Christian Mythbusters

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  Today, as the church moves through Holy Week and approaches Easter Sunday, there is a tendency sometimes for Christianity to turn inward. And so, whether you are hearing...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  You and I live in an age and in a time when bodies of water are admired and enjoyed. Very rarely are they feared or seen as uncrossable boundaries. Of course, this does...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  It has been beautiful, absolutely beautiful, to see the worldwide outpouring of support for the Ukrainian people, particularly those who are fleeing Putin’s war into oth...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  I mentioned last week how during Lent, members of my parish are reading the book The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus by Fleming Rutledge. The discussion fr...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  During Lent, members of my parish are reading the book The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus by Fleming Rutledge. It’s a very good book, hefty at around six...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  I believe one of the most profound challenges facing Christianity, facing our society in America right now, is a misunderstanding of the fundamental ideals that should g...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  In last week’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, I talked about the dangers fascism poses to our country right now, including where I live here in Grand Haven, MI. I tal...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  One of the unfortunate difficulties of the past couple of years is that language has become increasingly polarized and manipulated, with people claiming certain words an...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  Like many of you, I’ve been watching the escalating events in Ukraine and Russia with a fair amount of anxiety. Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding several thi...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  This past Sunday, one of the appointed Scripture readings in the lectionary cycle of our church was from the book of Nehemiah. The Hebrew Bible has been a love of mine s...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  At my congregation we have a tradition on Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Day that we’ve kept for several years now. We invite people to sign up to read from his sermons, lett...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  Let’s talk about weed. Yep, just when you thought your local progressive pastor couldn’t move any farther to the left. Here I am. Now, I bring this question up because o...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  As the church continues walking through the Twelve Days of Christmas (yes, despite what you may assume, given the number of Christmas Trees already thrown to the street...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  In his Christmas Message, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, drew our attention to a campaign that  our church put out in the late 1930s. Refug...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  The United States Supreme Court has decided to let stand an abortion law in Texas which bans abortion after six weeks and allows any private citizen to sue a doctor or o...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  Like many of you, I’m sure, I was distraught to hear the news of the shooting at Oxford High School in southeastern Michigan. That school is actually not far from Roches...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… According to stores, Christmas has been almost here since before Halloween. But for many families, the first weekend after T...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  It’s Thanksgiving week, a time set aside each year to gather with family and friends and give thanks for the blessings of life. With the lockdown of last year, many chos...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  As I write this week’s episode, deliberations have just begun in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse for homicide in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, along wi...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  Late last week, I read with interest the concerns of Detroit News columnist, Ingrid Jacques, who warned that “‘Fair and Equal’ could unfairly harm faith-based work.” As...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  Halloween is coming! At least, that is what my five-year old daughter has told me almost every day for the past two weeks. But now, this weekend, the wait will be o...

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  One of the best things about being a priest is that people invite you into these fascinating questions about God, the Bible, spirituality, and their lives. I had a...

A couple of weeks ago, another issue of people claiming the name of Christ while also acting contrary to the spirit of Jesus surfaced just north of Grand Haven, among our siblings in Muskegon. Fresh Coast Alliance, an organization that operates various homes for people transitioning from incarceration, in need of mentoring, and in need of outpatient substance abuse counseling, had a proposal for a...

As a priest and pastor, I always wince at this reading, particularly given how it has so often been interpreted over the years, the way it has been used to wound those who have gone through the pain and trauma of a divorce. So today I’d like to break the myth of what Jesus really means when he talks about divorce.

I know there are several churches, of course, that do still restrict the role of women… and also that the church has long unfortunately been complicit in misogyny and patriarchy. So, I thought this week I’d try to break the myth that the Bible is anti-women. Because, you see, it’s quite the opposite.