by Brother Maynard | Nov 22, 2016 | Culture, Politics
I can already hear you responding with choruses of “NO!” and “Of COURSE Not!” Yes, you’re thinking of Jesus overturning the tables and upsetting the status quo, speaking truth to power, and “telling it like it is.” And you’re right, of course, he did all that. But then there were some other times that might be downright confusing from a PC-standpoint. Remember when he was asked if it was okay to pay taxes, and he pointed out a coin with Caesar’s image on it, and said “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s”? What about when he extracts a coin from the mouth of the fish in order to pay the temple tax? Those aren’t instances of speaking truth to power, they’re examples of acquiescence. Jesus can be a thorny dude to understand. Read more…
by Brother Maynard | Sep 21, 2016 | Current Events, Politics
I don’t write much anymore, lacking both time and inclination. The church doesn’t listen. By and large, I mean. The church I used to know has no ears for this, and there’s little point writing to them. The people on the outside, on the fringe, the ones who mistrust the church and cannot reconcile the Jesus they read in the Bible with the one that is preached at them from the pulpit — these people listen. But they already know most of the things I write about. On the other hand, I’ve found writing to be cathartic as well as helpful in processing my thoughts, as evidenced in the many pages of this blog. 
And I don’t read much on these subjects anymore unless they fall directly in my path, as when some asinine boneheaded comments are made on Facebook or in the pages of Christian publication or blog that gets passed around, and I sometimes still begin to compose a response in my head. Because I don’t write it, the response usually fizzles before it is fully formed since there is no audience for it but the converted. The unconverted do not wish to hear it, and sometimes it’s just outrageous. I shake my head and move along. There’s a lot of that during the election season. Read more…
by Brother Maynard | Mar 13, 2016 | Current Events, Politics
On Facebook and in general conversation, I tend toward being cavalier and take a somewhat mocking tone about Trump’s popularity in the GOP primaries. “Dear America, you may see this as a primary campaign but the rest of the world sees it as an IQ test, and it isn’t looking good.” There’s so much there to find abhorrent that you’re left with a very small variety of optional responses once you’ve fought off the deer-in-the-headlights impulse. Maybe the most common ones are laughter and despair. Or fear. It has, of course, been pointed out that it’s cheaper to vote than it is to move to Canada, so I’d urge any American to vote responsibly. (Note on photo selection: a quick image search confirmed what I already suspected: there are no flattering photographs of Donald Trump.) Read more…
by Brother Maynard | May 15, 2015 | Emergent, Internet
Tony Jones is tenacious, I’ll give him that. But tenacity is not always a good thing, especially if your end goal is as misguided as his. The ToJo Narcissist News of the Week this week the letter bearing the upside-down-Nike-swoosh-logo-letterhead of his lawyer, one M. Sue Wilson. I was made aware of this letter by Tony’s ex-wife, Julie McMahon, as were a number of other bloggers, one of whom has posted a copy in all its glory, with personal information redacted. The letter reminds Julie of a court order that instructs the parties, Tony Jones and Julie McMahon to cease posting about this matter and to remove their past postings, insofar as they are able to remove them. So far, so good. However. Read more…
by Brother Maynard | May 4, 2015 | Emergent
I haven’t said anything for several weeks now, though I know others have said things, and there has been some general chatter. I know that some have reached out to Julie McMahon with encouragement. It seemed like things have gone quiet, though really, nothing had changed. Tony Jones remains a bastard NPD out to get what he wants in the spotlight, at any cost. This single short statement holds a few things that deserve a bit of unpacking. Read more…
by Brother Maynard | Mar 13, 2015 | Blogging, E/MC Community, Jesus the Person
I’m not the cartoonist that David Hayward is, so I have to steal. David posted a ‘toon today with tips on how to silence a dog (or a person) in response to Christianity Today‘s Shame-a-Thon TwitterChat, about which I knew nothing until I read David’s post. But the record is there, so everyone can go back and read at least some of what was said.
