This evening (Sunday), I was driving around and could not help but notice blue lives matter flags hanging proudly next to the American flag. Whenever I see a blue lives matter slogan somewhere, it makes me cringe. I might even make a facial expression. With that said, I am, for lack of a better term, pro-police. But this is probably only because I am white. If I had darker skin, it might be a different story. 15 years ago,... Read more
First and foremost the church needs no help from me in destroying itself. It is perfecting that activity very much on its own. I was once confronted by an evangelical friend of mine as to why I write so much against other Christians. They argued that in doing so it does nothing but hurt the church’s reputation and dissuades those who are not Christian from ever becoming one. (It is important to note that despite our many theological disagreements,... Read more
If you have ever read the Gospel Coalition Blog you will be familiar with a writer by the name of Trevin Wax. I do not know this writer personally, I only know what I have read of his writing over the last several years. To put it mildly, I am not a fan of his. I think he is an exceptional writer, and I am sure he is a stellar person, but much of his advice revolves around issues... Read more
So much has been written about the process of deconstruction including reconstruction. However, what has not been written on a lot is what to do after this process. Oftentimes the deconstruction process leads you out of the Church. Or, perhaps, it is the reason you left the church. In either case, I want to make the case in this article that people need to return to Church after they go through this process. Christian Vagabond’s Many within progressive Christianity... Read more
In the late 90s, you would be hard-pressed not to find posters of bands like Audio Adrenaline, Stephen Curtis Chapman, and Jennifer Knapp in youth group meeting rooms around the country. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with former Contemporary Christian Music Artist and Grammy-nominated Jennifer Knapp on the latest episode of the UNenlightenment podcast. If you are unfamiliar with Jennifer Knapp, she burst onto the Contemporary Christian Music scene in the late 90’s with her unique... Read more
People who know me will probably be shocked by the fact that I believe in Penal Substitutionary Atonement. After all, over the years I have gone to great lengths to prove that it is an incorrect theory. My primary motivation for doing so was because it has been a doctrine of propaganda within evangelicalism for years. However, as a good philosopher, that reason alone cannot be why someone rejects any theory. After all, the abuse of good ideas happens all... Read more
Last week the Southern Baptist Convention disfellowshipped (dismissed) Saddleback Church in Lake Forest California. The dismissal had been in the works for most of the year. In fact, over the course of the last year, the convention has been very active in dismissing churches for various reasons. To wrap your head around all of the activities the Southern Baptist Convention has been doing, I have compiled 5 takeaways. 1. The Southern Baptist Convention is taking 1 step forward and... Read more
Evangelicals have been deceived but do they know that? For many years I wondered why conservative evangelicals call themselves pro-life when many of them don’t seem to really care about the sanctity of life. I mean they might care for an unborn child, but they certainly don’t extend that same passion towards caring for the mother or the type of “life” the child will have once they are born. The voting habits of conservative evangelicals are illuminating – and... Read more
You would be correct if you argued that there is a large number of things that divide evangelicals and progressives. From disagreements on social action to theology, it seems as if the list would be too long to try and cover all of the issues. However, after much thought and even more conversations with conservative evangelicals, I have narrowed these disagreements down to two ideas that seem to be the foundation for these theological disagreements. My goal is not... Read more
Recently I had the chance to review the book Out Into The Desert by Karl and Laura Forehand. Out Into The Desert is a testimony of the struggles that accompany being an evangelical pastor in a time when evangelicalism is largely out of touch with the social issues of the day. The Forehands attempt to break through the stereotypes of the congregations they served only to find uninformed blank stares. Out Into The Desert is a pastoral journey of... Read more
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