Growing up in the Evangelical church, I was often told that I needed to “win souls for the Lord.” I needed to get out there and be bold for my faith and my God. If the world and the people in it were like those trapped in a blazing high-rise building, I was the first responder. And if I refused to lead the charge up the stairs, then what kind of rescuer would I be? A pretty horrible one, as... Read more
Last week, I published an article for the new NRSV website entitled “Reading the Bible Through the Lens of the Forgiving Victim.” And while I was happy to do so—it’s not often folks like me get to write for historically conservative outfits like Zondervan—I knew that once they shared it on social media, you-know-what was going to hit the fan. And it did. It certainly did. Besides all the troll-status comments—and there were many—one reply that really stuck out to... Read more
As one who grew up in the Christian faith tradition, Jesus has always been a large part of my life. Throughout my childhood and then into my young adult years, I held the belief that Jesus was the exclusive savior of the world. Let me rephrase. Jesus was the exclusive savior of those who accepted him as “lord and savior.” The rest, of course, were no doubt destined to the utter darkness, where the worm dies not, where their thirst... Read more
“Tell the older women to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, so that that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, being submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.” ~ Titus 2:3–5 On the surface, this passage from Titus seems to suggest that... Read more
“Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” ~ 1 Timothy 2:11–12 Like the text from Ephesians 5, 1 Timothy 2:11–12 is a go-to passage complementarians use to shut down all conversation regarding women having authority in the home and the church. But again, we must keep two crucial things in mind: 1) that the context of the passage is crucial... Read more
“Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.” ~ Ephesians 5:22–23 To be crystal clear, the English version of this short passage from Ephesians 5 seems to be an open and... Read more
Nearly one month ago, the Camp Fire tore through the town I grew up in, leaving it in utter ruin. All told, the fire scorched over 150,000 acres, destroyed more than 18,000 structures, and killed 85 people to date, with 11 still missing. Indeed, it is the most devastating fire in California’s history. Inevitably when something like this happens, people come out of the woodwork to offer their thoughts as to why it occurred and what measures we can take... Read more
I am not what most would define as a “typical, masculine man.” Sure, I have some traditionally masculine traits—strength, courage, virility, and so on—but, to one degree or another, all of us, men, women, and those don’t fit neatly into these binary categories, possess these same traits. As Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung taught, within each man exists a feminine principle (the “anima”) and within each woman exists a masculine one (the “animus”).[1] In other words, men are not simply “masculine,”... Read more
Hey everyone. This past week has been the most difficult of my life. If you haven’t heard, the town I grew up in, Paradise, Ca, burned to the ground in the so-called #campfire, leaving thousands displaced and possibly hundreds (even thousands) dead. It is truly a tragic time. My wife, daughter, and I live in nearby Chico, Ca, and although had an evacuation scare, are safe and are housing some of the evacuees. To that end, what I am asking... Read more
We’ve all come across Christians who believe they, like everyone else, are nothing but filthy worms, wretches who are as repulsive to God as spiders are to most children. Like infamous Calvinist theologian Jonathan Edwards, many folks think of themselves and others as deserving nothing but to be dangled over the fires of hell. Some, like Augustine’s predecessor Tertullian and reformer Martin Luther, even go so far as to suggest such a notion gives God great pleasure, that he, like... Read more
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