WE will win! (no matter who wins)

WE will win! (no matter who wins)

Garrett Jones
Politics

In the wake of a Harris win, most Trump supporters will experience disappointment and pain as they come to terms with reality. But the fog of deception will continue to cling to a segment of the Maga electorate, especially for those conditioned to reject reality. They will continue to be stuck in the first two stages of grief (denial and anger) on a loop. The truth is, they have been on that Ferris wheel for a long time. Good people naturally follow the path of grief through bargaining and depression all the way to acceptance. But, if the grieving process gets sabotaged by the validation of the denial and anger of a critical mass of one’s peers, bad things can happen. This is how mobs form—individual grievances weave together to create a narrative that legitimizes the fear, fuels the collective pain, and, like a chain reaction, can boil over into mob violence. This is what happened on January 6, 2021. And it could happen again.

A Huge Number of Evangelical Christians Say This is Their #1 Voting Issue

A Huge Number of Evangelical Christians Say This is Their #1 Voting Issue

Garrett Jones
Politics

Unity is not agreement; it is staying together despite disagreement. Unity is not conformity; it is a generosity of being that not merely allows but deeply desires a diversity of expression. Unity is not an organizational chart or authority structure; it is an empowering culture where every individual believes in their agency and autonomy and has the support of their community to launch out, take risks, be creative, and accomplish greatness. Unity is not commanded; it is earned. Unity cannot coexist with fear but thrives in love. Unity is not to-each-his-own, laissez-faire tolerance; it is blood-sweat-and-tears, deeply invested care in the well-being of others. Unity is not a destination to arrive at; it is a destination to aim at and a vehicle of kindness to ride in on the way there…

"America: The Greatest Song the World Has Not Yet Heard" —Bono

"America: The Greatest Song the World Has Not Yet Heard" —Bono

Garrett Jones
Politics

This is America’s finest hour. This is when we defeat hate. This is when we rise up out of our petty divisions and show the world that freedom and personal responsibility can work together, that there is a pot of gold at the end of the long arc of justice, that despite our disagreements and different perspectives, we are still the United States of America. We are a good nation. We are a generous nation. We are kind and welcoming to strangers. We make room and say “you belong here” to the immigrant who is starting over, to the new coworker, to the family who just moved in from out of town, to the new kid in school, to the drunk who can’t seem to stay sober, to the beggar who can’t seem to get back on her feet, to those who have lost everything, to the ones who threw it all away. Fear itself is the enemy we have banished from our imaginations. We will not allow it to populate our minds with monsters or project the words “enemy,” “bad guys,” or “them” onto our neighbors. There is no “them.” There is only we. We will not let fear get the best of us. We will not let suspicion divide us. We will not let our hurt turn sour and spoil the public good. We will ferment our pain with grieving and longing, so we become sweet to those who taste, imparting all with hope and strength and intoxicating them with joy.

Confirmation Bias: 9 Ways to Know If You're Wrong (When You Feel So Right)

Confirmation Bias: 9 Ways to Know If You're Wrong (When You Feel So Right)

Garrett Jones
Emotional Health, Politics

We can simultaneously hold two things to be true: 1) Some people are deceived, and 2) Those who are deceived don't know (or are unwilling to admit) they are deceived, otherwise they would not be deceived. This raises a question: Can one ever know they are deceived? Or are we all doomed to be in a perpetual perceptual blind spot? Is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle at work in our ideologies, such that discovering our own internal contradictions—the place behind our eyeballs where our biases meet our perceptions—becomes impossible? How much do we choose the narratives we believe and how much do the narratives we believe choose the narratives we believe? Circular questions like these can lead us into a catatonic black hole of naval-gazing introspection, but hey, we're all pretty far deep inside our myopic rabbit holes. I think it's time we begin digging ourselves out of our dopamine addictions.

