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I shouldn’t have to remind you that Jesus doesn’t support nuclear war.
What’s with some Christians suddenly endorsing nuclear war? The idea pisses me off. But it doesn’t surprise me. It seems like an inevitable, given our present state. Not that war is inevitable (though I fear it may be). But that some Christians are always making it harder on the rest of us. And at the…
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The Bonds of Christianity go beyond the Bible
Last week, I found myself on the outside of a Christian community. It’s a strange feeling. I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. I was angry. Confused. Not sure what was going on. It was, after all, a simple Facebook group and therefore inconsequential. But the circumstances felt very prescient and significant. A…
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It isn’t weird to be a Christian who supports abortion rights
You’ve heard the narratives about “what all Christians believe.” And you’ve heard many a high-profile pastor speak for all of Christians. He tells you precisely what we all believe, like we’re 3 billion cultists in the world with an identical worldview. We don’t all believe the same stuff. And yet this view of a singular…
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You and I are the real devils – Some thoughts on Satan
I never got the devil. Satan. I never believed it existed. My earliest memories of Satan were the conflicted and stretched arguments of cartoons and Bible stories in church, none of which made the devil ever seem real. It was like thinking thunder came from God bowling in the clouds or stepping on a crack…
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Bernie Sanders isn’t denying your right to believe in hell
Bernie Sanders doesn’t care what you believe about hell. He does care if your beliefs demonize other people. This is the context in which Christian conservatives fell back to seeing persecutions everywhere. Often looking for persecutions precisely when asked to recognize their bias. At a recent confirmation hearing for Russell Vought who was nominated to become…
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A Book of Prayer for Common People
For many, the Book of Common Prayer is a source of continuity and comfort. What they rarely recognize is that it is a radical, world-changing document. Written and updated by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1533-1556), the Book of Common Prayer, or BCP was a radical invention formed of a radical time. England, thoroughly enmeshed in another of…
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The failure of rigidity in Christian faith
I went to seminary to find the answers. All of them. To be smart and do the right things. It took longer than it should’ve to see how wrong I was. I had swallowed that ridiculousness whole. Liturgy was uniform and precise. Beliefs were specific and certain. There was a common understanding that went all…
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What is the effect of Christianity on compassion?
Atheists are more motivated by compassion than the religious. This finding a few years ago was surprising. It led many to wonder if rising secularism would lead to a better world. Particularly when we start to see how conflict follows the religious around like a puppy. But another finding complicates that view and makes it even…