Bullies don’t always look like the chubby kid with the low self-esteem that tries to steal our lunch money. Sometimes the bully looks like a grandmother with a southern drawl that says “bless your heart” in front of a lot of people to shame you for doing something she disagrees with. Sometimes bullying looks like a pastor that ends an impassioned sentence with “Amen?” or “wouldn’t you agree?” to force you to comply. Sometimes it’s the person at the farmers... Read more
I try to keep my writing as succinct as possible. So this blog is an attempt to take it to a new level. I’m not a fan of organized religion. As succinctly as possible. I will try to explain. 1. Religion has no room for our grief. It promises to help us, it intends to help us, but because it’s an organization, it cannot. 2. Most of the money and resources are wasted. 70% of its income goes to building... Read more
Yesterday, We drove up to Omaha to watch the Storm Chasers, a minor league team, and also watch the fireworks. We have done this many times over the years. It’s one of our favorite things to do on the 4th. In many different ways, on Independence Day in the United States, we are prompted to cheer for America and celebrate. Anymore, all of that just falls a little flat. It’s not that I hate America, I love America and I... Read more
(Afterword from our book, Out into the Desert) – releasing August 15th It has been a couple years since we wrote the original manuscript for this book. In that short amount of time, things have changed. As we mentioned in the beginning, some of our views have evolved over time. We anticipated this would happen–and it did. One of the reasons organized religion fails is that it wants to write its dogma and beliefs in stone. We all know from... Read more
The trouble with Christianity is not that it doesn’t have good intentions. It attracts wounded people and it intends to help them get better, but systemically it is not able. Here is why. 1. Most of the money, energy and time is spent maintaining and preserving the organization. Attracting new members, keeping them happy, and pursuing their goals leave little room for anything else. 2. It produces faux community. The Sunday morning worship hour is segregated and homogenous. It... Read more
You can ignore and dismiss us all you want, but we are going to continue to evolve and not stay stuck in stagnant religion. We are pursuing mystery and nuance, and a deeper understanding. The word “none” is a little condescending, but gas lighting is common in the desert, especially by those groups that are declining. Recent statistics, even before COVID, showed that the “nones” which represents those that don’t claim any specific church had surpassed both Catholics... Read more
Laura and I are making our final passes through our book we wrote together over two years ago, “Out into the Desert: Thriving Outside Organized Religion.”. It’s such a deep experience writing this together. In some ways we had to go through some transitions before we could write it. In other ways, It changed us simply to acknowledge some of these things and write them down. I cried again as I read the forward from Keith Giles and a chapter... Read more
As many of you know, I’ve been going through a stroke recovery. Today I had a little setback. My blood pressure got high and I had a bloody nose and had to go to the ER. What I was feeling most was discouragement. When I’m discouraged, it’s tempting to look for encouragement. That seems like the natural response or remedy for discouragement. But I no longer think what we naturally think is always the best remedy. People that mean well... Read more
Larry Bird is my most favorite basketball player ever. He played for the Boston Celtics which was my favorite team for many years. But before that, he played for Indiana State. Another one of my favorite players was Earvin “Magic” Johnson. He was probably one of the best point guards to ever play and he was voted one of the top 50 players of all time. He played for the Los Angeles Lakers but before that he played for Michigan... Read more
Keith Giles wrote the foreword to Laura and I’s new book Out Into the Desert: Thriving Outside Organized Religion (releasing in August). I’m thrilled that he agreed to do this, but that is not the point of this post. I wrote this book a couple years ago and hesitated to publish it. Many of us have had to take courageous positions because of the way we feel about religion. Reading Keith’s forward today moved me deeply! It reminded me while... Read more
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