Deep thoughts

“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.

― H. Richard Niebuhr talking about modern liberalism. 

Wild how many folks still think, "hmm, let's flesh that out a bit and build a church on it."”

“John Stott: “Nothing cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.”

“Jesus didn’t die because of your sins. Jesus died because he was a poor brown revolutionary who was a threat to the Roman Empire.   Because there seems to be confusion already: state violence is a sin that many of us benefit from, of course. What I’m saying is that I refuse to cede any divine reason Jesus died. He died because he was a victim of state violence, full stop.  When it comes to the cross, I yield to womanist Delores Williams who cannot find the cross salvific. It is simply a place where a victim dies and God suffers with him.“

Mason Mennenga

“My only atonement theory is a rejection of atonement theories altogether. Because of my reading of Delores Williams, the *only* theological meaning I can ascribe to the event of a brown Palestinian man executed by the state is: fuck violence.This is not to say if one does find salvific meaning in Christ’s execution that makes them violent or racist. James Cone more or less ascribed to Christus Victor after all. Rather, at the encouragement of Delores Williams, I place my soteriology (the way I think about salvation) not in Christ’s execution but exclusively in his resurrection. Further clarification: some have mentioned that my argument bifurcates Christ’s life and resurrection from the cross. I’m aware that is a weakness of my argument. But I’m willing to live with it for the sake of simply and *only* saying, in regards to the cross: fuck violence.“

MM