Tim Suttle
Patheos
Kansas City, MO, United States
Contact Tim
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Past articles by Tim:
Why Evangelicals Need Lent
Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell used to tell a story about a mission he flew in his F2H Banshee off the coast of Japan in 1950. He had missed the rendezvous point when his instruments mistakenly picked up a signal leading him away from his aircraft carrier. Lovell felt hopelessly lost as he flew circles in the dark → Read More
Why Do the Nations Rage?
"So, I refuse to rage with our nation. I will get on with the hard work of loving my neighbor, loving my enemy, loving the poor and marginalized. I will not hate these poor, pathetic, and powerful white men. Their world is passing away. I will not hate my friends and family and neighbors who continue to be deceived. → Read More
Why Corruption Matters
Corruption is what we call it when someone surrenders their integrity–their sense of wholeness and moral character, their basic humanity–for the sake of money, sex, or power. Corruption is a dehumanizing force that renders human beings less than fully human. Corruption is the basic failure to keep faith with the human family by abusing one’s … → Read More
Faith Isn't Just About Beliefs: Faith is About the Direction You Are Moving In Your Life
History always has its thought police–the people who want to force others to submit to their version of the faith. However well meaning, these folks miss a central truth: The trick is not to force people to believe the same things. The trick is to stick together in friendship even while in deep disagreement; … → Read More
Finding Integrity on the Political Right
I was nineteen years old when I showed up to work for a summer at Kanakuk camp outside of Branson, MO. I had my dates wrong, and was a full day early. So one of my supervisors, Doug Goodwin, let me tag along with him on his 24 hour break. Before we left he was … → Read More
Gun Rights and the Virtue of Forbearance: The Act of Refraining from Exercising a Legal Right
“My message to lawmakers in Congress is: Please! Take action. Ideas are great. Ideas are wonderful, and they help you get re-elected and everything. But what’s more important is actual action, and pertinent action that results in saving thousands of children’s lives … We can say, yes, we’re going to do all these things… thoughts … → Read More
How Contemplation, Not Ambition, Leads to Happiness
“Each of us aches for significance, meaning, uniqueness, preciousness, immortality, and great love and great beauty in our lives. This yearning is congenital and incurable. We are as Plato said, fired into life with this divine restlessness in us. But our madness comes… when the pressure for a cure for our mortality and insignificance gets … → Read More
What is a Prophet?
I grew up among Southern Baptists who taught me that the main thing prophets did was predict the future. It took Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination to teach me how the scriptures view the prophets. Brueggemann taught me that the prophet’s main job is not to tell fortunes. The prophet’s first task is to tell the truth about … → Read More
Top 25 Tom Petty Songs of All Time
Tom Petty taught me what Rock and Roll was all about. I think I was in 7th grade when I bought Damn the Torpedoes (on 8 track). That low-strung guitar & high voice (like mine). I sang along for untold hours. Awhile back, Tom Petty was asked in an interview why he always played every single … → Read More
Economics as America's Sovereign Religion: Is it Time for a Reformation?
The most powerful religion in the Western world is no longer Christianity. It is economics. It can actually be quite instructive to consider economics not as a science or sociology but as a religion, complete with doctrines, priests, and constant references to faith. So says John Rapley in his essay from The Guardian last July. “Think about it. Economics offers … → Read More
Reading the Bible Through Neuroscience: Is Your Brain Different From Moses’ Brain?
What can neuroscience teach us about how to read the Bible? → Read More
Stop Blaming the Politicians – We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess
There’s a theory that contends politicians don’t lead the culture. Politicians reflect the culture. Washington isn’t leading so much as following what they see in us. I keep having these conversations with people in which they trash politicians. At the mere mention of Trump or Pelosi or Washington they immediately wash their hands of all personal responsibility … → Read More
DACA is Literally the LEAST we can do: Here's Why Ending it is Stupid
As for my community, we invited these children and their families into our church. We helped them fill out the paperwork and promised them that our government was trying to do right by them, to protect them, to allow them to take full part in the life of our community. → Read More
The Economy No Longer Works for Average People. Here's Why.
It's clear that rich people are the only ones getting richer. Here's why. → Read More
America's Wisdom Problem
It’s possible that as a society, we have lost our access to wisdom. Sure, we have a lot of smart people in our population. And there are even a few wise ones scattered here and there. But on the whole? We seem like a people who have been seduced by foolishness and folly. Our collective lack of … → Read More
How to Pray When You Don't Believe in God: Some Perspective from Frederick Buechner
On my sabbatical I’ve been slowly reading back through the trilogy of Frederick Buechner’s memoirs. I’ve read them all more than once, so for variety’s sake I took them in reverse order – Telling Secrets, Now and Then, The Sacred Journey. The middle book contains what has to be one of my favorite bits of … → Read More
Reporters Are Actually Forced to Have Integrity
I’m so tired of hearing the fake news meme, especially because true reporters are actually forced to have integrity. Here’s what I mean. The phrase fake news entered the American lexicon during the 2016 presidential campaign. Headlines like “FBI Agent Suspected In Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide” were completely fabricated. This particular article, written … → Read More
Is This What Revolution Looks Like? If So, The Church Is Blowing It
We may be living through a period in history that is every bit as revolutionary as the revolutions of 1848 that swept through Sicily, France, Germany, It... → Read More
A Fanatical Devotion to Death
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about what he termed: a fanatical devotion to death. He wrote, “When death is the end, then earthly life is everything or nothing.” I’ve been pondering those words this morning, and wondering: how many of us live with a fanatical devotion to death? What he means is that when we believe death is [Read More...] → Read More
Who Would Jesus Deport?: For the Christian, Immigration Isn't About Politics or Economics
I am raising my voice in opposition to the prospect of the United States Government rounding up and deporting millions of our neighbors because they do not have legal immigration status. I’m doing so as a Christian and as a pastor. Because, for the Christian, immigration isn’t about politics or economics. Immigration is a matter [Read More...] → Read More