There was a time in my life when I repeated the 'Sinner's Prayer' a lot. In my faith tradition, Hell is humankind's default destination. Like a pre-existing medical condition, everyone is born damned per the doctrine of Original Sin. And the only way to reroute your one-way ticket from eternal damnation to eternal paradise is to make a public…
The story of Noah's Ark and the Great Flood has long cast a spell on the public imagination. The Biblical account of Noah's Ark has inspired multiple archeological attempts to "recover" the wreckage of the ark across various mountaintops in the Middle East and a $100 million "biblically-accurate replica" that serves as a tourist attraction…
In an instant, millions of people around the world vanish into thin air. Planes plummet out of the sky. Vehicles, suddenly unmanned, careen out of control. The catastrophic event hurls the world into a state of chaos, anarchy, and panic. Is this the opening salvo of an alien invasion? A secret military experiment gone awry?…
Continue reading ➞ Revelation Decoded: The Secrets Behind the Most Misunderstood Book in the Bible
Without a doubt, Easter is a weird one. Not only does it arguably have the worst color palette of any national holiday, but the celebration's pagan roots are also so nakedly apparent it's almost shocking they aren't challenged more often by the people who perpetually claim there's a "War on Christmas." Our word "Easter" is…
Continue reading ➞ Why I (Still) Believe: A Skeptic’s Guide to the Resurrection of Jesus
A few weeks ago, an older acquaintance shared a post on Facebook that read, "God is not going to rewrite the Bible for your generation. His Word remains the same forever and always!" I understand the sentiment. I was raised in a "God said it, I believe it, and that settles it" culture of evangelical…
Continue reading ➞ Life in Technicolor: Gay Christians and the Bible
Born in East Texas and raised as a Southern Baptist, I'd only heard one side of the story. If you had come out to me as gay, I would've told you that while God loves and accepts you, He doesn't want you to be in a same-sex relationship. Love the sinner, hate the sin, you…
Continue reading ➞ Life in Technicolor: Gay Christians and the Church
On July 26, 2019, Joshua Harris, former megachurch pastor and author of the infamous purity culture bestseller I Kissed Dating Goodbye, announced to his Instagram followers that he was no longer a Christian. "By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian," Harris wrote. "I don't view this moment…
Continue reading ➞ Prone To Wander: The Allure of Deconversion Testimonies
When I was ten years old, our church library ordered a book called Dinosaurs and The Bible. I couldn't have been more excited. Like most ten-year-olds, I was a huge dinosaur nerd. When I grew up, I wanted to be a paleontologist, and I could rattle off the Latin names for all my favorite dinosaurs.…
Continue reading ➞ At the Beginning of the World: Dinosaurs, Genesis, and the Gift of Science
Growing up, I never thought the story of the first Christmas was very interesting. Oh sure, it’s a nice story, but for a ten-year-old boy who couldn’t even begin to grasp the meaning of the word “Incarnation,” the Christmas story was the one with the cute baby surrounded by barnyard animals. But as I got older and…
Continue reading ➞ Revolution in the Manger: The Untold Story of the First Christmas
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm happy to announce the War on Christmas is over. And it's been over for about one hundred and fifty years. The Puritans waged the original War on Christmas in 17th century England and, later, the American colonies. A bunch of killjoys, the Puritans were a super-conservative branch of Protestantism that believed…
Continue reading ➞ The War On Christmas Is Over, and Other Holiday Misadventures
Instrument of Mercy 