Category: Modern Heresy
More “Oil in My Lamp” rejected verses
Give me reasons for your doctrine
Keep on thinking
Give me reasons for your doctrine, I pray
Give me reasons for your doctrine
Keep on thinking
Keep on thinking to the break of day
sing hosana…
Give me thoughts in the shower
Keep on posting
Give me thoughts in the shower, I pray
Give me thoughts in the shower
Keep on posting
Keep on posting to the end of days
(over to you)
Rejected verses for “Oil in My Lamp”
Give me memes in my feed,
Let me ROFL,
Give me memes in my feed, I pray!
Give me memes in my feed,
Let me ROFL,
Let me ROFL
Till the break of day.
Sing Hosanna, etc.
Give me gumption for my unction,
Let me function,
Give me gumption for my unction, I pray!
Give me gumption for my unction,
Let me function,
Let me function
Till the break of day.
Sing Hosanna, etc.
(this one for the students doing last-minute revision)
Give me milk in my coffee,
Let me focus,
Give me milk in my coffee, I pray!
Give me milk in my coffee,
Let me focus,
Let me focus
Till the break of day.
Sing Hosanna, etc.
Let’s see what you’ve got…
Do you remember when our parents told us not to believe everything we see on TV? Nowadays, it feels like we have to teach them not to believe everything they see on the Internet.
Does the alt-right hate the light?
I have some fresh heresy for you. It will probably upset Tommy Robinson, so you know it is going to be good.
We will start with a well-known passage:
Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.
John 3:19-21, Bible, NET
I’m going to ignore the bit where it links up with a passage about how you must be saved and look at the surface truth. Specifically, Strong says of the word translated as “light” here that it “is used to denote truth and its knowledge, together with the spiritual purity congruous with it”.
Thank you for bearing with me in the setup. Now we can read this as “everyone who does evil deeds hates the light of truth”. Does that remind you of anyone or any group of anyone in the current culture and political climate?
For me, this describes the pathological way some folks cling to destructive and disproven things, such as those in the Flat Earth movement, the AntiVaxxers, the alt-right, those who insist wokism is what is wrong with the country, and those who teach empathy is evil. Don’t even get me started on how some seem to think that Trump is akin to the second coming, with all the evidence to the contrary. The weird, obsessive belief that Antifa is a terrorist organisation rather than a movement against fascism is another one that flees from the light of truth.
So here’s my heresy for today. Those groups that hide from the light of truth prefer darkness (to be hidden) because their deeds are (or contribute overall to) evil. (No duh!). Therefore, the deeds of the (mostly) far right cannot be deeds that have “been done in God”.
Not that most people who’d be willing to read a blog called Heresy is Brill should need to be told that.
To sum up, we should shine the light of truth in all directions to repel the schemes of those who love to remain hidden in darkness.
Dear USA, Martin Luther would not approve
Martin Luther taught that love, peace and patience were the way of the Christian, not war. Just saying.
Do you disagree too?
Chjose your own heresy: Empathy – the eighth deadly sin?
As you may recall, the eight classic sins are: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth, and empathy.
I don’t remember that last one. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention that day.
According to author Joe Rigney, empathy is a sin and a counterfeit version of compassion. I’m not linking to the book because why should I? That’s an odd line to take, yet it allows Joe and others like him to say that verses like “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15) is not a direction towards being empathic.
If you want to justify your behaviours that Jesus and the rest of the Bible characters would probably have a problem with, I guess you could choose this heresy. I can’t recommend it, but who am I?
Shall we change the 14th of February?
While society and capatlism tries to force us all to spend money on required, optional, enforced, voluntarily given tokens to prove our love, let us rebel and start the cult of inviting people you care about over for snacks and a silly movie.
Be the resident alien
To be a Christian is to deny yourself and follow Christ, so Christianity rubs against every earthly culture. It is meant to. You should be a decent, good-mannered citizen, but you should never feel at home. You are to be a resident alien.
The Christian Case for Liberalism, Tim Farron
Facts – does your heresy have them?
You beautiful heretic, I like the way you think.
Jesus told his followers to pay their taxes
Tax avoidance is a sin, folks.
(Does that make D. Trump a sinner?)
Commit to facts and truth
In an era of “post-truth”, this is a vital heresy.
Peddlers of oppression fear an informed population.
Jesus didn’t have a job
Just saying…
Not assisting someone is a sin, I think
Jesus taught that if you failed to help the least of the people, you failed to help him.
This will probably upset the religious right, so don’t tell them that feeding the poor and housing the homeless is a biblical responsibility. (Don’t even get started on visiting people in prison)
Jesus was a refugee
His parents fled their country for fear of the authorities killing their child.
It turns out that Christmas is for everyone not just Christian nationalists
I wasn’t original after all
I recently posted a heresy shower thought that Jesus was a refugee. It turns out, a preacher got there first. Who’d’ve thunk it?
We can see this through the different characters in the story and some of the imagery; a pregnant young woman, a husband scared of scandal, a baby born in the manger, Magi from the East who have to risk speaking to Herod in order to ascertain the birth of a new King, shepherds in the fields struggling to make ends meet and a family at risk who have to flee and take refuge in Egypt. All of these characters in their own circumstance, were vulnerable.
Jesus the migrant: a Christmas journey, Rev Dr Israel Oluwole Olofinjana
This should really upset Tommy Robinson.
I started a thread of Bible quotes that Christian nationalists kind of have to ignore for their heresy to work. Here’s one that they will really hate:
The resident foreigner who lives with you must be to you as a native citizen among you; so you must love the foreigner as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:34, NET
The world needs social sovereignty
In a move of modern heresy, the Mastodon blog has called for governments to get out of corporate-owned social media and to federated and free social media. Big business will hate that, but truth should probably be free.
Ask your government if this heresy is right for them (it is).
This should upset Tommy Robinson
I woke up today to a news headline on social media about the CoE putting out a message to Tommy Robinson’s Christian nationalism that this is not how the faith works at all.
Here’s the skinny.
C of E to challenge Tommy Robinson’s ‘put Christ back into Christmas’ message
Church leaders respond to far-right appropriation of Christian symbols with ‘Outsiders welcome’ message
The Church of England is to launch a poster campaign aimed at challenging the anti-migrant message of Tommy Robinson, whose “Unite the Kingdom” movement has urged its supporters to join a carols event next weekend to “put the Christ back into Christmas”.
The posters, which will go on display at bus stops, say “Christ has always been in Christmas” and “Outsiders welcome”. They will also be available for local churches to download and display over the festive period.
The Guardian, Harriet Sherwood, Sun 7 Dec 2025
While I, for one, like a bit of heresy, I still thought it might be fun to find bible quotes that Tommy Robinson would find upsetting.
Here’s the first one – you can’t be a nationalist and a Christian because Christians are not part of this world.
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world.
John 17:14-16, NET
For a whole load of work calling Robinson’s heresy what it is, the JPIT (nice folks, terrible acronym) have put out a whole bunch of resources for churches to use.
This bible passage should upset the Christian right
“I will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination; those who commit adultery; those who break promises; and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, who refuse to help the resident foreigner and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Malachi 3:5 NET (emphisis added)