Over the years, I’ve been asked the same question about Luke’s infancy narratives and it came up again on X the other night:

Why does Zachariah get punished by God with 9 months of muteness, after questioning Gabriel when Mary does the same thing and is not punished? /1 2/ The way I see it is this.
Zechariah is a priest in the Temple. His faith is full of stories of elderly couples who have not been able to conceive, suddenly being blessed with a child later in life. Why then does he doubt God’s ability to repeat the same blessing with him?

“The humanity we are growing into in the Spirit , the humanity that we seek to share with the world as the first fruits of Christ’s redeeming work, is contemplative humanity.

Contemplation is very far from being one kind of thing Christians do: it is the key to prayer…./1 2/…liturgy, arts and ethics; the key to a renewed humanity that is capable of seeing the world and other subjects in the world with freedom - freedom from self-oriented, acquisitive habits and the disordered habits that come from them.

One of the biggest issues with right wing Christians and the Bible is that by trying to impose "biblical teaching" on the whole of society, they make the Bible an issue of major concern to many more people, without being able to help people actually understand the Bible. /1 2/ Very few "Bible believeing Christians" have any actual understanding of the theology or cultural history behind the texts, how to read them critically, how and when they have been translated, and what all that means for interpretation and application.

This is being increasingly promoted by the right to stoke fear among white people (most of whom don’t even go to church anyway but identify with Christian “culture” and see it as a bulwark against “foreigners”.

Let me point out a few things as an actual practicing Christian…1/

https://twitter.com/tablesalt13/status/1865388442210783571

2/ Christianity has all the same protections and rights as any other religious group. It still dominates culturally in terms of its holidays and rituals.

Whenever those who have enjoyed privilege and status are asked to share that, it is experienced as oppression.

This is an absolute lie. As many colleagues did yesterday and will again today, I led a Remembrance Day service for the public at a cenotaph, and we prayed. We prayed The Lords Prayer. I read scripture. And we sang the national and royal anthems which both mention God. /1 2/ It dishonours the sacrifice of those who have died fighting foreign authoritarian regimes that one who wishes to govern is now using Remembrance Day to do what authoritarians do: spread misinformation, stoke fear , demonize others and create division.

Lest we forget.

Led a Remembrance Service at a LTC home today and it was really interesting how these Canadian seniors, in their 80s and 90s, all from different backgrounds and countries of origin, all wanted to talk about the American election afterwards. I was there an extra hour…/1 2/ and every single one was horrified that Trump was reelected and couldn’t understand how Christians could vote for someone (to quote one woman) “who should be the scandal of decent Christians, not their leader”.

One of the things I find fascinating about the influencer / content creator industry is how easy it is to chart their evolution / demise.

If you watch any YouTuber or Instagammer for any length of time you inevitably see the “transition” post… /1 2/ - in which they explain why they are no longer going to do what they’ve been doing / believe what they’ve always said they believe / or practice what they’ve always preached.

Got out of the shower, looked at myself in the mirror and immediately began critiquing.

Then I thought of the funeral I have to officiate this weekend.

And I thought back over the 100s of funerals I’ve officiated over the years; and it occurred to me… 1/ 2/ not one person I’ve buried, not even the youngest and most health-conscious among them, have ever been remembered or eulogiized for their muscles, the definition of their abs or how trim their waist was. Not one.

This bears repeating again and again - when scripture speaks about “modest dressing” it is almost always referring to displays of excessive wealth NOT displays of excessive flesh.
/1 2/ What even the most conservative Christians today consider “modest” , would’ve been considered immodest dressing, 100 years ago. What our great-grandparents wore 100 years ago would have likely been considered comparably immodest by their grandmothers.

Just returned from a Eucharist at a retirement home. The usual pianist wasn't available so we sang the hymns a'cappella.

I gave them the starting note. Each of the 27 congregants chose their own pitch and remained totally committed to it for the duration. /1 2/ It was simultaenously the most glorious and most horrendous thing I've heard in a long time.

One of the men said "Jesus, Mary and Joseph (he's Irish Catholic)! Never prayed that my hearing would miraculously get worse!"

So, a lot of people are asking me…(no really, 5 have in the last 10 minutes)…about why I mass delete tweets.

Please note: I’m not debating this. You don’t have to like, agree or do similar. I also don’t have to justify what I do with my own tweets.

But I will explain. 1/4 I do this fairly regularly and have for a long time.