Enjoying your life is how you let out the light

Enjoying your life is how you let out the light

Garrett Jones
Emotional Health, Justice, Politics

The most responsible thing we can do to show our solidarity with Ukrainians and with every other people group that is undergoing persecution...is to love our kids, to throw birthday parties, to walk our dogs, to tend our gardens, to hug a loved one, to speak words of life, and to show simple acts of kindness to a stranger. Simply put, the way we beat the darkness out there is to cultivate light on the inside, through all the little, faithful things. Folding laundry, changing diapers, taking that online class, putting in extra time at work, taking time off of work to take our kids to a park, all of it—every single bit of normal life—will confound the powers of darkness in the world, to the point of making them transparently silly and laughable…

We Hold the Keys to a United Future

We Hold the Keys to a United Future

Garrett Jones
Justice, Politics, Vision

We are his beloved. We are not a random evolutionary event happening on a lifeless rock floating through emotionally-detached space. No, this planet is alive. The universe is alive. And we are connected to all of it. We are the children of all of it being connected. We are the tip of the flame of a universe on fire. We are the manifestation of all the desires of divinity. We are the crown jewel on the big bang. We are the apple of God's eye. We are what he's been waiting for and desiring since the beginning. We are center-stage in a drama of universe-wide proportions and deep, deep significance.

Two simple things we must do with our anger today.

Two simple things we must do with our anger today.

Garrett Jones
Politics

If there's one thing that has crossed party lines, transcends race, gender, age, and creed without bias, it is the fact that we've all had something to stew about in these days. The right rages worried that their will has been violated and their voices not heard—fearful that an election (and their hoped-for country) has been stolen from them. The left lurches with loathing over the putrid pandering to a puerile pack of proud-less proud boys. If you've denounced and renounced violence done in the name of a cause, good for you, but many on both “sides” of our alternate realities are still ANG-A-RY. And that anger, left unprocessed, will be the undoing of our nation. "United we stand," will give way to "divided we fall," if we do not act fast.

No Longer Torn: Why We Evangelicals Should Vote for Joe Biden.

No Longer Torn: Why We Evangelicals Should Vote for Joe Biden.

Garrett Jones
Politics

Are you torn this election? Are you, like me, a pro-life Christian wondering that if you vote for Joe Biden you may be throwing away your integrity for voting for a pro-choice Democrat? I want to try and put forth a reasoned argument for why we evangelical Christians ought to distinguish ourselves from the political Right (which has never looked more unchristian than now), break our imaginations free from any violent fallout from Trump losing, and why, in this historical moment, we should ALL vote for Joe Biden in this 2020 presidential election.

I'm reckoning with my own white privilege. It's hard.

I'm reckoning with my own white privilege. It's hard.

Garrett Jones
Justice

Privilege is the negative, spoiled, counterfeit version of Favor. Privilege is favor that got put on the shelf and turned stale from disuse. It is the expectation of benefit solely based on position, power, or promise of influence. To put it simply, privilege is favor without courage. It is the opposite of 1 Corinthians 13 Love. Privilege seeks its own, protects itself, dishonors others, delights in evil, and does not rejoice with the truth. Privilege will win at any cost to maintain its own position or power, and do it precisely at the expense of others. For self. Against others.

Comforters, Please don't say, "God is in control."

Comforters, Please don't say, "God is in control."

Garrett Jones
Catharsis: Determinism

While those words may bring comfort to some, it has always brought a heavy onto my heart. I used to not be able to articulate why that “security blanket” felt so heavy, so stifling…so suffocating, until after many years of walking with Jesus gave me the courage to call it what it is: a load of religious shit.

If you aren’t aware of how shitty it is, I’ll try and help spell it out for you.

Prayer works, but not the way we want it to or think it does.

Prayer works, but not the way we want it to or think it does.

Garrett Jones

I would like to propose a new conceptual model for prayer—a model that I believe more accurately reflects the metaphysical nature of prayer than the old model many of us may have grown up with. The old model is: We have a request, a need, a want, and we submit our request to Heaven’s technical support helpdesk (probably Zendesk) for either an approval or rejection of our request. The mode of this request-transfer isn’t wrong or obsolete. Jesus used it himself. But he also challenged it and taught a higher way of prayer—he invited us into a place of intimacy and authority that transcends the helpdesk kind of prayer. How do we pray like that?

You will get whatever you focus on. That's a promise and a warning.

