A long time ago, I believed that most of the world’s problems could be solved if more people became Christians. If only more people prayed, read their Bibles, sang worship songs, and accepted Jesus into their hearts, then all our nation’s anger, strife, immorality, violence, and racial division would subside or (at the very least)…
Continue reading ➞ The Inevitable Tragedy of Christian Nationalism
Growing up in the Bible Belt in the 1990s, abortion was one of the most frequently cited symptoms of America’s “moral decline” from the pulpit. Sometimes likened to child sacrifices made to the pagan deity Moloch (and the Holocaust), abortion was depicted not only as the epitome of America’s wickedness but also proof of demonic…
In November of 2018, a video titled "Fighting Manspreading...with Bleach!" was uploaded onto the Internet. In the video, a "radical feminist" walks through various subway cars with a bottle of bleach. When she sees a man "manspreading" (sitting with his legs spread open), she pours the bleach onto the man's crotch and runs away. Shot…
Continue reading ➞ Why We Should Stop Watching the News (and Leave Social Media, Too)
Another day, another reason to be outraged. No matter your position on the political spectrum, you're more than likely mad at somebody. Being angry, frustrated, or stressed out are our country's new favorite pastimes. Nothing brings people closer together quite like a shared enemy. But what if we're wrong? What if the problem isn't top-down,…
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
During Super Bowl XLVII, the Coca-Cola Company set the internet on fire. The one-minute ad titled "It's Beautiful" aired during the pregame commercial break, and by the end of the night, public response to the ad quickly outpaced interest in the game itself (a 43 - 8 blowout win for the Seattle Seahawks against the…
Continue reading ➞ Scandalous Grace in an Era of Moral Outrage and White Supremacists
In the poetic opening of Genesis, the Bible says God formed man out of the dust. Dust. Cosmologist Carl Sagan famously said, "We are made of starstuff." Stardust. It is both incredibly humbling and beautiful to recognize the God of the cosmos crafted our bodies out of the same material found at the heart of…
Continue reading ➞ Dark Days, Starry Skies: Hope in the Aftermath of the Presidential Election
It was 'Sex Night' at camp. A month before my freshman semester, I attended an orientation camp designed to 'welcome' me to my university. Overwhelmingly, the staff was made up of sophomore and junior college students. On the second night, they split the girl and guy campers into two separate groups. The format was a…
Continue reading ➞ Men Will Be Boys: The Root of Modern Misogyny
Hillary Clinton is a liar. She repeatedly told the Justice Department she did not have any classified information on her private email server, which proved to be incorrect. Benghazi is a mess - on both ends of the political spectrum. No doubt. Four Americans died during the attack, and House Republicans have spent an incredible amount of time…
Continue reading ➞ The Evangelical Case Against the Candidacy of Donald Trump
I can’t be alone. I’m watching the same news reports, interviews, debates and conventions and thinking, “Are you kidding me?” And then I sit in a church pew or scroll through my Facebook newsfeed, looking toward the people whom I respect and raised me and I think, “What is going on here?” It feels as…
Continue reading ➞ Conscientious Objection: Why I’m Reluctant to Vote
Instrument of Mercy 