I have been increasingly alarmed by the dehumanizing tendencies of new technologies – communication at the speed of instinctive reaction. I needed a slow practice, and handwritten letters felt perfectly inefficient and appropriate.
Improving our ‘backpack’ self-awareness – for our sake and the sake of others
We all carry invisible backpacks or baggage. Just make sure the contents are appropriate and the straps are secured. And be aware of others. They’re carrying a load, too.
Believing in God as prophetic resistance: LGBTQ Christians and the salvation of everybody, anyway.
This question – whether or not anyone can believe in God without reward – drives the work and witness of so many of my LGBTQ faith heroes who practice Christianity despite being rejected by and cut off from “the true Church.”
Can Kanye help spark a radical, new Christian Reformation?
The Church needs a reformation from “empty,” mainstream expressions of Christian faith profiting from indulgences of cheap grace, miscarriages of justice and deception paraded as sound devotion remixed over gospel beats.
My 5-year wait on the kidney transplant list is nearly over. Two churches have carried me through
During this arduous journey, my current church and my former church have been the Church for me in countless ways, both tangible and imperceptible.
The fundamental issue in the ‘go home’ controversy: women’s agency
By denying women their agency, some Christians are forgetting that women are created in God’s image, and as such they are capable of making their own decisions in response to God’s call in their lives.
El asunto fundamental en la controversia de ‘Vete a casa’: el poder de decisión de las mujeres
Al negarles a las mujeres su poder de decisión, algunas personas cristianas olvidan que las mujeres son creadas a la imagen de Dios, y como tales, son capaces de tomar sus propias decisiones en respuesta al llamado de Dios en sus vidas.
Booing Trump felt good, momentarily: the hidden danger of giving undue attention to evil
The common exhortation of “Don’t look away” reminds us that a lack of vigilance can make us oblivious to the ways in which our political environment can change us for the worse. But an ironic danger lurks beneath the surface.
‘Victimization’ and injustice: Why the new film, ‘Harriet,’ evoked anger in me
I felt anger rise in me as I watched “Harriet,” the new film about the famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman. The anger came from an awareness that the distorted use of victimization by the oppressors and the enslavers is still prevalent 100 years after Tubman’s death.
Bourbon, boobs and bedrooms: Will the Body of Christ choose people over purity?
Purity codes and other forms of Christian cleanliness have excluded people for centuries, keeping out entire communities who did not follow one way of living, one way of interpreting scripture and one way that works for one group of people – namely, those with all the power.
Evangelical women superstars: power, celebrity and influence within the façade of submission
In many ways, the superstar women of evangelicalism use the same tools to access power, not just at home but also in the public arena – the rhetoric of submission, conformity to gender norms and resourceful influence within the constraints of patriarchy.
Twin doctrines of slavery and complementarity: time for evangelicals to ‘budge’ on biblical interpretation?
John MacArthur’s public pronouncements open a door to issues that confront us all when it comes to faith and doctrine, biblical authority and hermeneutics, church and family.