Most people I encounter on a daily basis recognize People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as pretty “out there” at least in their methods, if not their message. I respect the group’s passion for animal rights, though I don’t agree with all of their arguments, and like many advocacy groups, I think their single-mindedness sometimes compromises what might otherwise be a more popular case for ethical treatment of animals. A while back, PETA began placing ads in print... Read more
Greg Mortenson’s bestselling book, “Three Cups of Tea,” made tremendous waves when it hit bookshelves. The heartening stories of reaching across cultural and national lines to give hope to Pakistani children in the form of new schools was the stuff of Hollywood screenplays. Mortenson became a celebrity. Unfortunately, recent light has been shed on some gross manipulation of facts in the book, much in Mortenson’s own personal favor. Though there are grains of truth throughout the book, investigative journalists like... Read more
While I was at Soularize in San Diego, Amy and I had the chance to sit down with the guys from the Homebrewed Christianity podcast, as well as Phil Shepherd (AKA The Whiskey Preacher) and Burnside Writers Collective’s Jordan Green to chat with Steve Taylor, renowned musician and director of the film version of Donald Miller’s bestselling book, BLUE LIKE JAZZ. Man, that was a mouthful. We sat down with a couple of beers, huddled around a microphone and talked... Read more
I was doing my daily browsing of blogs, catching up on the news and opinions of the day, when I came across a piece with which I found some real resonance. Morgan Guyton, a Methodist pastor, wrote a reflection on why the recent “personhood amendment” failed in, of all places, Mississippi. Anyone who follows politics even remotely can understand why advocates for the personhood legislation – intended to afford full rights of any living person to an embryo in the... Read more
I wonder, both as a parent and a follower of the way of Jesus, how to even go about defining violence, and what my call as a Christian is – or for that matter, simply as a member of the human species – to do about it. I remember when I took wrestling in grade school and I pinned Andrew, more or less by accident, during one of our practices. Apparently he wasn’t too used to losing, because as soon... Read more
In August, 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till, and African-American, was killed for reportedly flirting with a white woman. He was beaten, his eyes cut out of his head, and his lifeless body was dumped in a river. The men who murdered the young boy were acquitted, but later publicly admitted to the lynching under the protection of double jeopardy. Today, Herman Cain still enjoys frontrunner status in the GOP presidential race after several women came forward with allegations of aggressive sexual... Read more
A while back I did an interview with Cliff Zier and Roger Noriega from NDB Media on Blog Talk Radio about my Banned Questions book series. We get into some pretty interesting discussions about hell, Biblical literalism, homosexuality and all that good stuff religious folks usually would rather not talk about. Check it out. Christian Piatt interview on Blog Talk Radio Read more
I wrote a piece recently that appeared on the Red Letter Christians site, and the discussion that followed in the comments section was particularly interesting to me. The article considered the Biblical scripture when Jesus calls the Canaanite woman a dog and, at least at first, denies her request for help. I and some fellow contributors to my most recent book, Banned Questions About Jesus, considered what was going on when Jesus did this. After all, it seems pretty out... Read more
I’ve really enjoyed working the last couple of years on a new book series called the “Banned Questions” series. The first book, Banned Questions About the Bible, came out in early 2011 and the second, Banned Questions About Jesus, was just recently published. Aside from taking on provocative and challenging theological material, at the heart of the series is a spirit of collaboration. Though I created and edit the books, I invite more than a dozen other writers to contribute... Read more
Not being a Catholic, all of the headlines about the upcoming changes to the Church’s services were a bit of a mystery to me at first. But I’ve since been reading up on the pending adjustments, and in doing so, I’ve learned a little bit more about just how different Catholic Mass is from what I’m used to. I’ve long been familiar with the idea that the roles of the priest in mass are very specific and important. Not only... Read more
Christian Piatt
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