As long as I’ve been part of the church (which is going on 40 years), Christians and pop culture have had an uncomfortable relationship. The church is happy to have movies, music and books that celebrate the faith, but they squirm when art dares to challenge, question or provoke. And what about artists who are blatantly opposed to belief? That’s where Joe and I start talking this week on the latest Cross.Culture.Critic. podcast. Spurred on by a recent conversation he... Read more
This month, my son’s kindergarten class celebrated National Reading Month by inviting “mystery readers” to their classroom. Parents could surprise their children by showing up to read a book to the class. I signed up thinking it would be a fun treat for Mickey, and went in last week to read. I wasn’t prepared for how much it meant to him. When I arrived, he immediately ran up and threw his arms around me. In a picture taken by his... Read more
When I was young, my family used to take yearly trips to an amusement park with my grandparents and cousins. My mom has always been a huge roller coaster fan, and I think it kind of frustrated her to be at the park with her kids and not be able to ride anything (having taken my son to amusement parks, I totally get it ). So, as soon as we hit the requisite height limit, my mom began bribing us... Read more
“Flint Town,” an eight-part documentary series that recently debuted on Netflix, is a show that made my ears perk up as soon as I heard the title. I live in Detroit, only an hour away from Flint, and I’ve been long familiar with that city’s trials. It’s a crime-ridden, poverty-stricken town, whose woes became a national concern when its residents’ water supply was poisoned several years back. Initially, I wasn’t interested in watching “Flint Town.” I worried that the show,... Read more
My spiritual life is often overly intellectual. I’m good with doctrines, creeds and theology, but I struggle with putting flesh on those internal concepts. One habit I’m trying to focus on this year is to find ways to make my faith tangible and look for reminders in my daily routines that life is connected to something greater (for more on this, I highly recommend Tish Harrison Warren’s “Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life”). One area where I’ve... Read more
Singing is synonymous with Sunday morning worship. No matter your denomination, the two constants you’ll find in nearly every worship service are singing and preaching. Churches vary on whether or how often they recite creeds, host Sunday School or observe communion, but these two are integral parts of the worship experience. It’s easy to think that singing is just a warm-up act that plays a less important role in our services and spiritual lives than the sermon. When I was... Read more
In my recent Sacred Cows post on dc Talk, I mentioned the “Jesus Freak” single that came out in August 1995. It was a big deal; it heralded a new sound for the band, one that many people who came of age in ‘90s youth group culture consider a touchpoint of Christian pop culture. I played the heck out of that thing until the full-length album arrived that fall. Those who remember when singles were still released as physical media... Read more
I recently lost five pounds. That shouldn’t be reason for too much celebration; there’s still plenty of me that needs to go. But for someone who hasn’t had luck losing weight, peeling off five pounds in two weeks was cause for a fist-pump. It’s not that I haven’t tried. In fact, I’ve tried hard. I downloaded an app that would train me to run a 5K in just eight weeks. I went on a 10-day cleanse. I bought one of... Read more
The fun thing about doing the CROSS.CULTURE.CRITIC. podcast is that Joe and I are able to cover a variety of topics from several different angles. We can banter for a bit about entertainment and then segue into an entire episode about politics. We’ve mused about albums and joked about communion. We usually record two or three episodes in one sitting, which means on a given night we might have three or four different conversations. This week’s episode is one of... Read more
Yesterday, students around the nation walked out of their classrooms at 10 a.m. to draw attention to the need for stricter gun control laws. The walkouts — estimated to be held at 3,000 schools across the United States — commemorated the one-month anniversary of the shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 people dead. I used to write a blog post every time there was a mass shooting. After awhile, though, it became futile to keep up.... Read more
Mere Chris-ianity
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