Before my 14 year old daughter left for school this morning she came out of her room and asked, “Do you think I’ll get dress coded for this?” My response to her was far different than I had once imagined it would be. I remember the old me saying things like, “If I have a daughter, she’ll never go out of the house wearing ____” (insert whatever I thought was immodest at the time). But that’s not how I see... Read more
Lately I’ve been thinking about life. A lot. I’ve also been thinking about the the line we tell people when they’re going through sad chapters in life: “Well, this is all part of God’s plan.” But is it, really? Is all this part of God’s plan? Looking back at the times people have said this to me in the midst of suffering, I find myself shaking my head that we’d believe such a thing. Not only does that line fail... Read more
It’s true– I’ve publicly and strongly disagreed with some well-known Christian leaders. It’s also true that some of them have very publicly disagreed with me. In those exchanges however, I will frequently find some voices on the internet posing this question: “Did you go and talk to them privately first as instructed by Matthew 18, before writing this?” It’s a fair question– and one worthy of its own post. Matthew 18 does in fact offer an appropriate method for holding individuals... Read more
I’ve heard a lot of reasoning over the years regarding Christian support of things like war, violence, and gun slinging. I’ve seen the Bible bent into a giant pretzel, watched folks do theological gymnastics, and I’ve seen the teachings of Jesus on the matter outright dismissed– over, and over again. I thought I had addressed all of the counter arguments over the years, but a new one is emerging and being used more and more frequently: the use of Ecclesiastes chapter 3... Read more
John MacArthur, the Calvinist teacher who previously argued Christian parents should turn their gay children “over to Satan,” has some new thoughts on who is in and who is out: and most Hispanics don’t make the cut. In the lead up to a conference later this month in the Dominican Republic, John MacArthur has put out a video announcing that he’ll be unable to attend as he planned, but that he will still address the conference using technology. In the... Read more
The other day I wrote a post about why the second greatest commandment presupposes we love ourselves, in addition to loving others. I have been pondering tangible ways to take this from the theoretical to the practical, and thus have compiled 10 suggestions as to how we can better love ourselves, so that we can in turn, better love others: 10. Stop telling yourself that self-love or self-care is selfish. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish! In fact, failing to... Read more
People often falsely assume that the word Christian has a clear, singular, meaning but that’s not necessarily true. There’s “Christian,” which refers to a particular religion of over 41,000 different denominations or sects who disagree on what Christian means. Then there’s “Christian” which can refer to a nationalistic religion prevalent in America. And then there’s “Christian” the way I like to use the word: like Jesus. In fact, when the word first caught on in the early church, that’s almost... Read more
It’s April 26, 2016, which means one thing: I turn 40 years old today! And, I’ve gotta admit: I did some living in my first 40. I’ve lived around the world, traveled to as many countries as years I’ve been alive, earned six college degrees, wrote a few books, raised me some kids, and between all that, I made a $@&%load of mistakes. When you roll all those life experiences together, there’s some lessons learned in all of it. Thus,... Read more
Love yourself. It sounds kinda selfish and self-centered on the surface, I know. And if it were, it would surely be a most unattractive trait. I believe that Christianity is a religion about love– most notably, loving God and loving our neighbors. However, I think we’re too quick to forget to extend the same to someone else the Bible calls us to love: ourselves. When Jesus said the greatest command was to love God, and that the second greatest was... Read more
So listen– I’ve been thinking about this whole movement to make peeing while trans illegal, and I have a few thoughts. The basic premise is this: Individuals who are transgender need to use the public restroom that corresponds to their actual gender (not their sex, which is different). They need to do this for their own safety, as if they were to enter the bathroom that corresponded to their sex instead of their gender, it would freak people out and... Read more
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