life is my religion
Blood is thicker than water – the birthday reflection
Read more: Blood is thicker than water – the birthday reflectionTurning 50 is a divider that cuts through life with the sharpest edge. It calls for contemplation and reflection more than it conjures up visions and dreams of the future. When my father turned 50 he lightheartedly announced that he was now in the “death half” (döhalvan) of life. It is the time when (hopefully)…
Books that changed my life
Read more: Books that changed my lifeThe catalyst that changes the direction of a persons life can be very differnt depending on who you are, for me it often starts with a thought and from having the thought I would seek out books to learn more and the books would help me to shape or resahpe my reality. This series is…
The god of passionate lovers…
Read more: The god of passionate lovers…We love, because we are loved. Eros calls to us from the deepest depths of our worldly existance. Built into the very core of reality is the desire for union, the desire to fall back into oneness. To enter into union is to step, naked and vulnerable into the holy of holies, the inner sanctum…
I’m the man in black!
Read more: I’m the man in black!People ask me why I bother with the church. Why I bother coming back to christianity at all after all that has happened. I think the truth is, first of all, that I never left. My faith has (although shaken at times) always been an integral part of who I am and why I have…
Healing, long overdue…
Read more: Healing, long overdue…Yesterday I was invited to speak at EKHO (A swedish organisation for Christian LGBTQ+ persons). The talk was held at “Ågesta kursgård” which is also the site of the Salvation Army Officers school in Sweden and the place where I did both my application conference (for becoming a Salvation Army officer) and later my captains…
Notes from the margins….
Read more: Notes from the margins….It is rather ironic to have a middle aged, white, man talk un-ironically of marginalisation. And yet one should not judge a book by it’s cover and rather take in the often surprising adventure that is hidden inside. Not everything is what it looks like, rather perception often misleads as it always carries our bias…
Eros is calling!
Read more: Eros is calling!I am watching the first season of Sandman on Netflix and I am taken aback by the powerful message about the importance of hope. Where in the end of episode for “No hope in hell”, the main character Morpheus, dream of the endless beats Lucifer Morningstar by invoking hope as the ultimate power. In the…
Theology – Why does it matter?
Read more: Theology – Why does it matter?Theology, the word means words or teachings about theos (god or the divine). Do we really need more words about the divine? After all there are miles of shelves gathered around the libraries and bookshelves around the world with all the words. My feeling is that theology matters more than ever. It has been said…
#meetoo
Read more: #meetooThe last couple of days my Facebook feed has been flooded with the #meetoo tag highlighting sexual assault and harassment against women in our society. The thought that “ordinary men” need to be made aware how ubiquitous the problem with violence against women is in itself not a bad one but rather a well intentioned…
Today I am angry
Read more: Today I am angryI am angry at the person who picked up a gun and murdered all those people in Orlando, I am angry at all the people who thinks that any kind of violence is justified in any situation. I am angry at the Christians who think that anything could justify these horrific actions. It doesn’t matter…
The straight and narrow
Read more: The straight and narrow“For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matt 7.14 NRSV) There is this idea, because of this verse, that being a Christian should be difficult and hard and to that effect the church has through the centuries created different sets of…
The refugee crisis is more important than LGBTQi rights, sexuality, tantra and spiritual nonsense
Read more: The refugee crisis is more important than LGBTQi rights, sexuality, tantra and spiritual nonsenseI have had this expressed to me, maybe not in those exact words but the sentiment is there. Why focus on LGBTQi rights and human sexuality when there is poverty, war and other atrocities going on in the world? Coming out of the closet and breaking up with shame Coming out of the closet, owning…
Earth, birth, blood and sexuality
Read more: Earth, birth, blood and sexualityIt is that time of year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Or at least that is the excuse we have to go all nuts with lights, chocolate, food and presents. In many ways Christmas has become the holiday of commercialism … which in one way is fitting as money is earth energy. But…
Reclaiming eros
Read more: Reclaiming erosLove is such an important word. Regardless of who you are and what path you follow love is somehow at the centre of things. Love is a many splendoured thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love! (Moulin Rouge) In the sacred scriptures of the Judeo-Christian tradition there are four…
Oh my, what a week!
Read more: Oh my, what a week!Today is fathers day and I am promptly staying in bed, drinking tea and slowly looking at the world and my life with awe and wonder. Earlier in the week I had a lunch with a friend who told me that to boost her ego she would look at the girls from school who used…
Why I am religious AND spiritual
Read more: Why I am religious AND spiritualIt has become very popular in the west to state that one is “spiritual and not religious”. For years I have felt that Religion was a bad thing and that religious was a derogatory term. For me religion was all the man made traditions and customs that many times where contradictory to scripture and inhibiting…
The extraordinary in the ordinary
Read more: The extraordinary in the ordinaryThis morning it is easy to believe in magic. At the sun slowly rises out of the aegean sea and the sound of crashing waves envolopes my experience. The old sea battering this old Island saturated with myth and magic. The little boy in me stirs filled with wonder and awe. The wonders of story,…
Staying open…
Read more: Staying open…For most people it is hard to open the heart. To just allow love to flow freely in and out. It is hard because we are so guarded, I think especially here in Scandinavia. A friend of mine argued yesterday that it has something to do with the cold and the light. We crawl deep…
What now? Oh, that’s what!
