Matthew Burkholder

Warning: The following is a brutally honest, religiously charged article about a 30 year old's Christian experience. I don't get it. I don't remember completely not believing it. I don't remember completely believing it. I've wandered away from it, beat others up with it, ignored it, immersed myself in it, been saved by it, been lost by it. I've learned from it, but it's confused the hell out of me (or into me). It keeps me up at night, it helps me fall asleep. It makes me angry, cry, laugh, cower and wonder. I love it. Part of me hates it. I've watched it bring people together, I've watched it tear people apart. When the Bible refers to itself as a "two edged sword", I can't think of a better metaphor. I've spent the better part of a decade slowly biting away in the form of a theology degree on the meal that is Holy Scripture. Last year I went back to college full time after a two year hiatus, and I've had more restless nig...

My good friend Andrew Barley is a huge Neil Young fan. He also happens to live in Fort McMurray and work in the energy sector. Here is what he had to say. Disclaimer: if you're interested in winning friends and influencing people, don't do what I'm about to do. Dear friends on both sides of the oilsands arguments, we all suck. If you aren't going to be objective in how you deal with the topic of environmental stewardship and the mining of oil, you should probably just stop talking about it. Yes, I get it, Neil young hurt your feelings or you applau d the things he's said. The good/bad news is that your emotions don't matter in the discussion. What Source: Financial Post matters is objective reasoning and sound science. People need to use FACTS not OPINIONS. Supporters of oilsands(I am one, for the record), you need to accept that there are LEGITIMATE concerns that HAVE to be addressed and stop shoving your fingers in your ears and singing lalala when f...

As some of you know, on a monthly basis I receive emails from a variety of people for people with the first initial of "M" and the last name Burkholder. Sometimes these emails contain pretty personal information, and I almost always try to contact the "mburkholder" and let them know they are using my email address. Sometimes I have a little bit of fun with them, and this was just too good to pass up. Start from the bottom if you want the context of my message. On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 3:25 PM, Matthew Burkholder  < mburkholder@gmail.com >  wrote: Please remove me from this conversation, you are using an incorrect email address. Please also tell Mike, or Meredith, or Merlin, or Mandy or whomever is accidentally using my email address to learn their address and stop using mine.  However,  if this was your way of letting me in on your secret government "Citizen Ninja" workshop, I would be honoured to train in the ways of ninjutsu.  I am...

One people group that Christians love to use as an exam ple of how not to live are the Pharisees. Jesus challenged their hypocritical lifestyle, and often went toe to toe with how they lived, eventually creating so much tension that these religious leaders sought his execution. It's easy for Christians to point fingers and play the "Pharisee" card when they feel others Christians have missed the mark of true Christian living. It surprised me to learn that the Pharisees actually were one of the most beloved and popular groups present in 1st century Jewish life. The Pharisees represented the idea that if the people of God lived a pure and holy life, God would rescue them from their Roman overlords. Consider the Pharisees the heroes of the "blue-collar", working class 1st century Jew - they held out hope that God would reward those who lived a righteous life, and punish those who didn't. To add to the confusion, the Pharisees and Jesus seem to have more in c...

It's been an interesting day reading all the comments, blogs, posts, arguments, picture captions and petitions today regarding the GQ interview with Phil Robertson. Some of them have been interesting, but for the most part, they have been down right disappointing. You can't help but notice the gigantic chasm between the gay community and the Church. Like most dysfunctional relationships, each group has attempted to paint a black and white picture of the (seemingly) high level of animosity between the two. From (some) of the church's perspective, the LGBT community is hell bent of destroying all of society, and ushering in an era of evil the world has never seen. What I find strange about this, is that if the Church is founded on the Holy Spirit, and has lived for two thousand years in almost every cultural context imaginable, I don't think we have anything to worry about. Furthermore, if you do a little bit of history on the Church, you realize that is has struggled a...

A friend of mine recently started a pretty huge debate regarding evolution on his facebook page. I normally try to stay out of these debates because I find them quite frankly, irrelevant to the Christian faith. There was a time when I spent a lot of time reading and researching the different views, but as I've gotten older, they've seemed like a side show to the gospel. I am quite aware of the claims by certain fundamentalist that if you reject a literal creation, you somehow undermine the entire truth of scripture. I've sat through several Ken Ham lectures, and read lots of books on creationism, and this is certainly an all or nothing, black or white claim I find extremely frustrating. For this reason, I very much appreciate you saying: "I do not make belief in a six-day creation a  necessary  mark of orthodoxy or a  necessary  mark of a Christian." There certainly are people who do, and I appreciate this viewpoint entirely.  However, I've been wanting t...

I'm excited to announce that a new author has decided to contribute to The Invisible Image. Andrew Barley is a very close and dear friend to me and I am sure that you will appreciate his thoughts on a variety of subjects. I am looking forward to reading his work, and I am sure you all will be challenged by what he has to say. Hopefully we can keep each other motivated to keep this blog current!