The God I Don’t Believe In
by Antonia Terrazas

I wonder if I have started to pay more attention to the “surrounding material” being chipped away from that form revealing itself in the marble, creating tiny playthings from the sheddings, idols in their own ways. I am ready at every moment to give an account of all the gods I don’t believe in because I have spent so much time with them. I have memorized their shape, lustre, and color. They are bright and easy to see.

What’s So Hard About Covering Up to Breastfeed in Public?
by Annie Reneau

I actually would love to get to the stage when we stop calling it breastfeeding, and just call it feeding. That’s all it is. You’re not feeding a breast, you’re feeding a baby. It’s babyfeeding. Should women have to cover their babies to feed them in public? That sounds a little silly, doesn’t it?

15 Things You Might Not Care to Know About Our Dating Years
by Seth Haines

Nearly two months before the wedding, we broke up for twenty minutes. The details are irrelevant, but during our brief separation, we sat on the couch and had ourselves a good-and-ugly cry. I looked at her and said, “I don’t really want to break up.” She looked at me and responded, “neither do I.” We immediately broke into laughter. That was that. We’ve been together ever since.

Your Jesus
by John Blase

I’m sorry but I cannot accept your Jesus.
Your Jesus is eternally afraid of things
like movies and sex and naked questions.

PHYSICAL COMPATIBILITY IS A THING
by Hannah Paasch

I have to wonder if our white-knuckled clinging to all the supposed biblical literalism of purity culture, our clamors of “not even a hint” of sexual immorality have so gnosticized us that we forget that, in a very real way, we are two bodies promising to coexist in (often!) a very small space for the rest of our foreseeable heartbeats.

It’s Really Hard to Be a Good Guy With a Gun
by Adam Weinstein

Back when the licenses were still a new thing and the required instructional classes weren’t a joke, my dad’s class was run through a host of scenarios: You’re broken down on a dirt road in the middle of the night. A black dude in a Cutty pulls up behind you, gets out, comes out with a tire-iron. What do you do? Half my dad’s class said to shoot the black man.

Why the Rapture Isn’t Biblical… and Why It Matters
by Kurt Willems

This world renewed is going to be our home for eternity, and we have the opportunity to reflect that future in our present. Rapture invites us to escape this world: the last thing that Jesus would have ever taught! “On earth as in heaven” is what he said, not “in heaven away from the earth!” Our world’s future is hopeful. Let’s tell that story and not the escapist narratives that many of us grew up with.

The Liturgy of the Rock Concert
by Stephen Proctor

Unfortunately, modern worship has borrowed the visual liturgy of the rock concert, which forms worshipers into fans & critics. By default, the posture of entertainment encourages consumerism instead of consecration. In a sense, we never got away from the use of icons & images; we just substituted the art for the celebrity. We’ve traded the Meal for the microphone. We’ve lost the sacrament & gained the stage.

When Suits Become a Stumbling Block
by L.P.

Don’t these men have any self respect? Do they even understand how their clothing affects me? I wonder what is going through men’s heads when they decide to dress this way. All I know is that when a man wears a nice suit with pants that are juuuust tight enough, I will notice. … When you choose to exist in public looking well-groomed and sharp, you are basically extending an invitation for me to lust after you.

Remembering Christianity’s Roots: An Interview with Micah J. Murray
by Megan Foreman

Some days I think Christianity is the most beautiful story ever told about a Creator who loved the creation so much that He became one of them. Other days I think “Christianity” is a bogus subculture full of schemers and politicians and manipulators. Words are tricky like that, because they can be so messy.

also, my wife has a brand new etsy shop!

[ image: Shawn Hoke ]