Read more: What now? Oh, that’s what!As I have been at this crossroads for a while now, the dust seems to settle and maybe there is a clear path ahead. It feels scary and thrilling at the same time. I have for some time followed a path led by the divine spirit whispering in my heart the way I should go.…
Losing my religion
Read more: Losing my religionAs we are walking away from organised religion there are a lot of interesting conversations going on around the dinner table in our house. Yesterday Hanna said something about the death of her ministry and how maybe she never felt quite comfortable with the title minister of religion. I think I can echo that thought.…
Opening up
Read more: Opening upIf you, like me sometimes close down your heart. Either knowingly or unknowingly. You also need to open back up. Personally I think this becomes a daily spiritual practice of opening up and staying open. This can feel scary if you close down your heart because of heartbreak or other emotional trauma. Many people once…
The mind is not infallible
Read more: The mind is not infallibleWe live in a society that has for centuries prioritised the mind. We have listened to Descartes who said Cogito Ergo Sum, I think therefore I am and so we believe that we are the sum of our thoughts rather than the sum of our being. God gave us the mind to protect the heart,…
I am the truth
Read more: I am the truthIn the Christian world we continuously repeat the mantra: Jesus is the answer, Jesus is the truth! Vi repate it over and over again and it most often seems to mean that outside the person of Jesus there is no truth. We seem to believe that Jesus statement means that everything else is untrue, lies.…
Feelings are not dangerous and unreliable
Read more: Feelings are not dangerous and unreliableIf you have been raised in church or spent a longer time as a member of some sort of church, then I am sure you have been told not to trust your feelings. I was certainly told time and time again that feelings are a roller coaster, they come and go and cannot be trusted.…
Self actualisation is not self-worship
Read more: Self actualisation is not self-worship“For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self … Therefore there is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering…
Seeing the divine in all things is not heretical
Read more: Seeing the divine in all things is not hereticalLook around you, what do you see? Are you not surrounded by grace? By walking talking miracles gifted with the gift of life and love? How is it that within the Christian church, it has become heretical to see and to point out the divine outside of the confines of our little community, outside of…
As you love yourself
Read more: As you love yourselfWhen the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,…
Loving the earth is not satanic
Read more: Loving the earth is not satanicIn the beginning when god began creating the heavens and the earths manifestations of god’s self of gods love, and god saw that it was good. And god created humans as embodied manifestations of gods consciousness, god’s glory and god’s love. God charged humanity to be stewards of the earth, to love it and care…
Tattoos are not evil
Read more: Tattoos are not evilIt is funny how a single verse in the bible can become so important to some people, important enough not to read or understand the context. You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft. 27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of…
There is no us and them
Read more: There is no us and themSomeone once told me that all dichotomies are false dichotomies. And maybe this is the most sinister but also the most widespread of them all. The very idea that there is us and them, the idea that we are somehow different *better” that them, whomever they are. In what may have been one of the…
The world is not without hope
Read more: The world is not without hopeI don’t know about you but I hear a lot of hopelessness out there when I put my ear on the wire. The internet is buzzing with naysayers and doomsday prophets telling us that it is too late, that there is no hope left. We might as well just hold on and enjoy the ride…
Life is not a warm-up for heaven
Read more: Life is not a warm-up for heavenThe whole idea of heaven, while hope inspiring, often corrodes and hollows out our everyday life. It is interesting to note that Jesus rarely spoke about heaven. To him, it seemed much more important and urgent to deal with life here and now. Heaven in the here and now. “Repent, for the kingdom of god…
Sex is not filthy
Read more: Sex is not filthyIT’S TRUE!! Not even when it’s really good! Not even when it’s long or loud, wet and rowdy. Sex is not even filthy when it is public or outside or taped. Sex is not filthy when it is between two men or two women. It is not filthy no matter what clothes we dress up…
Science is not secular
Read more: Science is not secularWe live in a secular society, which for most people means separation of church and state. We have this idea that church simply should not be political or involve itself in matters of state. In the same way we have this notion that church has nothing to do with science and that science have nothing…
Peace is not a circumstance
Read more: Peace is not a circumstanceMost people have had this thought, I know I have, If I could just find some peace and quiet, then I could sort out my issues and get on with it. Most people wait for the circumstances to be right, or work frantically to make the circumstances right to achieve peace. This need for quiet…
Love is not a theory
Read more: Love is not a theoryWe talk about love a lot, we say that: God is love! The scriptures say it over and over again, they even say that unless you are in love, saturated with love, bubbling over with love, you are not with god. And so we realise that love is necessary, it’s a fundamental part of our…
