Culture
Against the Wounds
Warning: There’s a heartbreaking, disturbing image in this one. I was going to write something different today, but I don’t want to anymore. This has been a terrible week, and the words I was going to toss into the air would have felt empty and worthless in the whirlwind. So instead you get this –…
Read MoreWhy I Don't Want to Watch the Hunger Games
Apparently there’s a new trailer for the next Hunger Games movie, and it’s quite exciting. I’ve seen quotes and links and squeals of joy from all across the internet all day. Probably everyone I know is bursting with impatience to watch Catching Fire. Everyone except me. When I see the words “Hunger Games”, a part…
Read MoreWhy Abuse Is Not Discipline
Warning: I’m going to talk about physical and verbal and sexual abuse. I used to be a big fan of talk radio. I used to drive around Minneapolis in my beat-up two-door Cavalier with a McCain sticker on the back, jamming out to the sweet sounds of Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.…
Read MoreNew Wineskins
I first started blogging almost a decade ago, when I was fresh out of high school and Xanga was cool. There were a lot of pictures and song lyrics back then, because it was 2004 and that’s what one did. When I started that blog, somebody told me that there was no way I would…
Read MoreThe Lily and the Storm
It seems that every new season brings another round of fisticuffs in our nation’s debate about marriage. Inevitably there are strong voices on all sides of the conversation, and I find myself sitting here overwhelmed with the noise of it all. But last week, as the voices escalated once again, a friend sent me these…
Read MoreWhen We Criticize the Church
We were sold a package deal. Truth and lies, hope and despair, real and fake – all tied up in a neat package with a bow and sold to us with the label of “Christianity”. The men in the suits with all the words told us that what they taught was true. They said it…
Read MoreI Don't Want to Be a Christian Anymore
“I think I don’t want to be a ‘Christian’ anymore. Because in the middle of trying to think, talk, and act like a Christian it’s easy to forget to love God and be loved by Him.” – from my journal (2008) Christian. It’s just a word, and words only have meaning because we agree that they…
Read MoreIn the Vacuum
A few weeks ago I got a very kind e-mail inviting me to be part of the A Deeper Story crew. Having admired many of these wordsmiths from a distance, I was thrilled to join them. My inaugural post on Deeper Story is about a depressing Hemingway post (of course). I’ll let you see the…
Read MoreBeware of Thinking Biblically
If you took all the Bibles in American homes and made one big stack, your tower of Bibles would dwarf Mount Everest a thousand times over. That would be a pretty cool stack, for sure, but it would make it pretty hard to actually read the Bibles. If you took all the Google results for “thinking…
Read MoreBoys and Dolls: A Father's Response
What would you do if you found your boy playing with a doll instead of a bulldozer? This is the scandalous premise at the heart of a recent Sesame Street clip. As a guy who aspires to Biblical manhood, as a father of two sons, and as a regular viewer of Sesame Street, this debate…
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