“What if we could imagine a world where a man hears a sermon on the Song of Songs and decides that his conscience will allow him to look at pornography? But what if he did so through the lens of Scripture and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit? Imagine what those sanctified desires and pleasures might inspire. Just think about how a deeper contemplation of this ancient art form might encourage the Christian church to grow in its appreciation of the innate goodness of those writhing, naked bodies, or the artistic rendering of the cameras or the energy put into post-production, even the glorious technology that delivers those pixels right to a smart phone. This wouldn’t solve every problem facing Christians today, but urging Christians to embrace new ways of viewing explicit pictures and films that actually led to greater purity and fidelity can be a legitimate way of alleviating tensions that sometimes arise in these situations.”
-Revoicing Pornography: Revoice 2019
“What if we could imagine a world where a man lies almost constantly. He lies about what he watched on television. He lies about where he went. He constantly embellishes stories with details and events that never occurred and makes promises he has no intention of keeping. But what if all of it was driven by love? Imagine his falsehoods driven by the deepest pool of compassion and grace you can imagine (but only deeper, of course). Imagine the love of Christ as an ocean you can never reach the bottom of – it’s infinite. This infinite, Trinitarian, perichoretic love doesn’t have just one particular shape or size and can hardly be bound by finite language or discrete facts. What if this man realizes that story and poetry are more fundamental, more Christ-like than the so-called “truth”? What if Christian communities could be places where untruths and nontruths and semitruths and softtruths were actually received as being far closer to the truth? This wouldn’t solve all the problems facing Christians today, but it could be a legitimate means to alleviating those tensions that inevitably emerge in these kinds of situations.”
-Revoicing Falsehood: Revoice 2020
“Imagine a world where a Christian woman decides that her conscience permits her to leave her bathroom window open while she showers – not because she wants to lead men into sin or even temptation, but what if it was a Psalm 8 sort of revelry in the glory of God? Imagine her spiritual ecstasy, being completely transparent, an Edenic triumph, like the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven. Now imagine if the men who gathered every morning to watch her bathe began to participate in that celestial revelry. What if they actually came to a deeper and truer understanding of what it means to be human beings together on this lonely, Christian pilgrimage? What new kinds of community might be formed if we could only think beyond the old-fashioned binary morality.”
-Revoicing Voyerism: Revoice 2021
“What if we could imagine a scenario in which a Christian businessman, after hearing his pastor preach a sermon on the superiority of the white race and the complicated nature of dealing with inferior races, decides that his conscience would allow him to refuse his products and services to all non-white customers? Obviously, some people would take offense at this, but what if urging Christians to at least consider the claims of white-supremacists opened new avenues of dialogue that might actually lead to a stronger, more united Christian Church? What if those offended chose to listen carefully to that businessman’s testimony rather than rushing to judgment? And what if they could hear in that man’s voice not hatred but a new kind of love and friendship? This would obviously not solve all the problems with racial animosity in our society, but it might lead to a legitimate means of easing tensions that often arise in these situations.”
-Revoicing Racism: Revoice 2022
“What if we could imagine a scenario in which a Christian businesswoman, after hearing her pastor preach a sermon about these issues, decided that her conscience would allow her to sell products to a gay couple to use in a wedding ceremony? Obviously this wouldn’t solve every problem facing Christians in society today, but urging Christians to consider new ways of thinking about a complicated issue that might lead to a stronger conscience can be a legitimate means (among many, of course) of easing the tensions that sometimes erupt in these kinds of situations.”
Leave a Reply