The History Wars When I taught history in the 1980s, ’90s, and 2000s, I remember various conflicts over curriculum that became very heated. There were the “reading wars” of the 70s and 80s which became politicized along with the more recent “math wars,” mostly due to the Common Core standards. People drew battle lines in these conflicts and used them to promote their conservative or liberal agendas. For many it wasn’t a matter of what was best for kids, but... Read more
The Art of Detachment I have been practicing the art of detachment from religious beliefs for the past 15 years or so. After 40 years of trying to reduce my identity and so-called faith down to a set of beliefs and getting them just right, I have detached from that dead-end and death producing exercise. The result has been renewing, freeing and refreshing…in other words, I feel alive. So now that I have detached from my religious beliefs I am... Read more
Spiritual Close Encounters The benefit of social media is that we can find and friend people that we knew many years ago. Occasionally, I find a former student or colleague that I worked with in my days in the Christian School movement. I’m not always certain how some of these reunions will go because I have moved beyond my evangelical past and don’t want to send these former acquaintances into shock. Mostly, people are good with where they find me... Read more
What do you suppose would happen if you brought a diverse group of people together who don’t share the same religious beliefs to talk about their faith (or lack thereof)? Conventional wisdom says this is a recipe for strife, anger and division. Christians, progressive Christians, theists, non-theists, atheists and gay, straight, trans and ethnically diverse people walk into a church….and according to the religious right, all mayhem should break loose. Right? It didn’t. I was there. AWAKEN NASHVILLE 2023 I... Read more
Who Owns Jesus? I recently wrote an article called “Evangelicals Are Still Missing the Point,” in which I said that I have rejected Evangelical Christianity, partially because it has been politicized by the religious right since the 1980’s. By the 2000’s I’d had enough and left it behind. However, I mentioned in this article that I hadn’t left Jesus behind because Evangelical Christianity cannot own Jesus. No one can. Someone I know challenged my statement and indicated to me that... Read more
I read a blog that was recently posted on Facebook by a good friend of mine. I have a lot of respect for this person and clicked to the blog to give it a reading. (I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into knowing this person). Sure enough this blogger bemoaned that we have a tyrannical “woke” government, and that the Evangelical church has been silent too long. What? Silent? Since when have Evangelicals ever been silent?... Read more
I had no idea this quote that I posted on Facebook would be shared by others over 300 times. 321 to be exact. I’ve never had a post re-shared that often. But there is something about this quote that really resonated with people. The quote is from Rev. Robin Meyers who is currently the Teaching Pastor of First Congregational Church in Norman, Oklahoma. It is from his book, Saving God from Religion: A Minister’s Search for Faith in a Skeptical Age.... Read more
“To be antiracist is a radical choice in the face of history, requiring a radical reorientation of our consciousness.” —-Ibram Kendi We are in a scary moment in our history regarding the re-emergence of white supremacy as a driving force in society and politics. I don’t think it is hyperbolic to say that it is a crisis of our consciousness and our soul as a nation. It is a crisis of our humanity. Today my goal is to talk very... Read more
Why Write a Book? And Why Did It Take So Long? I’ve been working on Confessions of a Recovering Evangelical for the past oh, 15 years. I know I procrastinate and I put off till tomorrow everything I should be doing today. But really, this book is the result of a life-long spiritual journey. In writing this book, I’ve tried to recount the evolution and development of my personal faith, and how I grew out of an Evangelical world-view. Evangelicalism... Read more
I never realized how narcissistic Evangelical Christianity was, until I left it. For many years, as an evangelical, my worries and focus was totally on myself, my salvation and my sanctification. Oh yes, we were given the usual party line about “putting God first, others second, and ourselves last,” but that isn’t what the real message was. The real message was that I was the “apple of God’s eye” and “Christ died just for my sins, even if I were... Read more
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