I, like many others, was shocked to hear this morning about the mass killing in Aurora, Colorado at a suburban movie theater at the hands of med student James Holmes. Having recently moved form Colorado to Oregon, it tapped into old feelings, recalling back when the Columbine High School killings took place. My wife, Amy, was a youth minister at the time, and one of the girls who had previously been a part of her group had helped the killers... Read more
On the one hand, I’m encouraged when Christians can have more honest, open dialogue about sex and sexuality in the public forum. On the other, I’m more than a little distressed when the matter at hand is about “Biblically-based” sexual submission. For those unfamiliar, there are (at least) two camps in the Christian conversation about gender roles, one of which we can call “egalitarian,” and the other calls itself “complementarian.” The implication of the latter is that, though we are... Read more
There’s been an interesting discussion going on about the future of Christianity in America. Though there have been arguments back and forth about who is worse off – liberal or conservative Christians – for some time, the dialogue has become more concentrated as of late, following the Episcopal Church’s decision to bless same-sex unions. This, some conservatives claim, is yet another symptom of a Church in moral decline, and their shrinking numbers are proof positive that they have strayed from... Read more
I was having lunch with another couple in ministry that shared a disturbing story with us. The problem isn’t so much in the uniqueness of the story they told, but rather in how incredibly common it is. The couple had connections to a congregations several hours away that is located in the heart of a thriving urban center. The aging congregation was down to only 40 regular attendees, and had released all of their paid staff, opting instead for volunteers... Read more
Thanks to Steve Knight for alerting me to this joke, which has become one of my instant favorites. After all, it combines two things I dig: nerd humor and theology (also nerdy). Yeah, yeah, you may be groaning, but you’re smiling while doing it. Admit it. There’s plenty of chatter lately about the so-called “God Particle,” recently discovered , with some in the scientific field actually calling it the “goddamn particle,” because (at least as I understand it) the discovery... Read more
For some reason, I’ve happened on a particularly large number of church signs that point to, let’s say, the less tolerant side of faith. So why not put them all together into one Sunday “Special Edition?” Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume XXI Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Twenty Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Nineteen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Eighteen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Seventeen Church Sign Epic Fails, Volume Sixteen Church Sign Epic Fails: Volume Fifteen Church Sign... Read more
Fred Phelps and his followers at Westboro Baptist Church (if you can call it a church) are certainly always good for discussion fodder. Although I’ve seen their “God Hates (fill in the blank) signs in the media and in person, I found this one particularly chilling: In a way, I think we owe Mr. Phelps and his ilk a debt of gratitude. for one, he takes intolerance to such an extreme that nearly all of us – Christians and non-Christians... Read more
I was invited by Paul, my editor at Huffington Post, to write a piece on Christian parenting, and more specifically, how that looks different today than maybe in the past. When I started thinking back to scripture, my mind first wandered to several “what not to do” stories, which abound in the Bible. For example: Don’t pass out drunk before securing your loincloth first (See: Noah) Don’t hand over your virgin daughters to an angry mob to be gang-raped (See”... Read more
Following the series of four “Christian Cliche” articles, I received hundreds of responses from across the spectrum. One in particular, however, stood out to me. A man who does not consider himself to be a Christian asked me why it is that I identify as a Christian, particularly given my apparent difference on a number of key issues of the faith. Good question. I do not ascribe to the notion of substitutionary atonement (Jesus had to die for our sins... Read more
To learn about Christian Piatt’s new project, “A**hole Christian Survival Guide,” and to pre-order your copy, CLICK HERE. The humorous illustrated book will include these and other Christian cliches, games and a lot more. This is the final in a four-part series on the overused (and often insensitively employed) phrases that plague the Christian lexicon. Though I felt like I was offering some insight into what to do instead of offering these cliches, some asked for more specificity or clarity. So in... Read more
Christian Piatt
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