How do I love my Trumpagelical enemy? A progressive Christian’s discussion with his own conscience
So this morning my conscience sez to me… In our struggles against Trumpagelicalism, let’s pause a sec. You feel betrayal, yes. You feel wounded. You, at your best, feel anger and even rage at what is being done to your immigrant, POC, poor, and other neighbors by Trumpagelicals. You’re dismayed continually at the corporate takeover of science and environment by […]
Read more »God is Love
“Intelligent Design”…. does that mean what you think it means?
Careful, there…. “intelligent design” can mean two quite different things. First, and most popular in some circles, is the idea that evolution may be occurring much of the time, but that in addition God kinda “sticks his finger in” (my phrase) to stop, start, or alter what is happening. Science tends to object to this on rather simple grounds: there’s […]
Read more »Dark Blue Dog (Politics)
Prisons — Depends On Where You Stand: Glenn Kaiser Interviews UPLC’s Alan Mills
I’m cameraman and video editor, neither job being my primary skill set, in this Glenn Kaiser interview of activist prison lawyer Alan Mills. Both men are my friends, and both forgive me. Bonus: music written by Glenn and myself (lyrics) at the tail end. More information about Alan’s organization, Uptown People’s Law Center. And, to visit Glenn Kaiser‘s site. The […]
Read more »Biblical Feminism
Hillary Clinton: Eight Reasons this Jesus Freak Says “I’m With Her”
I am a Bible-believing Christian who has served Christ full-time in the inner city of Chicago since 1977. I met Christ as a sixteen-year-old in 1973, praying the prayer on the floor of a Jesus Person’s Montana farm house. I pray that first love empowers me daily. I am not going to claim that unless you vote the way I […]
Read more »Prisons
Prisons — Depends On Where You Stand: Glenn Kaiser Interviews UPLC’s Alan Mills
I’m cameraman and video editor, neither job being my primary skill set, in this Glenn Kaiser interview of activist prison lawyer Alan Mills. Both men are my friends, and both forgive me. Bonus: music written by Glenn and myself (lyrics) at the tail end. More information about Alan’s organization, Uptown People’s Law Center. And, to visit Glenn Kaiser‘s site. The […]
Read more »Lyrics & Poetry
#NRADeathSquads
#NRADeathSquad by Jon Trott Easy enough to conceal who you are with the hip-carried friend Sending someone else far away from this place, this life, their universe of time and rhyme gone — snap — watch it congeal on the sidewalk near Leland and Malden I heard the bang-bang-bang-bang-bang And the girl start screaming that they shot her baby […]
Read more »JPUSA History
Forty Random Thoughts on Community from a Forty-year member of Jesus People USA
January 16, 1977, my nineteen-year-old self joined Jesus People USA. To celebrate my “fortieth anniversary” as a communard Jesus Freak, I offer forty quite random ideas about community. Some are general. Some are specific. Some are a sentence. Others take a fairly beefy paragraph. So…. Forty Random Thoughts on Community from a Forty-year member of Jesus People USA 1. Love […]
Read more »- Chelsea Hotel Before the Jesus People (Part Two, w/ Photo Gallery)
- Chelsea Hotel Before the Jesus People (Part 1 of a Planned 3 Part History)
- Come and Follow Jesus – Interview with JPUSA’s Project 12 Discipleship School’s Director Curt Mortimer
- Cornerstone Classic: Communes – Where You Throw It All Together and Hope for the Best
Marriage
Carol on Being a Breast Cancer Survivor
[March 2007] (Above: Carol some years back visiting my hometown of Fort Benton, Montana.) March is breast cancer awareness month. That isn’t lost on my wife and I, as we encountered breast cancer. My wife has been in remission for six or seven years, but neither of us will forget that time… ever. Below is an interview I’ve just done […]
Read more »Privilege
Evangelical Christianity and White Tribalism: The Strange Case of Jonathan David Brown
Jonathan David Brown, grammy-nominated (twice) Christian music producer, died suddenly September 27, 2016, of an apparent heart attack. He was sixty years old. His face book pages (this and this) and a gofundme page are filling with condolences from some of the many well-known artists he worked with creatively. But his death also brings into focus a tangled, extremist legacy of […]
Read more »- “Blood Dried in the Sun”: Four Novelists on Being Black and Dealing with Police
- Death in the Family: Robert Jones’ “The End of White Christian America” Finds the Body, Explores Some Clues
- Men Typing Badly: Reflections on Male to Female Interactions on Social Media (and maybe elsewhere)
- WWJD – Who Would Jesus Deport?
