Why "Heresy of the Week"?

I thought I'd start by explaining the name of this blog....

In the mid-90s, I led a small house church in southwest Houston. As a volunteer teacher who had never been to seminary, and therefore never was taught the 'orthodox' interpretation of certain passages in the bible, I was naive enough to think that if I just read the scriptures in good faith, armed with a Strong's concordance and maybe a Webster's dictionary, I could get the gist of what the authors were trying to say. Silly me....

What happened often enough to become a pattern was that I would read a passage in the bible, apply ordinary reading comprehension skills, together with maybe looking up a word or two in the concordance, and then realize that the conclusions I had come to weren't exactly what I'd been used to hearing in Sunday School. I'd run these things by the group for feedback, and maybe occasionally get some correction or direction, but for the most part, I'd get something like, "wow, that IS weird...".

As a kind of joke, I took to introducing anything I knew would be sort of counter-cultural as "the heresy of the week". Can't say it really happened every week; just seemed like the thing to say. If it seemed like a biggie, I'd introduce it as the "heresy of the month", or even "heresy of the year" if it seemed really outrageous. Mostly, though, it was just the "heresy of the week".

That name stuck, and continues to crop up in my teaching--not every time I open my mouth, but often enough to constitute a pattern. This blog, then, will be a continuation of that pattern. I will share my thoughts, old and new, on life, the Christian scriptures, and current events. I'm not deliberately trying to irritate you, but don't be surprised if it happens. That's part of the pattern, too....