Jonathan Merritt - On Faith and Culture
Culture

The Gay, Conservative Christian Who Might Be Trump’s NATO Ambassador

“I am writing to tell you that I am gay and I am a Christian.”

That was the opening line of the letter Richard Grenell, a former United Nations official, sent his evangelical parents when he decided to come out in 1999. He had kept his sexual orientation a secret from them for years, but after he fell in love with his now-longtime partner, he knew it was time to get his personal life in order.

President Trump reportedly plans to nominate Grenell to be his ambassador to NATO, a position that would make Grenell the highest-ranking gay man in the new administration, and arguably the most visible gay Christian in America. Yet his appointment could potentially influence more than the country’s ties to the military alliance—by pushing conservative Christians to reconsider their approach to LGBT rights and equality.

CONTINUE READING. . . 

April 27, 2017by Jonathan
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Culture, Media

Watch This Stunning Illustration Of Religious Peacemaking From Tribeca Film Festival

A Hasidic Jewish man approaches a Muslim man on the streets of New York City. It sounds like the opening line to an inappropriate joke, but it’s actually a scene in a campaign put out by Tribeca Film Festival called “See Yourself in Others.” The stunning one-minute short film, which is posted below, features a diverse group of people walking around Manhattan wearing mirrored boxes on their heads to make the point that peacemaking begins when we learn to empathize with “the other.”

I was so impressed by this provocative short that I tracked down the director, Jared Knecht. Still in his twenties, he has already compiled an impressive resume with clients ranging from Redbull to Victoria’s Secret, and Compassion International to Crossway. Knecht’s short film “Skumaskot,” shot on location in Iceland, was a selection at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. (It’s stunning, and you should watch it too.)

Here we discuss the imagery featured in this campaign and why he believes society is failing to foster empathy.

CONTINUE READING. . .

April 27, 2017by Jonathan
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  • Just Mayan my own business. #dadjokes
  • Happy Valentine’s Day to the lonely and the left behind. To the abandoned and the abused. To the depressed and disappointed. To the heartbroken and heartsick. To the beat up, the beat down, the broken, the burned, and the betrayed. To all those who liberally gave love to people who didn’t deserve it, who didn’t handle your heart with care. To those who have waited a thousand nighttimes for love to arrive and are still empty handed. Happy Valentine’s Day to YOU. Today, may you be seen and known. You are worthy of the love you long for. TAG SOMEONE WHO NEEDS TO BE REMINDED THAT THEY ARE LOVED. 📸: @zed.910
  • We live in a polarized world where there is very little tolerance for those standing on middle ground. If you fail to take a hard stance on a hot button issue or big decision, you’re labeled a “coward” and dismissed. There’s no time to think, pray, research, converse, investigate, or marinate. Even still, there are many of us who embrace the ancient practice of discernment and are able to speak that holy phrase: “I don’t know.” In such a time, unleashing that utterance is courageous not cowardly. Good luck to all of you wrestling crocodiles today! Image: @jmesch // #speakgodbook
  • “One day, everything will go back to the way it was,” he told himself. But, just then, he remembered that new dreams are far better than dead ones.
  • The gospel according to #MarieKondo. 🗑 (Tag someone who needs to hear this!)
  • Every human is both the jailer and the inmate in their own life. We are incarcerated by our bad habits, dark tendencies, and hurtful propensities. Yet we all possess the power to disimprison ourselves. But here is the catch: the incarcerated person has to WANT to be released. A few years ago, a person stumbled into my life who, as it turned out, was imprisoned by a slew of bad behaviors—compulsive lying, chronic selfishness, a penchant for gaslighting, a general lack of empathy, and dangerous intimacy habits that placed their physical health at risk. I knew this person was stuck, and I badly wanted them to be set free. I worked overtime to help them, but the situation left me depressed as I watched the person spiral—the loss of jobs, the loss of longtime friends, the loss of faith, the loss of any sense of identity. My counselor says that my internal logic was similar to the thinking that ruins compulsive gamblers. You’re sitting at the table and the house is taking all of your money, but you don’t get up because, well, you’ve invested so much. Whether it is $5,000.00 or 5 years, a time comes when you may have to admit that you’re losing, not winning, and then find the courage to push back from the table and walk away. Luckily, I woke up one day and realized a truth I’d missed all those years: I was not THEIR jailer; only mine. I didn’t possess the key to THEIR prison, only my own. They didn’t want to be let out, and there was nothing I could do to set them free. A lot of you have people like this in your life. A cheating spouse, a friend who is a serial liar, a backstabbing coworker, a rebellious child, an emotionally abusive sibling or parent. It’s time for you to accept that you do not possess the power to disimprison people who are content living behind bars. Stop pounding on another person’s prison door and set yourself free. . 📸: @anthony_batista

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