Other News
How do I love my Trumpagelical enemy? A progressive Christian’s discussion with his own conscience
So this morning my conscience sez to me… In our struggles against Trumpagelicalism, let’s pause a sec. You feel betrayal, yes. You feel wounded. You, at your best, feel anger and even rage at what is being done to your immigrant, POC, poor, and other neighbors by Trumpagelicals. You’re dismayed continually at the corporate takeover of science and environment by […]
Read more ›The Central Reality of Emotion in Defining Meaning: We Shy Away, Embarrassed
An Uprush of Emotion is usually the way I (and I suspect you?) identify meaning. Good or bad. Admitting this may be both difficult and more ambiguous an admission than it appears. An Evangelical such as John Piper might negatively (and emotionally) assign emotion/meaning linkages to his term “effeminacy,” a fascinating reality distortion in both its anti-womanist and self-blinding qualities. […]
Read more ›What does Community Mean to You?
“What does community mean to you?” A self-inquiry by Jon Trott, offered as a message at JPUSA Church 04/23/2018 What does community mean to you? Every one of us has our own list of answers to this question. Not all of those answers are “spiritual” sounding. Not all of us agree on even the questions. But still… what does community […]
Read more ›Forty Random Thoughts on Community from a Forty-year member of Jesus People USA
January 16, 1977, my nineteen-year-old self joined Jesus People USA. To celebrate my “fortieth anniversary” as a communard Jesus Freak, I offer forty quite random ideas about community. Some are general. Some are specific. Some are a sentence. Others take a fairly beefy paragraph. So…. Forty Random Thoughts on Community from a Forty-year member of Jesus People USA 1. Love […]
Read more ›Prisons — Depends On Where You Stand: Glenn Kaiser Interviews UPLC’s Alan Mills
I’m cameraman and video editor, neither job being my primary skill set, in this Glenn Kaiser interview of activist prison lawyer Alan Mills. Both men are my friends, and both forgive me. Bonus: music written by Glenn and myself (lyrics) at the tail end. More information about Alan’s organization, Uptown People’s Law Center. And, to visit Glenn Kaiser‘s site. The […]
Read more ›Evangelical Christianity and White Tribalism: The Strange Case of Jonathan David Brown
Jonathan David Brown, grammy-nominated (twice) Christian music producer, died suddenly September 27, 2016, of an apparent heart attack. He was sixty years old. His face book pages (this and this) and a gofundme page are filling with condolences from some of the many well-known artists he worked with creatively. But his death also brings into focus a tangled, extremist legacy of […]
Read more ›“Blood Dried in the Sun”: Four Novelists on Being Black and Dealing with Police
Violence against blacks by police. Yesterday, one black man murdered in Minnesota and one murdered in Louisiana. Many yesterdays here in Chicago. Not a time to hear my own white male voice. Where race is concerned this is doubly true. I thought I’d simply post four black novelists’ words here instead. Need it be said that black fiction is often truer […]
Read more ›Death in the Family: Robert Jones’ “The End of White Christian America” Finds the Body, Explores Some Clues
Robert P. Jones’ new book begins with a chapter entitled “An Obituary for White Christian America.” And it doesn’t get better from there. But his premise is driven home even for those of us who’d rather be in denial about the demise of our beloved subculture. Architecture hardly seems a promising genesis point for the topic, but by giving both mainstream […]
Read more ›Hillary Clinton: Eight Reasons this Jesus Freak Says “I’m With Her”
I am a Bible-believing Christian who has served Christ full-time in the inner city of Chicago since 1977. I met Christ as a sixteen-year-old in 1973, praying the prayer on the floor of a Jesus Person’s Montana farm house. I pray that first love empowers me daily. I am not going to claim that unless you vote the way I […]
Read more ›