Apparently Andrew Sullivan didn’t watch the Jefferson Bethke “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” video that went viral a few months ago. Instead, in his latest article for Newsweek he’s decided to use another Jefferson, in this case Thomas, to make what is essentially the same argument. Namely, that in order to truly follow Jesus we must separate ourselves from the church and/or organized religion. In that way we can discover the “real” Jesus, free from all of the dogma... Read more

    So this exists. Apparently, it’s the continuation of an annual tradition that has seen the Easter story retold through the dramatic adaptation of such films as The Wrath of Kahn, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Princess Bride. I’m all about drawing out faith lessons from film. I do that every month with the students in my youth group. We call it “popcorn theology”. But how those movies relate to the resurrection or why they need to be... Read more

    I had hoped to have my response to this article finished already, but traveling back from Connecticut has prevented that. I will have my response posted tomorrow, but I thought it would be a good idea to post the article first so that tomorrow’s post will have some context and those of you who have not had a chance to read it will be able to do so. Until then, let me know what you think of Andrew Sullivan’s article.... Read more

    The pantry in my kitchen is stuffed full of old Target and Kroger bags that I use to clean up after my Great Dane when she gets done doing her business. This church found a much better use for them and, personally, I am really impressed by their creativity, ingenuity, and compassion.   Church group finds use for plastic grocery bag, donates mats to GFTW By STEPHANIE A. JAMES There are many ways to use plastic bags. Then... Read more

    Over the years we’ve seen Jesus pop up on everything from a grilled cheese, to tree bark, to a pastry, and of course who could forget Cheesus? Jesus seems to appear on food products so often we almost expect to find his image every time we open a bag of chips. But this is a new one for me and it may just be the strangest Jesus sighting ever. Jesus’ face on a dead stingray?! Really?? Woman sees... Read more

    When I was a teenager in my church’s youth group, going on a mission trip meant we had a lot of time to pass on the bus ride over to wherever it was we were going. There’s only so many movies you can watch or songs you can sing along to before you get bored. When that would happen we often turned to riddles to pass the time. We weren’t very creative. We usually came back to the... Read more

    As Christians we love our traditions. It doesn’t matter if the tradition is sacred, like celebrating the Eucharist, or something more earthbound, like the annual 4th of July picnic. Whatever the tradition is that we embrace, we do it with gusto. One such tradition that we seem to especially enjoy is the tradition of calling each other names. When we were on the playground, calling each other names was anything but sacred and we had to be careful... Read more