If it is universally understood that favoritism and selectivity clashes with justice, why do we allow God and Jesus a pass when they do it? Depending on your views of whether God exists, your narrative may be slightly different, but most people that believe in God and Jesus also allow the narrative that he has favorites, and he is selective about how he administers Justice and blessing. When asked why was Jesus selective and who he helped, why did he... Read more
Humming and my Heart Event Several weeks ago I had a heart event, involving CPR, defibrillation, and eventually a catheterization to install a couple of stents. A couple of weeks later they installed a couple more stents and now we are planning for an ablation that should help with irregular heartbeat. This is in no way a complete story of everything that was done to treat me because I don’t understand parts of it and I’m not a medical professional.... Read more
The other day Laura and I were discussing a common issue that arises when we face distressing situations or when something happens that we weren’t expecting and it causes us to spiral or dysregulate because of what we imagine is true. In essence, it centers around a provocative question. What if that is not true? I’m not sure where I learned this question, but it can apply to a lot of different situations. Initially, it was the question of my... Read more
Things have been challenging recently for us. A couple of weeks ago, after exerting myself, I experienced some alarming symptoms including dizziness, shortness of breath, and confusion. I know I’m supposed to be resting and I am. I am at home I’m my favorite chair doing what I love most, sifting through my thoughts. Thankfully we made the choice to get to the hospital. After some initial testing, the nurse practitioner exclaimed “You’re having a heart attack.” Surely thereafter, I... Read more
I’ve given myself permission to take a break from mentoring, writing, and even a slower pace with our podcasts to recover from my recent heart event, and stent implant. Please do what YOU can to stand up to racism, homophobia, Christian nationalism, Religious abuse, and whatever you call the current clown show in Washington. Don’t accept what you have inherited as truth. Do the hard work of understanding the things that you are against. You can’t be against something you... Read more
My Favorite Things to Say Some of the Language of My Deconstruction I grew to despise how religion uses catch phrases and platitudes to bypass big questions, and I also realize that mantras can also lead us to avoid facing reality or faking it until we make it. Even so, we also have to realize that catchy phrases help us remember the complex and deep understandings we accumulate along the journey. As I was deconstructing my faith and challenging... Read more
A Decade of Deconstruction: Do I Need a Group? More than ever before, it seems like the world is divided into groups. We cheer for different sports teams with great enthusiasm, even though the team is simply the one the owner assembled in our region and not significantly more deserving of our devotion than the other team. We classify ourselves by political group labels, wishing the other group would disappear, even though we know individuals in that group whom we... Read more
A Decade of Deconstruction: I Don’t Need a Shepherd “The Lord is My Shepherd.” Psalms 23 “I am the Good Shepherd.” Jesus In case you’re unaware of my background, I was raised in predominantly evangelical Protestant churches. More than that, I grew up in churches that believed in the literal interpretation of the Bible, even when their assumptions (beliefs) didn’t make sense. I became a pastor at 32 and spent nearly 20 years in rural small-town ministry. One of... Read more
Love the World or Don’t Love the World One of the things we do for influential people is make excuses for them or try to explain what they really meant when they say something that doesn’t align with our worldview, or when people get upset by what that person said. This is clearly evident with our current President. His supporters say they like him because he says what he means, but when he says something outlandish, they don’t accept it,... Read more
I Don’t Need Church Drugs After serving as a pastor for 20 years and reflecting on those experiences, it seems that there is a process we may not fully understand, but one that gains momentum, produces results, and continues to draw people back. After attending and leading churches for several decades, I have noticed that most services are designed to influence our emotions subtly. The movement of the music is carefully timed and choreographed to achieve the desired effect.... Read more
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