Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Bible

  • 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…

  • It was an American Literature class. We read short stories and poetry and each day my classmates would slump into their seats unprepared to talk about Hawthorne or Whitman. I could tell when the teacher’s frustration was high because she’d call on me, even when I didn’t raise my hand. She knew she could get something…

  • It’s a simple question. Well, at least many of us treat it like it is. Not at all, we say. Separation of Church and State. A lot, we say. We are called to change the world. How we answer the question often reveals not only what we think of church and politics, but where we…

  • or Why Paul is Anti-Anti-Gay You find yourself stuck in a conversation you don’t want to be in. You hear some pretty outrageous things about GOD and the Bible and homosexuality and it is upsetting. You’ve already talked about love and how Jesus works with people and doesn’t care about that stuff, but still they…

  • In a series of episodes on The RobCast called simply “Politics and Guns,” Rob Bell deals with many of the issues surrounding the politics of guns in the United States. He begins with perhaps the most important starting place: politics. [bctt tweet=”‘Don’t pretend that nothing can be done.’” nofollow=”yes”] Through the arc of the series, Bell…

  • Bible Study

    It feels like we don’t respect the Bible. We use it as a weapon. As justification. As a tool. We use it as a litmus test and a crutch. We use it as means of separation and as a means of distinction. We use it to gather people to us and to turn them away. Our…