I was invited to share an occasion when I was surprised by mercy. It was August 2002. I had just rushed my ex-girlfriend to the emergency room because she slit her wrists in a bathtub. I was a severely depressed, chain-smoking mess. And I discovered the gospel of mercy that I proclaim today when I opened Henri Nouwen’s book Life of the Beloved in a small group gathering where everyone other than me was a lesbian. I only remember Tanya and Pat by name, but if that group of lesbians had not been spiritual mothers who embraced and nurtured me in a time of crisis, I would not be a pastor today. I realize that talking about this will probably cause my Board of Ordained Ministry to have some questions for me, but God has commanded me to testify about the train wreck experience by which I discovered the true gospel. Because it was only in the fellowship of the despised that I could learn mercy the way God wanted me to understand it. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Exouthenemenos
If I were to make a Christian hip-hop/electronica album…
Then my artist name would be εξουθενημενος and my album would be בן בלי שם (both of these words roughly translate to “The Nobody” because God refines my art by making people ignore it). I used to have a rock band seven years ago called the Junior Varsity Superheroes. I learned how to navigate the local rock scene and we did pretty well. Hip-hop is very much a second language to me; I learned how to rap because I was a youth pastor. I have little interest in mainstream hip-hop. I’m more interested in pursuing what it was originally: a genre geared to social critique (KRS-1, Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, etc). The 16 tracks I have shared below may appeal to the micro-constituency of people who are trying to recover from the phenomenon known as evangelical Christianity.
| Our Father
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Jesus Come Back
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| Jesus Is My Candidate
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Jesus Save the World from Me
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| Kayal Ta-arog (Psalm 42)
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The Script
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| Exposure
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Isaiah 6
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| Jeremiah
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The Lord Is My Shepherd
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| Star Spangled Banner
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This Is My Father’s World
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| Zion
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Hate
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| 1 John
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Satan
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