Eric Miller

Reading, writing, and all things Jesus.

My Substack:

[Eric Miller @eric_sblog]

My newest substack is the first in a series of three posts about why I have stayed a Christian despite moral, intellectual, and relational trials. This first post addresses my being both a Christian and bisexual.

https://t.co/VVXgenSZIP

[Ed Stetzer @edstetzer]

People often assume that if God wanted to sort out the world, he would use raw power. But in my interview with N.T. Wright, he points out that God's agenda for the kingdom looks like the Sermon on the Mount—sending in the meek, the brokenhearted, and the peacemakers.

Watch the clip and listen to the full episode of the Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

-from the @WycliffeHall chapel at Oxford University

[Jeremy Wayne Tate @JeremyTate41]

This is the most Catholic moment in modern history.

[Tim Hirschel-Burns @TimH_B]

I wrote about how the World Cup is the best kind of nationalism: one that allows pride in the local while connecting us to the universal.

To paraphrase Hobsbawm, a global community of billions seems more real as a tournament of 48 nations

[Paulina Guzik @Guzik_Paulina]

I just play it on repeat since yesterday:

"Hello Pope Leo XIV, I'm Renzo, I'm six years old.
I'd like to ask you a few questions."

Renzo, a little a boy from the poor neighborhood of Barcelona, stole the show yesterday at St. Augustine's parish, a place where Pope Leo admitted he "feels at home."

Renzo in the sweetest way ever asked those questions to the pope:
Do you like soccer?
When you were little, did you want to be Pope?
Why are my mom and dad worried?
Why does my dad have so many jobs?
Why do bad things happen to some people and not to others? Whose fault is it?
Why are there so many people living on the streets? Does no one see them? Does no one help them?
How can we help if the world is so big?
Does God want there to be poor and rich?
Why are there so many lonely grandparents, if they are so important?
And one last question ... Must we always forgive?

What pope Leo answered the boy was really moving.

"Regarding whether I like football, I confess that I play tennis and I enjoy it very much, but I also appreciate football; in fact, during my years as bishop in Peru, I liked to follow how some local teams were doing; and now, as Pope, I have also received football clubs and sports groups," the pope said, adding that "sport is important because it helps us grow up healthy in body and mind."

He said that as World Cup unfolds, "many will be watching the matches. Football reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off alone, but a path we learn to travel together."

"Whoever doesn't know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, hasn't yet understood the game. And whoever doesn't know how to live with others and for others hasn't yet understood life."

Answering whether he wanted to be Pope when he was little, the pope said: "Well, Renzo, I don't think so. I don't think I ever thought about it."

"But I can tell you something: from a young age, I felt the desire to dedicate my life to God. I didn't yet know exactly how or where the Lord would lead me. Over time, I discovered that Jesus was calling me to follow him as a priest, and that this path led through the Order of Saint Augustine."

"But this isn't just true for me," he said. "Every child is a dream of God. You are too. God desires the happiness of all and wants us, from childhood and throughout our lives, to have a heart like that of children (cf. Mt 18:3): capable of trusting, full of kindness; he wants us to be his friends and not turn away from him. Therefore, more important than asking oneself whether one will be a priest, doctor, teacher, parent, or anything else, is asking oneself whether one wants to be a friend of Jesus. Because friendship with Jesus gives us joy, sets us free, and helps us to see, step by step, the vocation and the path that God has planned for each of us."

Answering the point on injustices in the world, Pope Leo told the boy that "through the life of Jesus Christ, God shows us that, although there is suffering, he never abandons any of his children, because he has prepared for us an eternal joy where there will be no more sadness or pain. Let us have confidence, Jesus is with us, he helps us and accompanies us, and gives us strength to go through the difficult moments we may encounter in life."

Stressing that grandparents play a crucial role in families, the pope said: "Let us not allow loneliness and abandonment to become normalized in the lives of older adults. That is a very sad thing. Let's have our hearts open to all of them."