The television show M*A*S*H was a sometimes biting commentary on the Vietnam war, but was set in Korea about 2 decades earlier. They never mentioned Vietnam and could defend against accusations of attacking US government policy with that. But nobody was fooled, and it was impossible not to make the connection. I can’t say for certain that CT’s Twitter chat was sparked by the growing swell of online chatter about the Tony Jones situation, but it’s impossible not to connect the dots if you know they’re there. Read more…
by Brother Maynard | Mar 2, 2015 | Emergent, Theology
There are a lot of people who will tell you that marriage is on a pretty unstable foundation in our culture. Often it’s said from an anti-same-sex-union agenda, but it’s also been said in appeals for monogamy and the sanctity of marriage. Rather than dig up some statistic to make a point, it seems easier to simply acknowledge that marriage is not widely regarded with the assumed longevity that it once was. And that, I think, is the sentiment that was behind Andrew Jones’ comment that Tony Jones’ call to stop performing marriages was unorthodox and threatening to marriages. Read more…
by Brother Maynard | Feb 28, 2015 | Emergent
I’ve been thinking about the latest update on Julie McMahon’s situation this week, the one where she’s having to drop the matter of trying to use the courts to achieve the return of her son to her lawful custody after his father, Tony Jones, refused to return him after scheduled visitation back in January. The one where she’s already in for $6,000 in legal fees and can’t keep spending money she doesn’t have to force her Emergent/Convergent leader/author/speaker ex-husband to abide by the court’s prior custody ruling.
Just how naive is Rachel Held Evans? Read more…
by Brother Maynard | Feb 24, 2015 | Emergent
Now I’m no David Hayward, but this is what came out on the last one as I was wondering what it was going to take for “leaders” like Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, and Rachel Held Evans to revoke their support for and endorsement of Tony Jones. I call this one #WhenTony.
by Brother Maynard | Feb 24, 2015 | Emergent, Emerging Church
I’ve always had a kind of love-hate relationship with Emergent Village. I liked how EV sought to push what we called “the conversation” in emerging circles and help to bring it to the foreground. I liked that they helped bring some books into more popular consciousness. This would have been back around 2004 through 2006, say, back in the earlier days of this blog. Back when I had begun my church exodus and detox, when I was deconstructing and reimagining and exploring.
But.
I have never displayed the “Friend of Emergent” badge on my blog. Oh, I considered myself Emergent-friendly, but it always stuck in my craw that displaying the badge came with a price tag — literally. 
If you contributed to EV, became a member, whatever, then you were invited to display the badge. You couldn’t “just” be a friend. You had to buy it. I never liked that whole concept, and as time went on, I became a Friend of Missional instead. That was free, thanks to my friend the Blind Beggar. I didn’t have to join anything, pay anything, or buy anything — I just had to be friendly. Read more…
by Brother Maynard | Feb 23, 2015 | Current Events, Emergent
As I said almost a week ago, Tony Jones posted a statement countering the allegations made by his ex-wife, Julie McMahon. Tony’s statement was filled with lies, innuendo, half-truths, horrible leaps of logic, and other miserable attempts to control the narrative. One of the few bits of truth in the statement is that he has been diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. R.L. Stollar has published documents which set the record straight in an evidentiary way; these can be compared with Jones’ statement to show his lies and misrepresentation. I was a little steamed at Jones’ blustery statement, but glad that I archived it because it disappeared from the site a few days later. I’m not surprised, and my links to that statement and several others from the “WhyTony” site on Scribd are all to my own local copies of the statements for this very reason. You can’t simply post something on the Internet and then remove it to pretend it had never been there. Not when people are watching, and the people who are watching highly suspect your motives and are onto your tactics. These tactics are simply means of attempting to control the narrative, to bend it and alter perceptions in one’s own favour. Read more…
by Brother Maynard | Feb 18, 2015 | Leadership, Thought Fodder
So I’ve been dragged back into blogging for a little, but some of these thoughts have been percolating for some time now. Yesterday while I was writing about Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) as it relates to the Tony Jones situation with his divorce and the Emergent Village leadership at the time, Kathy Escobar was writing a thing or two about narcissism (+ church). Kathy is someone whose blog I used to really enjoy back when I was regularly reading emerging/missional blogs, and I’m so glad to see she’s still blogging — especially given the insight she’s shared about NPD. Read more…
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