Do Singles Need More Christian Dating Advice?

Last updated on: August 3, 2015 at 4:18 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

Writing Christian dating advice is quite the cottage industry. More than a few online personalities have built their entire platform on listicles like: Tips for Christian singles Men you should/shouldn’t date Girls Christian guys should avoid Differences between dating a boy and dating a lumbersexual hipster man As a writer, it’s the perfect niche market. You’ll never run out of Christian young people to advise, and you can just keep cramming the same opinions into reconfigured content. It’s like the Food Network’s crappiest show where a... Read more

3 Reasons Trump’s the Ideal Evangelical Candidate

Last updated on: July 28, 2015 at 2:54 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

It’s with horror and fascination that I watch Donald Trump jockey to be the Republican candidate for president. It would be an humorous diversion if there weren’t so many people who seem supportive of the idea. It’s almost as if Mike Judge’s classic film Idiocracy was some sort of prophecy. On July 26, 2015, CNN posted the results of a political poll revealing quite a bit about the grass-roots support of the Donald Trump candidacy. There were no huge surprises, but in an article summing... Read more

5 Tips for Developing Opinions Worth Having

Last updated on: July 23, 2015 at 8:05 am By Jayson D. Bradley

Opinions can be dangerous. The perspective I adopted yesterday can adversely affect the way I assimilate information tomorrow. If I’m not careful, a poorly formed opinion will dramatically undermine my intellectual growth and emotional maturity. On some level, we all know that not every opinion is a good one. Some are considerably more rational and sophisticated than others. The problem is that we always assume the rational ones are ours. Are there practices that will help us develop healthier and better informed opinions?... Read more

Hey Sinner, Listen to Me — I’m Right!

Last updated on: July 14, 2015 at 8:20 am By Jayson D. Bradley

One reoccurring element in most debates with Christians is the “I’m sorry you don’t like it, but someone has to tell you the TRUTH” argument. It’s a conversation killer — not because the one who uses it has won any ground, but because it’s just so obnoxious. Whether you’re going toe-to-toe about abortion, gay marriage, politics, atheism, or any of the other issues I find Christians arguing online about, at the point you pull out the TRUTH card, you’re losing.... Read more

Christianity, Russell Wilson, and Celebrity Culture

Last updated on: July 9, 2015 at 7:54 am By Jayson D. Bradley

For the last couple of days an interview Russell Wilson did with San Diego’s Rock Church has been trending on Facebook. Why? Because of the revelation that he and songstress girlfriend, Ciara, were practicing abstinence. The video was linked to by a local Fox affiliate with the headline: Ciara and I aren’t having sex after God spoke to me. I was immediately curious how people would respond to this story. Would they be entranced by a salacious story about a local... Read more

Yes, Matt Walsh’s Logic Hurts Me Personally

Last updated on: July 3, 2015 at 7:18 am By Jayson D. Bradley

A few people shared Matt Walsh’s latest blog post on Facebook today (for those who don’t know who Matt is, he calls himself a blogger, writer, speaker, and professional truth sayer), and he hooked me in with the post’s title. I usually refuse to read his stuff because I find it absurd and inflammatory — and his post entitled Yes, Gay Marriage Hurts Me Personally didn’t disappoint. While I don’t intend my blog to be a place to argue with people I disagree with,... Read more

A Gospel That Encourages Division Is Not the Gospel

Last updated on: June 29, 2015 at 10:40 am By Jayson D. Bradley

A family member I hadn’t talk to in years reach out to me on Facebook. They felt it was high time we reconnected, and they were right. One of the first messages I received centered around the fact that they were a dyed-in-the-wool conservative and they’d gathered that I was now pretty progressive. “But that doesn’t have to define our relationship,” they suggested, “maybe we can learn from each other?” Sadly, that wasn’t going to be the case. Eventually everything I said annoyed... Read more

Help! I’m a Christian Struggling with Suicidal Thoughts

Last updated on: June 25, 2015 at 7:04 am By Jayson D. Bradley

I was 16 when my life was first touched by suicide. A good friend and fellow dishwasher at a family restaurant shot himself in his bedroom one weekend while his parents were away. I was devastated. He was one of the funniest and most vivacious people I have ever known. When I had saved up $800 to buy my first Les Paul, he was the one that suggested that I pay for it in one dollar bills. I don’t think I’ve... Read more

Why We’re Failing at Spiritual Transformation

Last updated on: June 1, 2015 at 7:06 am By Jayson D. Bradley

I recently addressed the question, Are Christians Overselling Transformation? In this post, I looked at how often we talk about “dying to self” and “becoming more like Jesus,” but continue to be mired in petty, irrelevant emotional outbursts, offences, and grudges. Following this theme, I wanted to discuss one of the reasons we struggle with being truly transformed by the gospel. By way of illustration, I’ll be using a couple scenes from Steven Spielberg’s amazing 1993 film, Schindler’s List. The winner of seven academy... Read more