On forgiveness, he told Renzo and those gathered: "It does not mean forgetting by force, as if nothing had happened. Forgiveness means not letting hatred become the master of our hearts ... our willingness to forgive is a condition for the forgiveness we receive from God."
Video: Vatican Media

[Samuel 🇲🇽 @resisres]

🚨🇲🇽 President Sheinbaum TURNED DOWN her World Cup ticket over the ridiculous prices, choosing to gift it away and watch Mexico's victory with the people at a free local screening instead.

[Dean Ammi @AlgerianFooty]

🗣️ “I want to say thank you to Algeria for choosing Lawrence, Kansas.” 🇺🇸

The locals in USA are all getting behind Algeria. 🇩🇿

[Bart W. Édes @Bartapest]

@nahuelzn Happy to see him appreciated, while deeply disappointed in the cruel regime in Washington that turned him away.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The World Cup begins tomorrow, and many will watch the matches. Soccer reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off on our own, but a path we learn to walk together. Anyone who does not know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, has not yet understood the game. Anyone who does not know how to live with and for others has not yet understood life. #ApostolicJourney

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

George MacDonald was foundational to the fantasy genre & deserves a wider readership. Close friends with Lewis Carroll and a formative inspiration for C. S. Lewis, who made him a character in The Great Divorce. His novel Phantastes is an overlooked gem, sublime in its weirdness.

[Brad Wilcox @BradWilcoxIFS]

"Men who prioritize fatherhood may lose some sleep, gain some extra weight & enjoy less free time, but they can also discover a richer life with greater meaning, purpose & connection. And when it comes to brain health and mental fitness, becoming a father is one of the best things you can do." https://t.co/ddL9y5Ncci

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Here's the full chain of events that led to Trump storming out of his interview with Kristin Welker, beginning with her pressing him on the weaponization fund, continuing with her pointing out the baselessness of his "rigged election" lies, and concluding with him calling her "crooked or stupid" and leaving

[HJN🌹 @HJNRose1]

@DavidAFrench I have to give Kristen Welker credit for this interview. Trump showed his true colors.

[Joshua D Phillips @JoshPhillipsPhD]

How I first studied Shakespeare so I could actually learn it and understand what he was talking about:

1. I listened to audio versions of the play while following along with the text. Actors provide emotions/tone to help you understand the scene. This also meant I could stop when I needed to so I could look up words or context.

2. In a 3 hour play, I would stop about every 30 minutes and watch a summary or listen to a lecture about that section. Then continue to the next section.

3. Then I would watch a performance (usually on YouTube). Lots of Shakespeare performances on YT for free.

4. Now I can read entire plays or just certain sections, and I enjoy them. I actually know what's going on. I can appreciate the language (without wondering "What the hell does this word mean?")

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” C. S. Lewis

[Beth Moore @BethMooreLPM]

Those in the SBC who think I no longer should have anything to say about the SBC profoundly underestimate the power of love. I’d served southern Baptist women for 40 years by the time I left. And when I left, I left directly on their behalf because it became disturbingly clear to me that the SBC as an entity was more interested in protecting shepherds than the sheep entrusted to their care. When protecting the pulpit from women becomes a far greater priority than protecting women (& children) from an abusive pulpit, something is wrong. Which has been the greater problem: women trying to become your senior pastors or pastors misusing or abusing women?

My biggest concern is that what happened with the CRT witch-hunt will happen now in regard to women. The overreach resulted in numerous pastors, teachers and professors dropping the immensely important biblical teachings against racism rather than risk being accused of CRT. I heard from pastors at that time who preached against racism and already had emails Monday morning from people in their congregation accusing them of CRT. Because the difference wasn’t clarified, they lumped all of it into the one category. The aim became: shut every mouth to shut some mouths.

I pled for SBC seminary presidents and leaders to please clarify to pastors and teachers and, thereby, to congregations & students what qualified as CRT and what indeed was the proper and deeply rooted and needed biblical approach to anti-gospel racism.

Crickets.

