Well, this is am embarrassing sort of message.

I blog, and speak and whatnot. And you guys hear me, or read me or whatever, and want to be my Facebook friend. At any given time I have 3-4 friend requests. You want to be my Facebook friend and, well, I don’t know you – meaning, we have never had a conversation, never exchanged emails, never shared a beer or watched a movie together. I would even count twitter interactions, and you and I have not even done that.

So, I am not going to friend you. Nothing personal. I am just trying to create a safe space for me and my family.

If you just want to stay up with my goings on, please follow me on twitter.  That is where the action is, anyway.  If you just hate twitter and only use Facebook, well, I have a page there that gets auto updates, you can read and comment on my stuff, etc.  Please feel free to become a fan.

Look, I hope you don’t take this personally. But if your ego is dependent upon whose 48×48 photo is on your page, maybe you need to reconsider some things.

“It’s hard to make something that’s interesting. It’s really, really hard. … Basically, anything that anyone makes. … It’s like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that’s written or anything that’s created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity. It’s all tending toward mediocrity in the same way that all atoms are sort of dissipating out toward the expanse of the universe. … So what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is such an act of will. … That feels exactly the same now as it did the first week of the show.” ~ Ira Glass

“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen . . . with our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our sheer relentlessness—and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe . . . . Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” ~ Arundhati Roy

Last week my sister-in-law and her kids spent the night with us.

And what is a visit to the Aunt and Uncle’s house without donuts?

My post from yesterday, Here I Stand, seems to have struck a chord. I am grateful it meant so much to so many people.

If you are new here (my rss statistics tell me a bunch of you are), let me show you around.

As you may have caught on, professionally I minister to the very poor and homeless here in Raleigh. What gets me in trouble is my belief that God is far more gracious and loving than I could ever be. I am fortunate to be supported in this by a wide ranging group of folks – church folk, hipsters, punks, gays, lawyers, writers, artists, school teachers, home makers, atheists.

Some of these folks help us in practical work, and others support us financially and still others retweet my stuff ridiculous numbers of times. We are incredibly grateful for all of that.

My wife and I live in downtown Raleigh (but not the part most folks want to live in) – sorta figuring that it is hard to tell poor people “I know how you feel” if the gunshots did not keep you awake last night, too. We have a very spoiled cat named Felix, who was born in squalor in a trailer park until we took him away from all of that. Because of his origins, my wife says she always pictures him sounding like Larry the Cable Guy if he could speak.

This is my personal blog, so I won’t talk a lot about the practical aspects of my day to day work here – if you want to know more about that, you might want to check out our Love Wins Ministries site and blog. Also, you might want to read my disclaimers, where I remind you that the words here are mine, and mine alone.

I think a lot about the intersection of faith and culture. I believe one can live a life of faith that leads you to try to change the world. I think most people choose faith because they want to be a better person – but sometimes it seems faith makes people kinda jerky. I wonder about that a lot.

Because I spend my life among the marginalized, I am anxious to create a safe space here for those the church and culture has left behind. That means if you are pretty conservative (in the real meaning of the word – you want things to remain the same), you might be a bit uncomfortable here sometimes. But you will be respected and allowed your voice. We just ask that you do the same to others. Some people call that the Golden Rule – you may have heard of it.

Anyway, thank you for visiting. I hope you will stick around and chime in.

Some people have recently said some things that lead me to think there is confusion about me and what I do – so I want to take a minute to clear things up.

I lead a group of people who minister to and love the very poor and homeless. And as long as that is all I talk about, then most folks have no problem with me or my work. But when I talk about gay issues, or gender issues or imply the church ever did anything wrong, folk become very concerned. And tell me that if I stray off homeless issues, they won’t support me. Or even be associated with me. In fact, some have actively tried to stop me. One guy called churches that I work with and told them I was a false prophet and heretic. (As we say in the South, “bless his heart”.)

Let me be loud and clear about something. The same thing I see in Jesus that leads me to have concern and love for the very poor and homeless puts me squarely on the side of anyone who is on the margins.

Let me be even more clear:

I have only one desire, one mission, one calling. It is to reach out to those-

who are broken
who are hurting
who are marginalized
who feel forgotten
who are passed-over
who are weeping
who are unloved
who have been so hurt they are afraid to love
who have been told they are outside of God’s love
who have been hurt in the name of God
who are not sure there is a god
who want to give up
who are so lonely they ache
who have only seen God used as a weapon
who have serious questions they are afraid to voice
who are afraid to hope anymore
who have been told their sexuality or gender separates them from God
who  have been been made to feel less than fully human -

and to tell those people that God is on their side.

Jesus called them the poor in spirit. And he called them blessed.

And said they get the Kingdom of Heaven.

If you have this God thing figured out, if you’re convinced that you do all the right things that make your God happy, if you have no questions, no doubts, no fear – you aren’t poor in spirit – you’re rich in spirit.

And Jesus doesn’t have much of anything to say to you.

Sorry. I know that isn’t what you wanted to hear.

But that is what I am here to say… and shout… and live out.

If you are on the margins – God is on your side.

If you’re on the margins, this is good news indeed. The early followers of Jesus called it Gospel (which is just a Greek way of saying “good news”). If, however, you’re the one putting people on the margins – with your actions, your attitudes, your privilege, your assumptions, your power – that is anti-gospel… or anti-Christ. And you should repent (which is just a religious way of saying reconsider your position) – because you’re working against the stream. Against the way the world now works. Against the very will of God.

I’m an extrovert and I like to be liked. I want to not offend people, and I want people to agree with me and I want people to continue to support the work I do so I can feed my family. I want all of that.

But at some point, I had to accept that either Jesus is Lord – or he isn’t. Either he was telling the truth, or he wasn’t. And if he is, and if he was, well, then that requires certain sacrifices on my part. Like giving up being liked by everyone. Or being popular. Or being financially secure.

No matter how scary that is. But secure in the knowledge that being scared and unsure brings me closer to the very heart of God.

If you are offended by the way I reach out to the marginalized, if I don’t use the right code words to let you know I belong to your club or I spend what you think is too much time on the issues of people you would rather I not focus on – in short, if my carrying out my faith has offended you – well, I am sorry, but I cannot in good conscience do otherwise.

And if this causes you to think I am a false prophet, or mistaken, or deluded or heretical or beyond orthodoxy or whatever – well, I understand. And if this means you don’t want to be my friend or you don’t want to be associated with me or support my organization or you want to tell the whole world what an evil person I am and how I am leading folks to hell – well, you do what your faith leads you to do.

And I will go where mine leads me.

After all, we all sacrifice ourselves to one God or another.