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Fleming Rutledge

@frutledge.bsky.social
5K followers 107 following 160 posts

Episcopal priest, theologian, author of "The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ" and many other books. Wife, grandmother. Working on the fault line between evangelical and progressive. Romans 11:32.

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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Hoping that March 28 will be the biggest protest in US history. I hope to be present. Find your local No Kings event to make it clear that America rejects the regime’s brutality at home and abroad. app.sosha.ai/s/MFZyjXEU
app.sosha.ai
Join me at the next No Kings Day
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
I have been back on Twitter for some time now. I still pretend that the little blue bird is there! not X
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Hello, it's been a long time. I got off being active on Bluesky but miss people like you. Ironically I lost almost all my Twitter followers when I switched and when I came back to Twitter they mostly did not come back! Serves me right. Tell me about your new parish with Sunday School for all ages!
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
This is a time when I miss the reach of Twitter. This is an appeal to take very seriously. And pulpits are mentioned. I could wish that I was still in the pulpit with a congregation that I know and love...the best setting for an act of courage like this. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
These are very moving, and very helpful for understanding as well. Devoted parents must work hard over a period of decades. May the results be a reward in themselves.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
I'm drifting away...I hate to disappoint anyone who has "liked" my posts and I appreciate each of you very much. I won't go back to what was Twitter but I miss the energy. I'll stay here but won't be active. My energy now is focused on the care of my husband. Jesus is Lord...nothing else matters.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
King Charles III sent a message about the Pope's death. He spoke warmly about his meetings with Francis, then gave thanks for "this faithful servant of Jesus Christ." The Queen spoke of her faith in Jesus in her last Xmas messages, but I have never heard KC3 name him so clearly before. A good thing.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
I got an email from a young theological student who was not happy to hear an Easter sermon about "the resurrections that happen in our lives." How rare it is to hear a sermon that declares with Tom Holland (see link below) "THEY SAW SOMETHING." And because they saw something they changed the world.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
This is one of the best Easter sermons I have ever heard/read. I have heard Ben deHart preach often enough to be able to summon up his passion, energy, and seriousness...plus a rock solid biblical faith. open.substack.com/pub/bendehar...
open.substack.com
What the Resurrection Does
I believe the Resurrection of Christ actually happened.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Here is my Easter present to everyone. Here is an avowed nonbeliever (so he says...😉) and my new friend, testifying to the truth of the Resurrection more convincingly than any Easter sermon I've ever heard or ever preached. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry77...
youtube.com
Tom Holland: Jesus' Disciples Saw SOMETHING. (Clip)
YouTube video by Speak Life
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Willie James Jennings' Good Friday sermons are now on YouTube. Look for them on the St Thomas 5th Ave website. I know a thing or two about preaching the Seven Last Words...this is at the highest level of theological drama. We listened to two of them tonight and the rest tomorrow. What a blessing.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
I apologize for the impropriety of pointing to my own work on this day....but since there is so little Good Friday preaching going on now in the churches, my two (2) books of Good Friday sermons may be of help to some, God wiling.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Tomorrow, Good Friday, Willie James Jennings will be the Seven Words preacher at St Thomas 5th. I wouldn't miss it. It saddens me that the three hours of preaching that ruled when I was younger barely exists any more. I was honored to preach 35+ (lost count) Good Friday services. What happened?
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
There are wonderful opportunities online for Holy Week. I just listened to Andrew McGowan at St Thomas 5th tonight... saintthomaschurch.org/events/the-m...
saintthomaschurch.org
[Holy Week 2025 Triduum Maundy Thursday] The Mass of the Lord's Supper
Thursday, April 17, 2025 @ 5:30 p.m.Sung by the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. Sermon by The Very Rev. Andrew McGowan, Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School and McFaddin Professor of Anglican Stud...
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Good point there!
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Yes!! you are right!
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
There's a problem with the much-loved Holy Week hymn, "My song is love unknown." It's moving, but it's all about "my" vs. "they." Contrast that with the greater (IMO) hymn, "Ah, holy Jesus": Who was the guilty? 'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee; I crucified thee. See them at Hymnary.org
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Andrew McGowan is one of the most respected thinkers and leaders anywhere in the business of theological education. He is also a remarkably incisive commentator on the dire situation we are in. It's not preachable, but preachers today have got to get a grip on what this Australian is saying.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Dear friends, no one can fathom the depths we are suddenly in, just these last two months. The future of America the Beautiful is gravely endangered. As we enter Holy Week, may we be instant in worship, prayer, and Scripture--to strengthen us for a gospel witness as the Spirit moves we know not how
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
My spoken words are actually pretty incoherent. I should put this in better sentences!
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Thank you very much. You are a well-read online person! Craks and Grape Juice is a splendid platform. Pray for Jason...he is being treated for serious cancer for the second time. Yet he is doing his best work in spite of it all.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Its occurs to me that observance of Holy Week is a profound moment of truth for Christian faith. Deep rooting in the traditional liturgy, when it is not modified beyond recognition by trendy manipulation, is an antidote for the kind of "Christianity" that we see propping up the MAGA ideology.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
