By Doyle Sager Springtime — a season of hope, right? Not for everyone. According to studies, more suicides occur in the warm, sunny days of spring and early summer than any other time of year. In the northern hemisphere, suicides…
Why do so many Christians think we need government to prop up Jesus?
In a recent Facebook post, Franklin Graham praised Indiana’s House of Representatives for passing a “religious freedom” bill “that would protect business owners who want to decline to provide services for same-sex marriages.” Religious freedom, which has been a hallmark…
Same-sex marriage and the intractable knot of freedoms
Same-sex marriage has tied American society into a seemingly intractable knot. Advocates of one great value pull a thread that ultimately tightens and restricts another cherished principle. And vice-versa. Human rights vs. religious liberty.
The death of god (or 5 ways to make people mad on the Internet)
Let’s be honest, blogging is sexy. Like an aphrodisiacal wine, crackling fire or bearskin rug, few things bring our raw and inchoate emotions to a startling head quite like a breathless 750-word epitaph elucidating the grizzly details of parenthood and/or…
Jesus’ law of respecting persons
By Kyle Henderson “Civil society” has become the newest oxymoron. People do not seem to be able to get along at all, especially if we have ideological differences. Christians are the worst. We focus on the Great Commission and the…
Don’t skip Friday
“Daddy.” “Yes, Jackson?” “Is it Sunday yet?” “No, Jackson, it’s not Sunday.” *Slightly agitated* “Yes, Daddy, it’s Sunday. It is Sunday!” “Huh?” *processing* Oh. I guess I made a mistake. It happened only a day before. In an attempt to…
Good power/bad power (The nonviolent Jesus versus the apocalyptic Christ)
It is vital to our spiritual health to understand the difference between dominant power and spiritual power. Dominant power is the power to externally influence behavior by the use of force, coercion, threat or promise, reward or punishment. Spiritual power,…
Prayers for Holy Week
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee For Holy Week I simply offer these prayers from the collection my wife, Jeanie, and I edited in 2012: Yours is the Day, Lord, Yours is the Night (Thomas Nelson). May they speak to…
A Poem: Good Friday with the Methodists
I estimate forty of us— spread like thin gravy over the dim sanctuary. My own Baptist flock honors the noontime crucifixion, so tonight my son and I are free to join these Methodists who have hired four Gregorian chanters from the…