[UPDATE: Tim has passed.] This just in from the writer of the letter I answered in Christian woman: “She’s pulled the plug on her own son, whom I love and cared for. How do I deal with my anger?” (more…) Read more
[UPDATE: Tim has passed.] This just in from the writer of the letter I answered in Christian woman: “She’s pulled the plug on her own son, whom I love and cared for. How do I deal with my anger?” (more…) Read more
So lately a few college-age people have written to ask what I think about premarital sex. (Those who wrote are Christian, but I would answer the same if they weren’t.) Ah, spring. As the great Shakespeare put it, “Tis the humpiest of seasons.” Anyway, right. So: (more…) Read more
Got this in last night from reader Jenni French: Hi John, I’ve been following on your blog the story of the girl with the green sweater, and I thought I’d share a story of my own. I am attending Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, which is a wonderful, liberal bright spot in the middle of a rather conservative state. It’s kind of like a mini San Francisco, but with no ocean. 🙂 In any case, I was a bit surprised... Read more
(Yesterday I received a short thank-you note from Chloe Bradley, the young woman who held up the sign in “I APoLogiZe for these Christians.” I told Chloe I’d love to interview her; she kindly acquiesced. Here’s the result.) Me: So, Chloe, how does it feel being an international superstar as a result of being on my blog? (more…) Read more
The Christianity in which I believe is every bit as intellectually, theologically, and spiritually legitimate as that Christianity which today we tend to consider "traditional." So heck, yes, I'm a Christian apologist. Read more
[UPDATE: My interview with Chloe Bradley.] So I just got a Facebook message from reader Laura Maslin Bradley that said: Hi, John. Thought you would enjoy this picture of my daughter, Chloe Bradley (in green) — she is a junior at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. (more…) Read more
Lately I’ve received a few emails asking me in essence (or … directly, actually) why, when it comes to my beliefs about God, I’m so confident. The answer is that I have no idea why. I can’t even really answer that, because to me it’s like asking a bird why it thinks it knows so much about air. What else can it know? What else do I know, beyond the same core stuff that I think everybody knows? For all... Read more
The resentments sent me via my post Your Resentment, Up in Smoke were burned on the small grounds just outside the front of the church I attend at dawn this morning, Easter 2012. No resentments sent me were excluded; before leaving the house this morning I printed out the latest ones to come in. After I had deposited the resentments into the rough-hewn wooden box our pastor was kind enough to invite me to with him set the box afire,... Read more
“I’ll never forget the time when one man who was fairly new to the congregation shared with me the first time he had touched the feet of Jesus. He was an engineer working in Seattle for Boeing. He helped design the wiring for Boeing 747, among others.He was obviously intelligent, and obviously in pain. I learned that he had lost his son from a suicide, and that, two years later, that tragedy was still well with him. He also said... Read more
Right. So it’s weird to type, “Shhh: it’s Black Saturday,” and then start typing. [Um. Yeah. It’s now 10:44 p.m. Saturday night, and I just now realized that this opening sentence makes no sense if you don’t know—and, of course, no one but me could know—that the original title of this piece was, Shhh: it’s Black Saturday.] It’s like going, “Let us now have a moment of silence to commemorate the death of our great friend. So the other day... Read more
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