Good Friday. I didn’t casually choose the illustration: I never present violence, or anything meant to crudely shock. I haven’t seen Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ; I assume this is a still from it. Either way, it shows what happened to Jesus, doesn’t it? The only reason to show it in any way less graphic would be in order to make us feel better. (more…) Read more
I got this in yesterday evening (the bolding—emboldering? emboldenment? bolderizing? phatted-up?—is mine) Dear John, Thank you and bless you. I am not an American, in fact, I live on the other side of the world in Asia. (more…) Read more
In The New York Times this morning I found the article Gay Rights Bill Appears to Fail in Anchorage. I also found waiting for me an email from a follower of my blog in Anchorage, asking me to pen a word or two to his 14-year-old daughter about why Prop. 5 was defeated. So: Dear A: It’s touching to me that you care—and nearly heartbreaking that you—along with compassionate, sane people everywhere—are confounded as to why anyone would vote to... Read more
Author John Shore and his wife Catherine explain why claiming that the Bible condemns homosexuality is unbiblical, unChristian, and unfair. Read more
“It is all so wrong. This is not how the story should go. Betrayal, denial three times and now: public torture. Crucified along the main road into Jerusalem, he was a teacher, a rabbi now naked and dying between two criminals. It’s not fair. It’s not right. This is not justice. It is humiliation, dehumanization. It is to literally strip every shred of dignity, of grace, of life, of God from this man from Galilee.” (more…) Read more
Today, Palm Sunday, is the first day of the Christian Holy Week, when everyone in Palm Springs wakes up and exclaims right away, “We’re famous!” Kidding. They don’t. Unless they’re Christian. Then they kind of do. (more…) Read more
She has long cared and loved as a brother a special needs boy her family essentially adapted. The boy got seriously ill, and his mother pulled the plug on him. In her agony, as her loving "brother" dies, she writes me. Read more
This just came in, and thought I’d take a moment to share it, for those of my readers who did such a great job of showing our friend here the kind of love and support she needed to … well, end up writing me this (which I’m sharing with, of course and always, her permission): (more…) Read more
How weird is this? I just got in my inbox an email that was obviously supposed to go not to me, but to Maggie Gallagher, co-founder of National Organization for Marriage (NOM)! You can see from the screenshot that the email came from Satan! Weirdness #2: Satan loves emoticons. (more…) Read more
A question that’s lately been raised in the blogosphere (here; here; here) is why more white Christian leaders haven’t spoken out against the death of Trayvon Martin. Putting aside the question of whether or not I’m a Christian leader (I’m not), when the story broke of young Martin’s death I did receive a number of requests to write about it. As touching and even humbling as those requests were, they also felt about on par with being asked to play a... Read more
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