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grenz-olson","tag-theology","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}