Hi, I’m Randy Greene. I’m a guy seeking God, pursued by Christ, and living in grace, and all of me is a work in progress. Thanks for being a part of this online community with me.
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Latest Posts
The Humiliation of Wisdom
At the cross, God gave the ultimate demonstration of reorienting the world, a revelation of the ways in which God’s priorities often did not align with the priorities of humanity. By yielding to the cross, Jesus Christ embodied a narrative that Israel’s prophets had proclaimed centuries before—that God’s ways were not the ways of humanity, and that God had chosen the path of weakness to shame the strength of the world. Read More
Learning Reconciliation
Peace is costly—it is not made by ignoring pain or hurt or history. Peace comes with honestly and humility, a commitment to seeing and listening to one another. Read More
Rejecting or Reforming Institutions of Abuse
In recent months, nearly every week has contained a stark reminder of the immorality running through Hollywood. But are there other institutions we support that we should be challenging? Are there other industries that tolerate or glorify abuse that we should be speaking out against? Read More
Exploring the God-Breathed Nature of Scripture
In the book of Joshua, God commanded the Israelites to take the land of Canaan by conquest and utterly destroy its native inhabitants. If a nation attempted to do that today, we'd call it mass genocide. If someone said God had told them to do it, we'd call them a religious terrorist. How can we make sense of the violence of the Hebrew Bible in light of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ? Read More
Whispers of a Stronger Faith
In Whispers of a Stronger Faith: Stories of Faith and Discovery, I have chronicled my story of wrestling with the fundamentalist Christian worldview in which I was raised. This short Kindle book was released in October 2016, and you can pick up a copy for just $0.99 as a Kindle book or for $5.99 in paperback.
All Posts
What an Emo Band Taught Me About Reading the Bible
What an Emo Band Taught Me About Reading the Bible
One of my favorite rock bands from high school recently released a new album. When I listened to it, I was not expecting to get a lesson on how to read the Bible, but that's exactly what happened. This post is all about assumptions and perspectives.
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The Symbolism in my Tattoo
The Symbolism in my Tattoo
I recently finished a tattoo on my forearm. In total, I spent about 18 months working through the design and I get a lot of questions about what it means, so I thought I’d put together a quick blog post explaining some of the details.
Read MoreCondemn the Bigotry, Not the Bigot
Condemn the Bigotry, Not the Bigot
Bigotry is unequivocally wrong. But as we work to achieve justice for all, let's be careful that we don't fall into the same snares of prejudice that we condemn.
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Beauty Grace Illusion Lie
Beauty Grace Illusion Lie
Life is complicated, messy, hard to understand. And that's exactly what makes it beautiful.
Read MoreDiversity Is How We Let God Shine Through Our Cultures
Diversity Is How We Let God Shine Through Our Cultures
What is culture, and how does it impact our faith? How do we measure the positives and negatives of a particular point of view? In this post, I explore the value of understanding our own culture and the cultures of others as we examine our lives.
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What the Nashville Statement Actually Says
What the Nashville Statement Actually Says
The CBMW, an American evangelical group trying to revive destructive patriarchal norms in our society, recently released a statement on “biblical sexuality” called the Nashville Statement. Much of their language is cloaked in allusion to help them gain an audience within mainstream evangelical Christianity, so I've provided a line-by-line interpretation based on my (critical) following of the CBMW and my personal background in fundamentalist evangelical Christianity.
Read MoreWhat Israel Teaches Us About the Idolatry of Security
What Israel Teaches Us About the Idolatry of Security
Christian in the United States today grapples with a desire to control and preserve its own future. Illustrated by the rise of the Religious Right in the past few decades and a recent resurgence in Christian governmental politics, we are concerned with how God works in, through, and outside of our national structures of government. But perhaps the question we should be asking is where our hope comes from. Do we rely on God for our security, or do we seek it instead through our own systems of safety and predictability?
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Still Crusading
Still Crusading
The Crusades, one of the darkest stains on the Christian Church in all of its history, still echoes in Christianity today. Many of the systemic abuses at the root of Christian warfare are gaining traction in American culture today. The life of Jesus Christ shows us a different way to live – we must know the darkness of our own past if we hope to live into the light of Christ today.
Read MoreLosing Christ Within the Empire
Losing Christ Within the Empire
Today is the eve of Independence Day, the peak of the American Christian's tendency to conflate the worship of God with the celebration of our national heritage. One of the most important conversations in this era of our culture involves two problems set up by the early church: the rise of politics within the body of the church, and the wedding between the Christian faith and the empire of the world.
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Questions About the Masculine God
Questions About the Masculine God
The words we use carry deep meaning – far beyond the dictionary definitions of the words themselves. Are masculine terms for God the best, most helpful words for us to use today? Over and over, Scripture refers to God as "Father" and other male depictions, so is there a justifiable, biblical reason to do anything different when we talk about God?
Read MoreGod’s Chosen: Wrestling with God and Humanity
God’s Chosen: Wrestling with God and Humanity
Time and again, God seems to have chosen the screw-ups of the world to change history. Why is it that those who wrestle against God and humanity are so often the bearers of God's promise? In this post, I look at the story of Jacob's wives, Leah and Rachel, who were far from what we would consider "good Christians," yet became the mothers of the twelve tribes of Israel.
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Scripture to Me
Scripture to Me
I was asked to describe my view of Scripture, so I wrote this short reflection as a depiction of how the Bible has come alive to me in recent years. Scripture is no longer a reflection of myself, but is a summons to know the world of life.
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