It’s time to usher in the apocalypse!! The winners of the matchups today will move on to became the 2019 4 Horsemen of the American Jesus Madness Apocalypse. As always, who those 4 Horsemen will be is entirely up to you. REMEMBER: Voting is unlimited So, vote now, vote later, and when you need a distraction from work or family dinner time, come back and vote a dozen more times, then keep on voting until the polls close tonight at... Read more

Looking back I realize I should have written “Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Vagina Sculpture” instead of “Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Vagina Statue” but that minor mistake didn’t keep Nadia from a major victory over Desiring God which I think we all would agree is something to celebrate no matter what you call it. But now she’s facing Jesus himself. Will she and her sculpture/statue be able to take down God incarnate? As always, that’s up to you. BUT….here’s where things get really fun this... Read more

Welcome to the round of 16 where the matchups get…salacious. Why? I don’t know. Who cares? It’s American Jesus MADNESS. Nothing makes sense and nothing has to. This is, after all, American Christianity we’re talking about. What does matter is the polls are now open! So cast your vote and cast it often. Polls close at 10pm CST   Jesus vs. Romans 13   Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Vagina Statue vs. Desiring God’s Hate For Captain Marvel   Caring About Children In... Read more

I think my favorite matchup this round was the United Methodists vs. United Methodists because the result to turned out to be eerily – sadly – close to real life. On a more cheerful note, there are some upcoming matchups in the next round that I’m particularly looking forward to including Shane Claiborne vs. Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Love For Trump (another eerily resemblance to real life) and Jesus vs. Romans 13. How those matchups will turn out is, as always,... Read more

It’s time once again to crown a new champion of American Christianity. As always, we’ve got some really tough 1st round matchups. And as always, who moves on is totally up to you, so vote and vote often!!   Voting is unlimited!! Vote for your favorite, vote for your least favorite, vote for the thing you’re passionate about, or vote for the thing you can’t believe is a real thing plaguing Christianity in America but this is the world we... Read more

The 2019 American Jesus Madness bracket is here!! If you’re brand new to this, American Jesus Madness is my spin on March Madness (which begins this week), but instead of basketball teams, I use Christian pop culture to create the bracket you see above. It’s a mix of the good, the bad, and the downright crazy that defines American Christianity. From this battle royale of insanity, love, and blasphemy will emerge this year’s champion of American Christianity. Obviously these people... Read more

You may have never thought about Revelation as a call to social justice before. I hadn’t either. And why should we? Most of us don’t have any real need for justice and liberation in our lives. Sure we have struggles and pain, but relative to most of the world, our lives are lives of privilege. It makes sense then that Revelation would seem so mysterious to most of us. It wasn’t written with most of us in mind. That’s the... Read more

America Jesus Madness is back!! And this year I’ve got actual for real prizes!! For reals. I know, I know. How could I possibly top the immortal internet glory that has been given out to winners in years past? The answer, of course, is I can’t. But I can bring some of that glory into the physical world. This year, thanks to the wonderful generosity of my publisher Herald Press, I’ve got a stack of books I’m handing out to... Read more

Growing up, I was convinced that the book of Revelation was a road map to the end times. A unexpectedly challenging conversation with one of my professors opened my eyes to see just how wrong I had been. We are living in the end times, he said, but we have been ever since Jesus walked out of the tomb. Our challenge as Christians isn’t to descipher secret codes, it’s to do the apocalyptic work of bringing the kingdom of God... Read more

I’ve got lots of promotional stuff planned for my upcoming book, Unraptured, but there’s one promotional effort I’m sad to say I wasn’t able to do. I wanted to fake the rapture. The idea was to use my book launch team to coordinate the launch of people shaped balloons, arms extended heavenward at the same time in various cities around the country. I admit it was an ambitious plan, but also it would have amused me greatly. That said, I’m not... Read more