Imagine the entire population of a city the size of Peoria, Ill., suddenly vanished. What if half the residents of Richmond, Va.; Huntsville, Ala.; or Tacoma, Wash., turned to the person next to them and that person was gone? As…
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…
One year of sobriety
One year ago last Monday, I stopped drinking. For the past year, we’ve draw an “X” each day on a special, prominently displayed calendar. I preferred for Nancy, my wife, to draw the mark. Every time she did, she would…
Do you play church in a pretend world or serve people in the real world?
There is the world the church acts like we all live in, and then there’s the world real people live in. These are not the same places. It has taken more than a year of deconstructing my own experiences as…
Is sports gambling any more immoral or risky than the stock market?
I love a good side hustle. I have a job I enjoy, but one of my favorite things about it is that I often have the flexibility to explore other opportunities in my free time, such as writing for Baptist…
The link between the Atlanta shootings and purity culture
The shootings that happened in Atlanta on March 16 were a needless tragedy — the loss of innocent lives at the hands of yet another gunman, where women of color once again were the victims. While lack of gun control…
Don’t let the Atlanta shooter off the hook by claiming women drove him to addiction
On the evening of March 16, Robert Long allegedly shot and killed eight people, seven of whom were women, at three separate massage parlors in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Initial reports say he is a Christian and the son of…
My phone and I need to talk
I have begun to suspect that some of what I read is not even true. I tell myself that I am checking the news, but it is not always new or important. I read news that is not quite news…
How much wealth does America need before we’ll address homelessness?
In college I read a story by Leo Tolstoy called “How Much Land Does A Man Need?” Tolstoy’s story is about a peasant named Pahom, whose desire is to own enough land to make him wealthy. It did not start…