Hazel Grace had a good life, and was as sweet and loyal as a dog could be. She loved lying in the sun, meeting new people, chasing squirrels, and keeping an eye on the trail and pond behind our house. She hated haircuts, thunder, car rides, and doctor’s visits; and considered it her duty to put all boy dogs in their place, even when twice her size. Born and bred in Kansas, Hazel loved spring, summer, and fall, but... Read more
The right-wing fantasy—that destroying the opposition will make Americans safe and happy—is going to wreck our society. We’ve empowered a set of leaders who haven’t done the most basic soul-searching and wisdom-seeking required to reject a childish fantasy that fails 100% of the time. In all of history, blaming and scapegoating has never once led a society to peace and flourishing. America is broken. Nobody disputes that. Everyone knows our systems—healthcare, housing, education, government, justice, economics—are dysfunctional. Our entire way... Read more
Artists Resisting Authoritarian Regimes There’s a reason authoritarians fear poets, musicians, and storytellers. Artistic expression constitutes a powerful form of resistance to authoritarian regimes. When governments ignore civil rights and erode freedoms, artists become dissidents by definition. Every act of free expression becomes a form of rebellion. “Totalitarian regimes fear poets more than soldiers,” Hannah Arendt wrote, “because soldiers can be defeated, but ideas cannot be killed.” It’s possible that nothing could be more important to the future of America... Read more
Deconstruction is normal. A couple times each year I remind my congregation that my job is not to speak as the expert proclaiming what is officially true for us, and to demand they accept what I say. That’s fundamentalism, which is dangerous. We have a different agreement goes something like this: My job as a pastor—and as a writer and an artist— is to crawl on my belly up to the edge of the vast and endless canyon of the... Read more
If you’re using the name Jehovah, you’re doing it wrong. Here’s why. One of the most famous texts in the Bible comes from Deuteronomy 6:4. In transliterated Hebrew the first phrase reads: “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad.” You should try saying it out loud. It might be the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever learned to say in Hebrew. In English, it says something like: “Hear O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD alone [or, is one].”... Read more
If you’re heavily involved in a church congregation right now, you might soon be asked to attend some kind of strategic planning and goal-setting process for 2024. My advice would be: don’t go. Not only that, I’d try to convince your leadership not to set goals this year at all, or ever again for that matter. I’m convinced that Churches shouldn’t have goals, mostly because goal-setting is a practice that comes from our success-obsessed culture. It’s what you do when... Read more
I’m a mid-fifties white male weaned on rock and roll. My top five all-time favorite artists are firmly cliche: Wilco, U2, Radiohead, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, & the Boss. If you knew those were my bands, you could correctly reverse-engineer my ethnography within a few percentage points. All that to say I’m probably the last guy you’d expect to become fascinated with the music of Taylor Swift. But I have. I’m not sure exactly how it happened. I was... Read more
I still remember when Glen Beck told viewers of his (then) daily FOXNews show something to the effect of: if the pastor of your church talks about the importance of social justice, then you need to find a new church. That was years ago, and I’ve heard it said time and time again by conservative commentators. The phrase social justice has functioned in much the same way the word “woke” now functions. It’s just a way to label and dismiss... Read more
The 2023 Asbury revival will likely become the release valve that dissipates the energies of change created by Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, as well as the tensions arising from white evangelicalism’s brazen embrace of Trumpism and Christian Nationalism. The last major Asbury revival was in 1970. At the time, the Civil Rights movement and Sexual Revolution had created so much tension and pressure that white evangelicalism seemed poised to heed its own prophetic arm and embrace real... Read more
Football is in my blood. My dad was a high-school football coach. My childhood hero was Terry Bradshaw. Not to brag, but I was an elementary school flag football prodigy (I peaked athletically in the 6th grade). As a lifelong fan of Kansas State and Chiefs football, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t sincerely love the game. Yet, I’m always a bit troubled by how much I love football, and by the fact that football shapes us in... Read more
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