Spirituality
Confessions of a Reluctant Writer
I stopped being vulnerable about faith a long time ago. I still write things that are true and real and come from a deep part of me but it doesn’t really feel risky anymore. I’ve said “fuck christianity” and “nothing matters” and “the bible is garbage” enough times that it’s not shocking, not to me…
Read MoreWhy I Say Swear Words at Church Sometimes
“You’re not as special as you think you are.” That’s what Dave told me a few weeks ago. Up until that point, I thought I was pretty special. I thought I was special because I feel dead inside almost every Sunday when I sit in church. I thought I was special because every Sunday morning…
Read MoreLament for the Slave Girl in Pharaoh’s House
[cw: rape] “Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill…” – Exodus 11 She…
Read MoreThe God Who Doubts
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” And I wonder if, after he sat down at an ancient typewriter and composed the opening line of his own biography, god was seized with the voice of self doubt and paused to say to himself: “This is shit. Nobody is going to read this.”…
Read MoreProposal to Revise a Word (or Two) of “Reckless Love”
The only thing worse than getting a song stuck in your head is getting a song stuck in your head whose theology you find mildly reprehensible. But such is the case with the overwhelming, never-ending catchiness of “Reckless Love” It’s one of those tunes that chases me down, fights till I’m found, and lodges it’s…
Read More27 Ridiculous Lies My Church Told Me
Yesterday Christopher Stroop posed this question on the internets: “What are some of the weirdest and/or most pernicious things you were taught as part of your indoctrination into ‘the Biblical worldview’?” Immediately I began rifling through the dusty archives of my brain in search of ridiculous bullshit that I had once believed to be true because…
Read MoreHow I Manage to Still Be a Christian
Imagine a good religion: A religion that teaches you how to love yourself and love others really well and how to experience the love of the Divine. Now image the opposite of that: Say hello to American Evangelical Christianity. /// I snark, but I am dead serious. Lately I’ve grown cantankerous (again) as I’ve been…
Read MoreWhy I Love Donald Trump
To be perfectly candid with you, I didn’t want to write this post. But I kinda’ backed myself into a corner five years ago, and I knew that if I was going to have any sense of integrity I’d have to (at least) sit down and do a bit of honest reckoning. See, five years…
Read MoreGod is Not an Asshole (and Other Things I Wish My Pastor Told Me)
We all wonder the same things: Is there a god? What is god like? And most of the time, we’re left wrestling with those questions alone.
Read MoreMy Cult Story (A Documentary Film)
We were supposed to change the world — a weird kind of extraordinary was defined by Gothard’s lists. When that’s your normal,the message hammered into you is just ‘You’re not good enough.’
Read More