This is beyond belief: Jim Wallis' book (among many others) banned at the Naval Academy. The "Christian" beliefs of JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, and other cohorts are so twisted as to be unrecognizable. religionnews.com/2025/04/07/m...
religionnews.com
My book was just banned from the US Naval Academy library
(RNS) — Book bans are an aggressive, systemic form of lying. This one takes aim at key texts at the intersection of religion and racial justice.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Read EIiza Griswold's recent acclaimed book *Circle of Hope* for a devastating account of an "informal" church...(not that she's into the "formal" church particularly, LOL)
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Val Kilmer. Never mind Batman, Top Gun, etc. His Doc Holliday is the most mesmerizing. I'm not interested in most of Tombstone but I've viewed it 3 times to see Doc. He's my huckleberry. And I've used "It's not revenge he's after; it's a reckoning" to help interpret God's ultimate purpose vs. evil.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Watch for the name of Moumen al-Natour. According to the WashPost today he is emerging as the leader of a non-violent movement against Hamas. The short Wiki account gives the basics. I will be fervently praying for him. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moumen_...
en.wikipedia.org
Moumen al-Natour - Wikipedia
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Nobody preaches the way Andy Buchanan does. Don't even think about trying it. But any sermon of his will give you a shot of adrenaline. My husband and I listen to him a lot. Here's just one (website of Galilee Church, Virginia Beach) www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gB9...
youtube.com
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost | 11/3/2024
YouTube video by Galilee Church
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
"Jesus is Lord, and everything else is bull...." --Stanley Hauerwas (and Will Campbell chiming in) Thanks to Jason Micheli for this 😘
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
O Lord of the nations, your ways are hidden. Human history contains such suffering, so many evils. Yet great historians have acknowledged the extraordinary staying power of American democracy thus far. We look to you for leaders to emerge in our time of desperate need. In the Name of the one King.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
David French is one of the best writers about our present crisis and the responsibility of the churches. Follow him here and on many other sites.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
We Episcopalians lost so much when we gave this up. I grew up with it from early childhood, being in a Morning Prayer parish. It comforts me still, just as it was with the "offensive" phrases still in place.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
I've been continuing my study of the American Revolution which I have been working on for several years now. It's very therapeutic. I have always thought that the "committees of correspondence" connecting patriots throughout the colonies might be a model for resistance in the church of today.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
I was electrified by the splendid Fareed Zakaria, talking with brainy Ezra Klein on Ezra's podcast. It's long, but it's riveting and DEEP. If you don't have an hour and a half, start in the middle and listen to their testimony about Christianity. Find it on the usual podcast video sites...
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
I'm frustrated not to be in the pulpit these days, not that I think I am so special, but there have to be people out there who are gifted by the Spirit to be Elijah before Ahab. Elon Musk thinks he is the King of the Universe. Literally. Where is The Church? Let me know if I am missing something
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
I try not to be a "royalist"...which means ignoring my roots in Anglophilia...but this is impressive, I think. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
independent.co.uk
King Charles meets Zelensky at Sandringham in show of support for Ukraine president
As Keir Starmer acts as a bridge between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky to broker peace
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
I believe in God the Father maker of heaven and earth... That is the bedrock. But I also derivatively believe in the gift of God that was the founding of the USA and I believe that "an angel was in the whirlwind" of our founding. Now we must resist its destruction. www.google.com/books/editio...
google.com
Angel in the Whirlwind
Angel in the Whirlwind is the epic tale of the American Revolution, from its roots among tax-weary colonists to the triumphant Declaration of Independence and eventual victory and liberty, recounted b...
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
I'm always rooting for Nashotah. I was surprised when you stepped down. You are a treasure and I hope you are still going strong! Gal: 1:3-6
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Because Pete is posting some nauseating content he thinks we should see (and he's right), the "noise" is unavoidable sometimes. Alas.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
open.substack.com/pub/jasonmic...
open.substack.com
“Sir, we would see Jesus.”
Fleming Rutledge on the Transfiguration
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
This is often noted. But Paul's famed chapter of exhortation begins with "Therefore"! Romans 12 comes after 11 chapters of combustible proclamation...followed by ch. 15 with its crystal clear illustrations of the dynamic (dunamis) power of the Spirit. Therefore Paul can get away with "let us" 😇
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
If you are going to read a Bluesky site, let it be Pete Wehner's. He is one of the most valuable newsreaders/commentators with clear Christian commitments that we have. Maybe THE most valuable. He writes for The Atlantic among other reliable sources. @peter-wehner.bsky.social
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
😍
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Warm greetings, friend! Now I am just trying to recover my lost "followers." You are the best thing I've seen in weeks. I will never forget you and my visit to Nashotah. May our Lord continue to give you the joy in faith that you give others.
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Preaching and teaching the gospel should never be hortatory, but revelatory. A sermon should not end with "let us..." but with promise--a scriptural promise from the Father in Jesus Christ with the power of the Spirit. (and by the way, politicians should never say "I promise you...")
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Fleming Rutledge @frutledge.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
I found this in the FT today, quoting from art critic TJ Clark: Today's left-wing critique is "humorless, condescending, predictable." I'd almost forgotten what began to turn me away from the hortatory, bien-pensant rhetoric in my seminary and denomination in the 70s. To this day, it is prevalent.
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