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How many of us associate the infamous Ephesians 4:15 verse, “Speak the truth in love”, with confrontation? Because I certainly do. It has always meant that I needed to be admonished and corrected and believe that this was because they loved me. The verse and its context say nothing like this. The passage concerns the building and nurturing of an authentic and loving community. Many use this verse as a justification to judge and others and shame them into living the way they think they should.

Happy #InternationalCoffeeDay I wonder what would have happened if God had had his coffee first. On a more serious note: It's important to remember that our gods are projections of our minds.  The more brutal we are, the more brutal will be our gods.  The more loving we are, the more loving will be our gods. The flood myth, popular during that age and across that region, is the creation of people who believed the only way to cleanse a wicked world and make it a better place was to kill everyone in it.  Some still believe that.  I don't.

One Scripture Two OutcomesOne person can read the scriptures and go out and kill someone for God and another person can read the same scriptures and go out and get killed for God.

"Love Versus the Bible" cartoon by nakedpastor David Hayward SHOP MY CARTOONS & ART A couple of months ago I did a cartoon very similar to this, but it portrayed Jesus talking to a group of men from his time period. They could have been interpreted as being Pharisees. My intention was to contrast the hermeneutics of love and inclusion with a hermeneutic of something more about purity and exclusion. My intention was not to feed into the antisemitism that is latent within Christianity. In other words, I did not intend the cartoon to communicate that Christianity is better than...

"Bible Interpretation" cartoon by nakedpastor David Hayward SHOP MY CARTOONS & ART It's never as easy as "The Bible says". It's always, without fail, "I think the Bible says". We can't help but read the Bible through our own lens, filter it through our own mindsets, and articulate it through our own languages. Understanding this is the first step to healthy conversations about knowledge and the truth. Has your understanding of the Bible changed? Mine too. Ours too! Come and join us at The Lasting Supper, where we're not afraid to express what we are really struggling with and what...