I see the same potential here. I have never once fought for SBC women to take over church pulpits. I have esteemed and supported the role of male senior pastors. My own pastors would tell you that. If you think I was in the SBC trying to lead a revolution against men, you are clearly not familiar with my materials. What I believed then and believe now is that God has called both men and women to serve their churches and communities and proclaim the gospel. He has poured out his Holy Spirit on men AND on women, calling them to broadcast the good news.

You have beaten the drum loudly about what women in SBC churches cannot do. So, what CAN they do? Clarity here is essential. What is a woman to do who has been gifted BY GOD to teach the Bible, especially if her church has moved to the community group model and there is no Sunday school to teach?

Here is what I see on the horizon. If you leave these matters involving women so vague that it becomes about pastoral roles/actions rather than the title of pastor, it will shift to the subjective rather than objective. I wish I was naïve enough to think that wasn’t the point to some of these leaders but, sadly, I’m not.

What if that senior pastor doesn’t allow a woman on the prayer team to pray over people at the end of the service because he deems she is acting pastorally? What if the pastor sees that a woman’s Sunday school class of WOMEN is getting, in his estimation, a little too big? Can he just decide she acting pastorally and remove her from the role? Can she counsel people with her God-given wisdom and knowledge or would she be acting pastorally? The examples could go on and on. And, of course, I realize many would not use their positions to disesteem women but surely you and I both know countless others would. God only knows how many unqualified, unloving, mean-spirited men are in pastoral positions but the obsession remains the women.

I have no desire to see SBC women leave the denomination. I loved and flourished in that denomination. I want them to be able to flourish in their spiritual gifts. I want them to be esteemed in their serving inside and outside their homes. I want them to be able to serve Jesus and proclaim his glorious gospel.

I know I’m going to get hit here. That’s fine. But you should know I will fight for them to the death. Because I love them. And, yes, whether they love me or not.

[Atlas Press @realAtlasPress]

C.S. Lewis, this is what life boils down to at the end of the day

[Joshua D Phillips @JoshPhillipsPhD]

How are we graduating students without ever exposing them to Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Austen, Dickens, Twain, Whitman, Hemingway, Virgil, Dostoevsky, Homer, Orwell, Kafka, Dumas, Elliot, Achebe, Melville, Hawthorne, Bronte, or Steinbeck? (just to name a few)

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

"'The Castle' by Kafka remains for me today the most beautiful secret in literature."

Literature laureate László Krasznahorkai explains how his introduction to the work of Franz Kafka as a child sparked his interest in literature. He says, "Without Kafka, I would never be a writer."

Watch our full interview: https://t.co/crlwX95Kk1

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Mel Gibson spent $70M of his own money making two consecutive films in languages nobody on Earth speaks conversationally. They generated $733M at the box office.

The Passion of the Christ. Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin. $30M self-financed after every studio in Hollywood passed. Gibson marketed and distributed it himself through Newmarket Films. It opened on Ash Wednesday 2004 and grossed $612M worldwide, held the domestic R-rated box office record for 20 years, and remains the highest-grossing self-financed film in cinema history. His personal take cleared $400M.

Two years later he did it again. Apocalypto. Entirely in Yucatec Maya. $40M budget. Zero Hollywood actors. His lead, Rudy Youngblood, was working at a Lowe's in Texas when Gibson pulled him from a general casting call. Youngblood had less than a month to learn Yucatec Maya, performed every stunt himself including a 175-foot waterfall free fall and sprinting in front of a live 200-pound jaguar. The stunt coordinator called him "the purest athlete I've ever met." The film tripled its budget at $120M worldwide.

The part nobody talks about: the language barrier was the competitive advantage. When your audience can't understand a word of dialogue, every frame has to communicate through blocking, expression, sound design, and camera work. Both films play identically whether you speak English, Mandarin, or Swahili. The subtitles are almost beside the point.

Two dead languages. Two unknown casts. $733M. Gibson funded every dollar himself because nobody in the industry believed the math would work.

The math worked.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

We must, then, avoid the “Babel syndrome,” namely the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretense that a single language — even a digital one — can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance. This is the risk of dehumanization: building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means.