“You can believe whatever you want. Just don’t force it on me.” I’ll be blunt: This take is popular, but it doesn’t work. I understand why people say it, and I agree it sounds reasonable. It assumes something most of…
Confessional Christianity and the choice Jesus offers
If you were listening to R&B in the early 1990s, especially in Cleveland, you may recall Chris Bender’s hit song “Who Will I Choose?” In the song Chris has a dilemma, he has two love interests contending for his heart….
Trading the Cross for a cause
Many moderate and progressive-minded Christians are trying to live our faith in the most actionable way possible. We want a church that takes suffering seriously, tells the truth about injustice, shows up for neighbors and looks like Jesus in public….
Why do people deny the evidence before their eyes?
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” Over the last week, in the wake of Renee Good’s murder by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, this quote…
The God I do believe in
This article is a follow-up to a previous post, “The God I Don’t Believe In.” I majored in religion at college. One semester I took a class called Christian Doctrine. I still remember the final exam. The professor wrote it on…
Is it time to get a divorce from institutional religion?
Last summer I ate lunch with a long-term kindred spirit friend who, like me, is a retired minister. We spoke about our vocations in the church, both the good and the bad. We also expressed deep disappointments with organized religion,…
The girl at the edge of belonging
She was 15, and she believed. She hadn’t been raised in church exactly. But somewhere along the way, she found her way in — drawn by something tender and true, something that stirred in the songs and the stories, the…
The bottom line of my religion: Christian values and practices
Like many others, I enjoyed the fascinating Cold War TV drama, The Americans. The show depicted a Russian couple living as spies in America. After their daughter began attending a progressive church, the mother initiated several conversations with the pastor. In…
My Favorite Argument for the Existence of God
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been recording conversations about my new book, “Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious,” and one of the striking things — not unexpected, but still interesting — is how different people react to different arguments…
My long farewell to the evangelical church
Many years ago, I served as an adjunct professor of worship and preaching at a Baptist seminary. One day, as I prepared for an upcoming class, I went to a photocopy shop and begin copying large numbers of worship bulletins and…
You don’t have to demonize us just because we’ve left the faith as you believe it
One of the most dismissive and hurtful statements ex-evangelicals hear from our conservative evangelical family and friends after we deconstruct their walls is: “You must have never been saved to begin with.” Another way they say it is, “You must…
Must we change our language to reach climate change deniers?
How can journalists reach evangelicals who get triggered by the term “climate change”? This is the question Rebecca Randall asks in a piece last week for BioLogos. Despite the fact that 97% of scientists accept climate science and 92% of Americans who…