For decades, if not centuries, people have been sold a false bill of goods when it comes to Christianity. If you’re like me you were told there was this guy named Jesus who was sent to earth by his dad (named God) to die for our sins. However, there was still a caveat if you didn’t want those sins to hang around your neck forever. You had to accept his as your personal Lord and Savior too. Accept him and... Read more
Our national defense budget is $610 BILLION per year. In 2010-2011, at the height of our conflicts in the middle east, our defense spending was more than that of China, Russia, the UK, France, Japan, and the eight next highest-spending countries combined. Our annual defense budget triples that of China. So since we’re only seventeen short months away from the next presidential election and candidates already are in full platform-pimping mode, I wanted to put forward my own proposal for reallocation of our... Read more
It didn’t take long for Bruce Jenner to come out publicly with his gender transformation complete. Renowned portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz photographed the public debut of Caitlyn Jenner, which is on the most recent cover of Vanity Fair Magazine. There is also an accompanying article and a brief video about the shoot and the transformation here: Of course, this will bother a lot of people. First, there are the religious and social conservatives who already are up in arms about... Read more
Religion is notoriously behind on nearly every societal curve there’s ever been. some say that’s a good thing, as it’s supposed to be counter-cultural. But there’s a difference between pandering to cultural trends and being tone-deaf or willfully ignorant. And as One of my old grade-school counselors once said: when you know better, do better. If we look around us we know that there are better ways to employ the resources we have to affect positive social change, deepen discipleship... Read more
My dog is weird. She’s great, actually, but she’s also weird. We can’t say the word “walk” or even talk about “going on a you-know-what” near her because she freaks out. When Amy gets her walking shoes out it’s a sign, too, that the best thing ever is on the horizon. But the thing that makes her lose her mind more than anything is if we touch her leash. And that’s weird. The fact that a leash – the thing... Read more
You may not know Marc Maron, but you should. Originally known as a crass, nihilistic comedian, he’s found a remarkable second life for himself in podcasting. And before you stop reading right there, consider that Marc’s “WTF” podcast is the first-ever podcast to be catalogued by the Library of Congress. This modest show that he records in the garage of his house also gave birth to a TV show in the Independent Film Channel, called “Maron,” in which he talks... Read more
Doing emotional, social and spiritual damage in God’s name is a problem in and of itself. Actively attacking the LGBTQ community while you’re secretly a part of it is a whole new level of low. Pastor Matt Makela, who served at St. John’s Lutheran Church, was vocal and active in condemning gays, lesbians and transgenders, while also maintaining an active account on Grindr, the “hookup” app focused primarily on helping gay men connect for sexual purposes. Screenshots from the app... Read more
The most recent Pew forum study, which show that numbers of people identifying with any brand of Christianity is still in decline, should surprise no one. But as is the case any time such a study comes out, Christians are looking for reasons why. By now we know a lot of the basic reasons: people are busier, they are more mobile, there’s less social stigma about not going to church, folks don’t trust us, etc. But I’m interested in looking at... Read more
C.S. Lewis is known for many things, but one of his statements about Jesus in particular has stuck with me. He says that either Jesus was who he said he was, or he was a madman. But what if he was a little of both? And if so, what does that make us for following him? I’ve been considering this a lot lately, as I work through the year long trek I’m calling My Jesus Project, in which I’m trying to... Read more
Most of us can agree that Christians have a bit of a PR problem in contemporary western culture. Part of that comes from the scandals the media love to feed on like a carcass any time one emerges. But another is because we leave so many with a bitter taste in their mouths with our recruitment (read: evangelism) techniques. Yes, we may get some to come into the proverbial fold by doing what we do. But what about the millions... Read more
Christian Piatt
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