We found ourselves in Iceland on our sixth wedding anniversary. It was our first "big" vacation in four years. Between moving to Colorado, buying a house, renovating said house, changing jobs, and the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, international travel just wasn't in the cards (or, to be honest, the budget). However, at the…
"Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" is one of those phrases that feels so baked into modern Christianity is almost shocking to discover it never appears anywhere in the Bible. At a fundamental level, there's nothing wrong about "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin." It seeks to be a more gracious counterpoint to the accusation…
Continue reading ➞ Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin? Why We Should Retire Our Favorite Christian Phrase
The guest speaker stands behind the podium. A clear pitcher of water sits on a stool at his side. Our youth group listens with rapt attention. The guest speaker is talking about sex. He invites three boys to the front and tells them to spit into the water pitcher. Like, really spit. To make it…
Continue reading ➞ Dispatches From Purity Culture: How Sexual Shame Overtook a Generation
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
Trigger Warning: The following article contains graphic sexual content and intense depictions of sexual abuse. Reader discretion is strongly advised. However, none of the hyperlinked text links out to pornographic websites. In January 2017, PornHub - one of the largest online porn sites - released its annual Year In Review statistics. In 2016, PornHub used…
Continue reading ➞ Skin in the Game: The Feminist Case Against Pornography
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
Our stuff is killing us. The average American home includes more than 300,000 individual items. Our closets average 103 individual items per person, even though we only wear twenty percent of our wardrobe with regularity. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Americans collectively spend more than $1.2 trillion on nonessential goods. The…
Continue reading ➞ Less Is More: Reclaiming Christian Simplicity from the American Dream
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
It is, without a doubt, the most famous death in all of history. And yet, when some of us see the cross, we may see an archaic story wrapped around a barbaric torture device that has no bearing on our present reality. When others of us see the cross, you may literally see your shame.…
Continue reading ➞ The Story of the Cross We Rarely Talk About: A Fresh Perspective
Instrument of Mercy 