On December 4, 2015, Jerry Falwell, Jr. - the president of Liberty University - stood in front of 10,000 Christian students and faculty members during a weekly chapel service and said, "If more good people had concealed [handgun] carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in." Falwell was referencing the terrorist…
Continue reading ➞ A Biblical Case for Christian Nonviolence
Was Jesus a conservative? A liberal? If he could, would he have voted Democrat or Republican? Would Jesus have even voted? Would he have had anything to do with modern politics, at all? Or is there more going on in the Gospels? Are we even asking the right questions? I think the answers to these…
Continue reading ➞ The Flag and the Cross: The Religious Seduction of Politics and Power
About a year and a half ago, I changed how chose which books I read. Prior to my decision, I read books purely for knowledge - reading became a way to obtain intellectual insight into the mysteries of God and faith. And I soon found myself losing the joy of reading. Because reading became a…
Continue reading ➞ Eight Books That Will Blow Your Mind and Challenge Your Faith
It's been a year since I've become one flesh with my wife. We married in a muggy parlor room in a historic home surrounded by friends and family after our wedding venue was flooded by a torrential downpour the day before our wedding. "And the two became one flesh" is one of the Bible's favorite…
Continue reading ➞ Thoughts on Sex, Vulnerability, and Spirituality After a Year of Marriage
Despite near-limitless opportunities for connectivity, millennials are finding themselves in a world of increasingly dire social isolation. Popular television shows like Friends, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, and New Girl depict modern urban life as an endless parade of zany misadventures, unannounced visitors, and group hangouts. No one is ever bored. No…
Continue reading ➞ Love at the Table: The Gift of Hospitality in an Era of Isolation
Have you ever been embarrassed by something in the Bible? Or wished the Bible just left some stuff out? And I'm not talking about a hard teaching on money or a convicting verse about orphans and widows, but one of those passages that makes you pause and go, "Uh-oh." Like, you're chugging along on your…
Continue reading ➞ The Good Book, or How I Learned to Stop Defending and Love the Bible
Instrument of Mercy 