For Love, Joy, Peace, and Basic Human Dignity
Welcome to our blog. After years of following Jesus, we've found a consistent problem resurfacing again and again: Christians can treat people horribly—and often use the Bible, tradition, and culture to justify it. We've come to call this ugly phenomenon Jackass Theology. It's not a new idea. Jesus confronted it in the religious leaders of his day, and the apostle Paul wrote letters to churches trying to put an end to it. Jackass theology is as old as religion itself. We write to confess, explore, and confront our own jackassery and others, to fight for a better way of being, and Lord willing, make a little collective progress towards the love, joy, peace, and basic human dignity Jesus embodied.
1 - Name It
There is something powerful, cathartic, and healing about naming the things that have hurt us. David did it all throughout the Psalms. But even more powerful are those rare moments when we name the wounds that we inflict. Whether victim or perpetrator, step one is: we gotta call it what it is.
2 - Own It
Oh, how easy it is to see the shortcomings in others. How adamantly I swear I will never be like them! But what if my disgust were an opportunity—a mirror—to see the inflated view I have of myself and the limitations on my compassion? What if this became a moment to recognize the magnificently faulty premise that because I've read the Bible, been raised a certain way, or have a particular personality, that God favors me?
There is a problem in Christian culture today. It's not new. It's not out there. It's in me.
Ryan MacDiarmid
I have contributed significantly to jackass culture within the Church. I'm trying to make my priorities match Jesus'.
