This appears originally at Christian Research Net— A few minutes ago the emerging church group TransFORM retweeted the below:

RT @zoecarnate: Is God ‘a recovering practitioner of violence’? http://is.gd/50B4q

Samir Selmanovic also retweeted the above, adding his own comment:

RT @zoecarnate: Is God ‘a recovering practitioner of violence’? http://is.gd/50B4q. (Samir: “Yes, we are.”)

The link takes us to Is God ‘A Recovering Practitioner of Violence’? by TransFORM member Mike Morrell where we’re told:

I was just watching some sessions from 2004’s Emerging Theological Conversation that I attended at All Souls PCA Church in Decatur with Jasmin and Seth in the fall of 2004 – some five years ago. Walter Brueggemann was the presenting scholar, and Brian McLaren, Tim Keel, Troy Bronsink and others were hosting the dialogues with him…

It’s interesting that what disturbs us sometimes the first time we hear it ends up comforting us the next time we hear it. More explosively than his challenging theses, it was at this conference that Brueggemann posits that “God is a recovering practitioner of violence.”

As Geoff Holsclaw summarizes – “By this he means that God used to think violence was a good idea, but then gave up on it. However, like all addicts, He has relapses. Of which the cross is either the final deliverance, or another relapse.”

Of course this is potentially disconcerting, as we don’t like to imagine the repentance of God – and yet, this is precisely what is suggested in Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan…