How churches manipulate us

It’s really hard for church leaders to recognize when they’re wrong. If you’re a pastor or any other kind of leader within a church, chances are good that you have very noble intentions and believe the things you do and say are motivated from a place that honors and respects God and the church. Because […]

Why the American Church is failing

The Christianity practiced by the American Church has made it largely impotent and a shadow of what it is supposed to be. Lord, where to even begin? I guess the first place is to note that, while this critique is aimed primarily at the White American Church, there is no version that is blameless and, […]

Too many Christians are voting out of fear and ignorance

Many of you who need to read this probably won’t because you’ve judged and labeled me as something that allows you to justify ignoring me, probably “liberal” or some other similar term. I’m not, but that’s what people do in order to avoid things they don’t understand, don’t agree with, or otherwise fail to properly […]

Competing Christian visions of America

I have been writing in this blog space for over seven years, and a very small number of people have faithfully and lovingly followed much of what I’ve said over that time. I write for many reasons, but primarily it’s one of the few ways you can really get to know someone short of having […]

Why you should love the church

I’ve been pretty critical of the American Church in several posts, and it strikes me that those who don’t know me extremely well may get the wrong impression regarding my esteem for the Church. It’s true that I’m concerned that American evangelicalism has essentially lost its soul chasing political power and has been consumed by […]

The meaning of life: My journey through life – Epilogue, Part II

Now we come to it: what’s the point? I’ve shared most of my life’s story about how Christ healed me, and I’ve shared reasons along the way about why I believe Christianity to be true. But so what? Being healed from trauma and my own brokenness sure beats continuing to go around bleeding all over […]

Jesus of Nazareth as a guy

I had a crisis of faith in my mid-20s. My background was Christian, and my trouble centered on whether there was any point in me continuing with the faith. I wanted a deeper connection to God than what is stereotypically understood to be on offer in most American churches. It seems to me Jesus is […]