For a Valentine’s Day episode of This American Life, they told love stories, but not the usual kind. One was a quirky little tale about a couple, Richard and Linda, who had been married nine years and had two kids….
Dear Tennessee legislators: You are driving people away from faith
Dear Tennessee representatives who voted to expel two of the Tennessee Three: I know most of you profess Christianity. I hope you and yours had a joyous Easter. I wish our state could have. Alas, the venomous viper of power…
The other epidemic: Fear
The more I read the news, the more I become convinced there’s another epidemic currently facing the nation. It seems to be particularly acute in churches right now, too. And while it’s an epidemic largely of our own making, it…
The Devil’s tool
When I was the age of my grandson Sam, I was enamored with the song “Ya Got Trouble” from the musical The Music Man. I even memorized it and performed it once or twice for some gatherings. It clearly did not…
The lips of a Tyrannosaurus Rex
I have been obsessed with dinosaurs since childhood. I already loved them before Jurassic Park was released in 1993, but that film certainly solidified both my love and imprinted images of my favorite dinosaurs. And whenever anybody is an awesome-enough-person…
Contemporary Christian fiction? An excerpt from Bastille Day
On April 4, my novel Bastille Day was released from Raven Fiction, a new literary imprint of Paraclete Press. It debuted on Amazon as their best-selling new work of contemporary Christian fiction, and I have many and complicated feels about…
The death and resurrection of Donald Trump: A warning
It is at once completely unsurprising, but also completely shocking. During Holy Week, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R.-Ga., was being interviewed after a rally she held in New York City to protest the arraignment of Donald Trump. In the…
When a boy gets kicked out of a men’s restroom, it’s time to speak up
Our regular contributor Rick Pidcock has a young son who, like his father, wears beautiful long hair. Recently, his son came out of a restaurant’s men’s room crying because an adult man told him he wasn’t allowed to be in…
These 7 spiritual principles helped us lead our congregations through a pandemic
A rabbi and a pastor sit down to write a book. It sounds like the setup to a punchline, but it actually holds deep meaning for both of us. Ministering to a congregation is a unique privilege few get the…
Expelling dissent: America from Roger Williams to the ‘Tennessee Three’
On March 29 in the year of our Lord(?) 2023, hundreds of young people, many of junior and senior high school age, descended on the Tennessee state house in Nashville to demand government action to reduce the threat of school…
Three encounters of Jesus with women that should change us and our evangelism
It’s a lofty goal, to be sure, but we must continue to learn from Jesus how to approach people as individuals who have their own sacred history. Today’s social sciences are teaching us about the complexity of each one of…
Why such a need for literalism?
Why does a literal reading of the Bible hold such attraction for Christians? More to the point: How has belief in literalism led to Christian nationalism, to such awful ideas about how immigrants should be treated, to discrimination against women…