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Forget Church and State, Let’s Separate Church and God
I was brought up in the Evangelical tradition to believe that Church attendance and being a Christian were synonymous. I could not imagine a scenario where anyone could truly call themselves a...
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How Jesus Deals With Failures
Control Z. ‘Control Z’ was used probably a hundred times during the course of writing this blog post. ‘Control Z’ is that heaven-sent shortcut that deletes the last entry you typed into the document...
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It’s Time To Come Clean About Biblical Marriage
“Marriage was, and always will be, the God-ordained union between one man and one woman,” shouted the pastor as he slammed his fist down on the pulpit. His face was beetroot red, and a little vein on...
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Do Not Pray This Prayer!
Towards the end of his life, C.S. Lewis married an American writer named Joy Davidman. Sadly, Joy Davidman contracted terminal bone cancer and passed away just four years later. At one point during...
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Gethsemane
“I’m taller than Jesus,” my daughter announces. I guess she announces this to me, since I am standing there, next to her, and we’re both inside this sculpture park dotted with abstract figures, and I...
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Little-Known Quirk of Faith
By James A. Haught Here’s an odd twist of religion: Multitudes of Muslims believe that Jesus will return to Earth soon — not to spread Christianity, but to abolish it in support of Islam. Muslim...
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Declare Independence from Misanthropic Dogma
During the fourth of July celebrations every year in the U.S., I take time to consider the things from which I want freedom. Those things may include a harmful habit such as repeated sub-par dietary...
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Yes, I Believe God Allows Evil to Exist
This is a hard topic to think about, but today I got a comment on one of my stories, and I felt compelled to respond. Here is the story in question: In the story I discuss how sometimes bad things...
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The Five Most Common Confessions I Heard When I Was a Pastor
“I think I’m gay.” The young man said with a trembling bottom lip. He hung his head in shame for a moment and then glanced up to gauge my reaction. I could tell that he was expecting judgment — maybe...
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Jesus Didn’t Come to Give Answers — He Came to Ask Questions.
Growing up in the evangelical Church, I was taught that Jesus provided the answers to all of life’s questions. But, it turns out that Jesus provided hardly any answers. In fact, in the Bible, Jesus...
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At War With Demons
I hear demons every day. They speak to me in hushed tones, whispering pretty little lies that, for decades, used to tangle me up in their sticky webs and fool me into believing I was free and happy...
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God Is Unconditional Love?
I love this claim. Because it feels right, in the same manner as if a belief in high-level metaphysical talk or any use of the prefix “meta-” feels right. It is as if writing in pretentious terms...
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The Seven Sermons I Wish I Could Take Back
For ten long years, I was a pastor in a church. During that time, I preached more than 200 sermons. And now, I disagree with many of them. It’s funny how, at the time, I preached with such...
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Why Jesus Doesn’t Change Lives in the Way That Christians Claim
If I had a dollar for every time someone in the church said to me, “Jesus will change your life,” I’d have enough money to publish a book explaining how Jesus won’t change your life. At least not in...
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Our Religion Problem
Recently, I heard a priest summarize our religious problem quite well. He said, “Sometimes I wonder if the church’s main problem is that it points people to the church rather than God.” I don’t believe...
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The Seven Pointless Things That Christians Fight About
Growing up as a Pastor’s kid in the eighties gave me a front-row pew to the kind of vitriol and anger that can emerge from an otherwise lovely and mild-mannered Christian when you say or do something...
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Evangelicals With Deep Pockets Are Funding Climate Change Denial
In a baffling display of cognitive dissonance, two “Christian” Texas billionaires, Farris and Dan Wilks, have emerged as the patrons of climate change denialism. Their substantial wealth, built on an...
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The Dangers of Christian Nationalism
I want to give a shout-out to the reader who inspired this post. It all started when I wrote an article called “God Bless the American Bible,” which was intended to be a satirical advertisement for the...
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Most Christians See the ‘End Times’ All Wrong. Here’s an Alternative Vision
Recently I was astounded when my partner, who was raised in a strict Christian sect, informed me of a worrisome trend among American Christians: Many fundamentalists and evangelicals want to bring on...
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Questioning Faith: A Critical Look at Divine Language
A pastor friend shared this the other day. Jesus is God spelling himself out in language humanity could understand. S. D. Gordon. That’s the opening line of one of Gordon’s Quiet Talks works, called...
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