Sinner is not our identity
Read more: Sinner is not our identityI have heard it often spoken in churches, you are a sinner! We most often base this on a handful of verses out of scripture like the famous “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of god”. And so we fall into the trap where we think that we are what we…
Our humanity is not the enemy
Read more: Our humanity is not the enemyIt’s been around for a long time, the notion that the problem we have as humans is that we are in fact human. We call it the human condition. And so we aspire to be more than human, to be ‘spiritual’, to somehow leave our human existence and become something else. The problem is that…
Women are not inferior
Read more: Women are not inferiorThe title should be enough, that should be the end of discussion. However, since we are prone to get stuck in patterns based on fragmented readings of scripture we have to go deeper than just this statement. We have gotten stuck on a handful of bible verses about submission and male dominance instead of letting…
Art is not carnal
Read more: Art is not carnalThis is a blog post that should not need to be written. Art and artistic expression has been part of the church since it’s inception. And while art often is a physical expression (but not always, for example poetry) it is not carnal as defined by the false dichotomy of carnal/spiritual or materialistic as in…
Ministry is not a program
Read more: Ministry is not a programMinistry is an interesting word for many reasons, the most important reason is that it does not mean what most people assume it means. For me as a Swede it has double significance as it is one of the Christian buzzwords that do not exist in the Swedish language. The closest we get to the…
Grace has no exceptions
Read more: Grace has no exceptionsGrace, it’s such a beautiful concept. Grace an (undeserved) gift freely given. We read in the scriptures that god loved us before we knew about god, before we saw god, before we had our first god experience. God’s grace is scandalous, outrageous and completely free, for EVERYONE. There are NO exceptions! There are no…
Community is not a meeting
Read more: Community is not a meetingThe holy grail of church planting in my opinion is the building of a community. The way we traditionally do this is by planning activities in our church buildings and we put on meetings. That is we create structured environments in which people can meet and greet. I am not saying there is anything wrong…
The Bible is not a book of doctrines
Read more: The Bible is not a book of doctrinesAnyone who has seriously read their bible knows this is true. There are no clear doctrines found in the bible. If this was the case then all churches would adhere to the same set of doctrines but as we all know the universal Christian church has split into countless fractions all over tiny (or sometimes…
Church is not an adress
Read more: Church is not an adressIn evangelical circles we keep saying this, Church is the people not the building, but do we really understand it? The word church comes from the german kirche which in turn comes from the greek word kurios meaning lord. So the word church means “those who belong to the lord”, well you could of course…
Christianity is not a checklist
Read more: Christianity is not a checklistIt’s not! Ask yourself this, are you a Christian? If so, why are you a christian? Is it because you believe certain things? The right things? Is it because you do certain things? Or are you a Christian because there is a divine reality of love and you live or at least wish to live…
Jesus is not a religion
Read more: Jesus is not a religionWhile one can assume that Jesus may have been a religious man, Jesus himself is not a religion. He did not come to start a religion, he did not found a church and he did not write a sacred text nor did he ask anyone else to do so. I think if Jesus had intended…
God is not a belief system
Read more: God is not a belief systemIt is a simple truth really: god is god. God is not what we believe of god. God is not our theology or our doctrines. Since the dawn of time humans have had various ideas, religions, doctrines, theologies about god. God has remained god all that time. I will not say that god is unchanging,…
What is Salvation?
Read more: What is Salvation?I have been returning to thoughts about this the last couple of days in several conversations with friends. As an officer of the Salvation Army I think it is an important question that needs to be contemplated often. For many people Salvation is a word that is not used much, it is an antiquated religious…
Why authentic Christianity must fail
Read more: Why authentic Christianity must failA depressing title I know, but please bear with me and hear me out. After four years in a church plant where we desperately are trying to model and live out an authentic Christianity at the same time as we are trying to build a church community, I have come to realise that authentic christianity…
Love is my rule!
Read more: Love is my rule!It may seem to some the most logical place to start: God is love! This it is what I was taught as I took my first stumbling steps as a Christian. I was also taught that the bible is a love letter from god. This, however, struck me as a bit odd given the strangeness…
Life is my religion
Read more: Life is my religionThere where two trees in the garden. There was the tree that the first eikons (reflections of god) was told not to touch, you know the one with the “apple”. But there was also another tree the tree of life, it is interesting to note that god never told the adama (earthling) and his ezer kenegdo (lifesaver)…
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