Today I respond to Bart Mitchell’s inaugural question to the Questions That Haunt Christianity series. Before I proffer my response, let me say that I am both humbled and astounded at the outpouring of responses to Bart’s question. I agree with many of your comments, and if I were a wiser man, I’d probably just copy and paste them here. I’m also very grateful that Bart himself has been heavily engaged in the conversation. It’s not easy for a non-believer... Read more
Neal DeRoo, co-convener of a conference at which I am presenting a paper (which is sure to bring Peter Rollins to his academic knees*), writes at Church and Pomo about what elicited this conference: “Culture” is an amorphous, vague thing that is next to impossible to pin-down. It is only slightly better than a child’s sense of “they”: “But mom, if I do that, they will laugh at me.” Similarly, Christians tend to make a lot of our decisions based... Read more
My friend Sam Brink, on staff with the American Baptist Church, and his son Andrew are conducting a survey of pastors’ kids who are LGBT. If you qualify for that, please take a few minutes to complete their survey. Find the survey here. Read more
Last night, I was at a public conversation between two evangelicals (more on that soon). After the the dialogue, there there was a private gathering for the interlocuters and some others, with a table of finger food and a few bottles of wine. The evangelical leaders didn’t drink any wine. One looked at the wine in my hand and made a comment to the effect of, “Looks good; wish I could have some.” I took that as a challenge and... Read more
I read lots of books on war, inspired by a freshman writing seminar that I took with James Tatum at Dartmouth many years ago. (He turned that seminar into a book.) Here are, in my estimation, the top five books on war: 1. The Illiad by Homer 2. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien 3. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane 4. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes 5. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo I acknowledge the... Read more
According to a new study, attending worship at a megachurch is similar to getting high: By: Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer Published on LiveScience DENVER — More and more Americans are spending their Sundays at megachurches, enormous churches with congregations numbering in the thousands. Despite the size of these churches, members don’t get lost in the crowd, new research finds. In fact, a new study of 12 representative megachurches spread across the country finds that the size of these churches... Read more
In my most recent posts about Sri Lanka, and in an OpEd in Saturday’s StarTribune, I’ve been reflecting on how Christians, when we’re in the minority, seem to act better. Now, it was just one experience in one country, but it was striking. Today, the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., is a good day to reflect on how we deal with those of other religions. Was 9/11 a religious attack? At least in part it was.... Read more
I have been astounded and gratified at the number of questions that have been submitted for this new series, The Questions that Haunt Christianity. Scores have come in, many from atheists (thanks to The Friendly Atheist for the shout out). Other questions have come from doubts, and from wavering believers. You can submit a question via my website; if your question is chosen, I’ll be in touch to let you know about the post, and to ask whether you’d like... Read more
I spoke for 10 straight years at the National Youth Workers Convention, culminating with my massive trainwreck on the main stage in 2008. After a few years off, Mark Matlock has invited me back to present a couple of workshops — one on the atonement, and one on Christianity and culture. So, I’ll be doing that in Dallas, the weekend before Thanksgiving. Well, whether you’re considering attending in San Diego, you can save $100 by entering YS12JONES in the “Special... Read more
As expected, homeschool advocates have turned out in force to defend and justify their decision to homeschool in response to my (provocatively titled) post, “Death to Homeschooling!” Therein, I argued, So it seems to me that to withdraw my children from public education is to not play my (God-given) role as a missional member of society — like I can’t just choose to withhold my taxes. We give our children all those vaccinations when they’re young not necessarily to protect themfrom polio (since... Read more
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