Thoughts of suicide hounded me even though I was preaching every Sunday about abundant life. I had suffered from depression and anxiety long before the stress of Ph.D. work. Now the pain was compounded by taking a double full-time course…
Trump supporters’ silence about his threat for vengeance
In the 1990s, my friends on the far left were upset that I favored impeaching and convicting President Bill Clinton for lying under oath. When Democrats on social media were lauding Garth Brooks’ singing of “Amazing Grace” at President Joe…
Trump or Harris? An open letter to undecided and to open-minded voters
Author’s note: This article began as a response to multiple family and friends who engaged me in constructive correspondence about the presidential election. Dear Kind Family and Friends Who Have Written Me About the Presidential Election: You’ve sent me…
Little League coach’s speech: Home run, foul or something else?
If the speech were a hard-hit baseball, it was high, deep and down the baseline. Some say it was a home run. Some say despite feeling and looking great to many of the “home-team fans” (aka Christians), it went foul….
Christians’ promotion of corporal punishment harms bodies, minds and the gospel
“Spanking? Well, you know, the Bible says, ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child.’” Actually, it doesn’t. The harsh teacher Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow spoke this popular misquotation of Proverbs 13:24. Even the website of…
Maybe non-Christians prefer drag queens to tattletales
“Teacher! Billy stuck his tongue out at me!” You’re the teacher. Take a moment to think about how you’d respond. Many folks would say, “Billy? Did you stick your tongue out at Jimmy? … Tell me the truth. … OK….
Maybe we are the sharks
We fear shark attacks despite being far, far more likely to die in a car wreck while driving to the beach than being bit by a shark once at the beach. Shark attacks make the national news precisely because they…
Why I marched in a Pride parade and what I experienced
I’m not gay. On the Kinsey Scale, I’m a 100% heterosexual male. I don’t understand what either straight women or gay men see in men. I think we’re gross. I mean, I can say such-and-such male is “an attractive person,”…
The canary in the American judicial mine Christians are ignoring
With so many warning signs of rising theocracy being ignored, what’s one more? Metaphorically speaking, in terms of U.S. religion and politics, we might pass off our “shortness of breath” over politicians’ chronic dishonesty as our just being out of…