You will get whatever you focus on. That's a promise and a warning.

Garrett Jones

It appears that the biblical authors saw faith as a way of seeing—a way of envisioning the future with hope-inspired imagination. God has given us this incredible gift of being able to shape the world into the vision we have for it. The tools we use are all different, but the effect is the same: our feet and fingers translate what we see (or hear) in our imaginations to physically manifest in the form of art, food, music, architecture, or economic and political solutions. Faith is our ability to see and shape the future into whatever vision we foster on the inside, good or bad, negative or positive.

Should Women be Portrayed as Superheroes? A Critique of the Worldview that says No.

Should Women be Portrayed as Superheroes? A Critique of the Worldview that says No.

Garrett Jones

Don’t believe for a second that women are any different from men in this ability to receive inspiration and encouragement from superhero movies. It is a very good and necessary thing. Around the world, women—many who have been abused, oppressed, or told that they need a man because they are incapable of strength and courage on their own—who watch these movies feel released. They begin to believe that they, too, can be powerful—not necessarily leading to taking up kick boxing or buying combat boots or “trading in their skirts”—but rather because deep down inside the soul of every women, there is a longing to be free and powerful. It demands the freedom to be inspired and to dream even bigger. Through these films, women everywhere were affirmed that they, too, were made in God’s image, to exhibit strength and power. We all know that physical strength is not where true power lies. True power comes from a much deeper place. And women have as much access to that inner source of bravery-inspired action as men do. 

Shall We Accept Good from God and Not Trouble?

Shall We Accept Good from God and Not Trouble?

Garrett Jones
Catharsis: Determinism

Let’s back up to the beginning—to the most oft-quoted verse from the book. After the disasters strike, his wife tempts him to curse God and die, suggesting that all of his religious practice and integrity have amounted to nothing. Job replies, “‘Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?’ In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” (Job 2:10 NIV)

The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect

Garrett Jones
Catharsis: Determinism

It is said that if a butterfly in China approaches a tree and decides to go left instead of right, the effect of its decision and the flap of its wings can cause a hurricane in the Caribbean. This popular insight is meant to highlight the effect of the smallest first causes on a macro-level. Calvinists use this chaos theory thought-experiment to support their claim that God must control everything, including the flaps of butterflies’ wings (and everything else from quantum particles to meteors). Otherwise, everything would be in constant chaos.

Empire and Anarchy versus God's idea of Government

Empire and Anarchy versus God's idea of Government

Garrett Jones
Catharsis: Determinism

The surprising miracle of the Bible, which is still the best selling book in the world, is this simple fact: It was written by the hanged, by the executed, by the oppressed and downtrodden, and NOT by the executioners, NOT by the kings, NOT by the military generals or the victors. This is a very impressive feat. It is a celebration of the underdogs of history. It is the voice of the slaves, the women, the minority peoples, the pushed around, shoved around, beat up and displaced people of the world.

Slain from the foundation of the world?

Slain from the foundation of the world?

Garrett Jones
Catharsis: Predestination

Was “Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world?” Most of us got this notion from the NIV translation. It gets the first half of verse 13:8 right, but still wrongly uses “from the creation of the world” to modify “the Lamb that was slain.” Other translations use the phrase to modify when the names were written. It’s easy to see there’s confusion even among the scholars around where this phrase belongs.

Chosen "before the foundations of the world..." If not predestination, what then?

Chosen "before the foundations of the world..." If not predestination, what then?

Garrett Jones
Catharsis: Predestination

Ephesians 1:4 “God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God's presence before the creation of the world. God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan...” (CEB). Along with the shocking revelation of the Gentiles inclusion in the family of God, it was just as surprising that anyone could become family with God. God's plan to make (any) people his sons and daughters through adoption was only just being understood at the time of Paul’s writing—the first generation of Christians.

Romans 9. If not Predestination, what then?

Romans 9. If not Predestination, what then?

Garrett Jones
Catharsis: Predestination

Romans 9 has intimidated more believers regarding predestination than probably any other passage in Scripture. Romans 9:18-21 “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use.” (NIV)

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