(Credit: Josh Zakary, Flickr Creative Commons) I know this probably makes me a terrible Christian, but the report of Muslim refugees in Germany converting to Christianity really breaks my heart. Again, I know that probably sounds bizarre, but let me explain. Now, of course if they’re really “coming to Jesus” because they sincerely fell in love with the gospel or something along those lines, then that’s wonderful and I say, “Thanks be to God.” But the way this story is being reported... Read more

(Credit: Inquisitr) You may have heard that the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional a couple of months ago. I believe at least a couple of news outlets reported on it. Well, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis definitely heard the news and she wasn’t happy about. However, unlike many of her fellow non-affirming Christians, she was – and at least for the moment still is – in the position to do something about…or at least so she believes. As the Rowan County... Read more

(Credit: Tristar) So this looks…interesting. I think. Maybe? Honestly, I’m not sure and I’m curious what you think. I confess the historian in me thinks the premise of Risen – Pilate sending Roman soldiers to hunt down the body of Jesus after the resurrection – is more than a bit ridiculous as that almost certainly never happened because Roman authorities didn’t care enough to invest that sort of time and energy into investigating what they would have seen as ridiculous rumors about... Read more

(Credit: Franco Folini, Flickr Creative Commons) A few months ago I read an article claiming it is three times cheaper to provide housing for the homeless than simply leaving them to fend for themselves on the street. You might have read the same thing. It was fascinatingly frustrating; meaning I was fascinated by how tantalizingly easy it seems to be make such a dramatic impact on people’s lives and yet frustrated by our collective lack of will to act. This week,... Read more

I might be the anti-televangelist. I’m not on TV. And I generally don’t like talking to strangers about me working in ministry. It’s not that I’m embarrassed by it. Far from it. In everyday interactions with people I actually know, I’m more than happy to talk about it. But especially when I’m traveling or talking to somebody for the first time, I really don’t like bringing up the ministry stuff because the conversation usually takes one of 2 turns: either 1)things get... Read more

When my friend, Alec, first told me about this story, I thought it was just a funny rumor. Or maybe a story from The Onion. I mean, it sounds too much like a bit from Saturday Night Live to be believable. But a quick trip to ye olde Google revealed it’s all too real. (Credit: Matt Rourke, Associated Press) But even then, I thought what I was seeing was just an optical illusion, that the angle of the picture  just made... Read more

After years and years of blogging about American Christianity, you start to think you’ve heard it all. You start to think that nobody could say anything that would leave you even momentarily speechless. And then you see something like this and remember that the depths of religiously fueled fear and xenophobia know no bounds. The ironic thing about folks like Rick Wiles (the guy in the video) and his ilk (other than the fact that in this video Wiles makes God guilty of... Read more

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a 32 year old man who still enjoys the occasional children’s book. Well, mostly just the Chronicles of Narnia (with the occasional dash of Harry Potter). I mean, I’m not perusing the children’s section of my local Barnes & Noble to find something new to read. But I do enjoy the unexpected depth of Lewis’ stories. One of my favorite volumes of Lewis’ Chronicles is The Silver Chair, mostly because I love the eternal... Read more

(Credit: Tim Snell, Flickr Creative Commons) The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates is famous for saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Those words have become something of a Philosophy 101 cliché since Socrates first uttered them centuries ago, but cliché or not they’re as true today as they were in ancient Greece. And should be just as convicting. Particularly for those of us who call ourselves Christians. I worry that far too many of us attach the name “Christian”... Read more

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you might have heard about a Texas pastor who shot a man attempting to break into his church. In perhaps the worst example of evangelism in the history of Christianity, the pastor then “led” his victim (literally at gun point) through the Sinner’s Prayer as the man lay bleeding on the floor. Because obviously nothing makes you want to become a Christian more than being shot by a Christian warning you... Read more