I don’t do it because I regret my posts or want to hide anything. You can’t hide anything. People take screenshots and once something is out there - it’s out there forever. I know that. 2/4

A Buddhist friend was talking to me about his meditation practice and it’s three “phases”: 1. focussing on the breath; 2. becoming aware of intrusive and distracting thoughts and sensations; 3. letting them go and returning to the breath. 1/9 As I ruminated on the fact that the same word in Hebrew means “breath” and “spirit” (and wind) I got thinking about my own Christian practice of prayer and the similarities … 2/9

This statue was sent me a few years ago by a man in Texas who used to argue with me on Twitter about LGBT+

Then his son come out.

His son left home, unable to live with the homophobia. His married daughter also ceased speaking with him over his rejection of her brother. 1/4 Our conversations suddenly took a different turn. How might one reconcile their faith and the Bible with an affirming stance? How do you begin reconciling with someone you have hurt deeply? What do you say to your homophobic pastor?
How do I find a new church? 2/4

So let me respond publicly to this troll DM because I get this kind of thing a lot.

The fact is, I do spend a lot of time talking about God - in the context of my work as a priest and with people with whom I have built a relationship of trust. 1/7 The more I come to know God - by which I do not mean other people’s thoughts about God - but *know* God as a living, deeply mysterious yet knowable divine presence - the less inclined I am to speak of God, b/c I know how far from adequate anything I can say of God will be. 2/7

Lent is not about what we do for God.

It is about becoming mindful of and grateful for all that God has done and continues to do for us.

Lent is not about suffering for God. It is about being honest about and turning away from the ways we make ourselves and one another suffer. Lent is not about “spring cleaning” to make ourselves a fit home for God.

It is about clearing away and letting go of those things obscuring your view of the God who already dwells with us.

I don’t want a Christianity that cannot acknowledge the cycles of nature, the reality of birth, death and suffering, and the presence of evil in the world, without losing its mind over “devil worship” because some people still observe harvest festivals and dressing up. St. Teresa, having faced the Inquisition, wisely said “I fear those who fear the devil more than the devil himself”.

She also counselled the best way to deal with the devil is to mock him.

Yet so many evangelicals do the exact opposite.

So I got this DM last night. I told the person I would respond on my feed without identifying her.

I want to do it here because this comes up a fair bit: me “showing my being gay” in peoples faces.

So here’s my response to her: I notice you mention your husband and three wonderful children in your bio. I also notice plenty of photos of your family on your feed.

“I’m happy for your successful marriage and that you have a lovely family.”

See how easy that was?

“You call anyone who disagrees with you a bigot!”

No, I don’t. For instance you’re not a bigot just for posting this tweet.

I call people bigots when they unfairly deny the same rights and freedoms they have to others based on their own prejudices against that group. For instance, I find I often have a dislike for many evangelical Christians because of how I see myself and others treated by them based on religious ideology. But I don’t deny them their right to exist, to identity as they wish and to exercise the same freedoms I have.

Ok this makes me furious.

The word homosexuality didn’t exist in the 12 C so Hildegard would never have used it.

Hildegard may herself have had romantic feelings for a fellow nun and was certainly criticized for jealousy and possessiveness over her. 1/4

https://twitter.com/sanothomas/status/1691786453427331210

She never condemned homosexuality. What she DID was give sanctuary to a novice monk who was sexually abused at his monastery. When he died in her care, she buried him in the convent cemetery. Anything she wrote against sex between men was in the context of condemning rape 2/4

Mary Magdalene (feast day: July 22)

Magdalene is assumed by most Christians to refer to Mary's hometown of "Magdala" but there were actually several places in Judea with the word "magdal" as part of their name, and no specific place has ever been verified as Mary's hometown. Magdalene comes from magdal (aramaic: "tower") so may have just been a nickname, as "Peter" (the rock) was given to Simon, or "Boeranges" (sons of thunder) was given to James and John. That Mary alone among the women is nicknamed indicates a preeminence among the disciples

For every DM from a troll I post, I get another (which I don’t share publicly ) from someone who, because of my posts and those of other loving Christians I engage with, are beginning to not be afraid of God; are falling in love with the Gospel and are willing to trust Jesus. I get messages from parents rethinking their rejection of their LGBTQ kids; or pastors in conservative churches looking for support as they wrestle with a theology they can no longer uphold.

I get DMs from people who reach out to ask if it’s possible that God doesn’t hate them