2 min 28 sec: app reading time
April 1, 2025
Dear Friend:
This is the best quote that came to mind when I woke up this morning. It was written by one of my favorite authors.
On April Fool's Day, we can say something that will make us laugh at the insanity of human nature, knowing that God is laughing with us!
In "Bird by Bird," Anne Lamott writes that "the mind frequently has its head up its own ass—seeing things in such a narrow and darkly narcissistic way that it presents a colorectal theology, offering hope to no one.”
Doesn't that statement describe most of what's going on in Christian and political circles today?
I am a Pastor. I read theological works almost every day. Even some of my own Seventh-day Adventist Christian acquaintances write stuff that sounds like colorectal theology instead of fresh air, oxygen flowing through the lungs. It sounds more like "waste" than nutrients to feed wholeness in the here and now!
Anne Lamott's phrase truly inspires a picture worth more than a thousand words. I have been against a backward theology of God for many years!
I don’t mean to pick on theologians and Pastors, though; there’s plenty of colorectal philosophy and psychology going on.
A professor of mine in Graduate School once described "logical positivism," the rigorously reductive philosophy of language that has dominated theology and philosophy in the Western world during the middle decades of the twentieth century, as “mental masturbation.”
Much of positive psychology used today in therapeutic settings, positive theology of hope and prosperity Gospel is simply mental masturbation. It doesn't produce anything, and it’s certainly not born in the heart of God.
Perhaps that's why I have always been "addicted" to comedians. They often say what I can not say in my sermons. Thank God John Stewart is back! George Carlin was my all-time favorite comedian. He said more “Gospel truth” about the human condition than most Pastors and churches can say in an entire life!
I affirm that God has reverence for nothing and laughs a lot at our human stupidity! Religion, on the other hand, reveres what's empty, idolizes what's wasteful, doesn't laugh enough, and worships a false god!
Given that we human beings are flawed (as Immanuel Kant called it "the crooked timber of humanity" and English author Francis Spufford referred to as "HPtFTU" [Human Propensity to F** Things Up]), imperfect, and often weird beyond logic and reason, yet we walk around with perfectionist delusions. I have always affirmed that laughter and humor are universal humanizers when nothing makes sense. Very often, ambivalence, mysteries, paradoxes, and contradictions need a good dose of humor to stop the obsession with analysis paralysis.
I read the Gospels, and I like to imagine Jesus and his entourage sitting around a campfire telling off-color jokes, using pedestrian language, or the disciples burping, farting, and laughing their heads off. Just like with my four kids when they were growing up with me.
Over the past twenty years, I have dedicated myself to exploring colorectal theology and awakening to the fresh air of God's presence, which energizes my existence.
Twenty years ago, the "Life Center" motto, driven by John 10:10, was a bold statement against colorectal theology while we chose to proclaim a theology of relational love and life in the here and now.
I admit that there is a lot about divine wrath and judgment in Scripture on which I was taught as a Seventh-day Adventist Christian to write hundreds of books on the colortectal theology of God. I get it!
God's theology of love and life, though, is what nurtures us in difficult times.
With you on your journey,
Pastor Harold