Posts Tagged ‘love’
Walk With Us?
Next month, we are going to take our two small boys and join thousands of others for AIDS Walk Charlotte 2014. For decades, many who suffered from AIDS were told “You deserve this. You brought this on yourselves. This is God’s punishment on you.” We’re walking to say with our feet what we believe in…
Read MoreWhat Nobody Ever Told Me About Jesus
I’ve been wearing my heart on my sleeve around here, all torn up. It’s no secret that there’s been a lot of anger, swirling confusion, throbbing frustration. I’ve metaphorically stomped around the house slamming doors, yelling till my throat was raw. Mostly yelling about the Church. I want to talk about this again a bit…
Read MoreWhy I Kissed “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” Goodbye
This week my friend Mandy Hale is celebrating the release of her second book: I’ve Never Been to Vegas But My Luggage Has. I appreciate Mandy’s humor, courage, and the way she shares her story with those who need it most, and I’m honored to have her share a bit of her story here today. …
Read MoreHere's to the Children
“Love saves people.” (My three-year-old son says more in three words than I can in a thousand, and it’s the Gospel.) “Love saves people,” he told Mommy as he rubbed her head, and he was trying to save her with all the love his little hands could hold. No wonder Jesus said that the Kingdom belongs…
Read MoreHow I Became a Jesus Feminist
When I was nineteen, a kid asked me what a feminist was. “A feminist is a woman with an authority problem,” I said. It was a black-and-white world I lived in then, one where I had all the answers (because I had read them in a book) and I wasn’t afraid to tell them (because…
Read MoreConfessions of a Recovering Cynic
For years, I wore the label on my forehead in big black letters: “Cynic.” I was eighteen, nineteen, twenty and immersed in a dysfunctional system where authoritarianism and cognitive dissonance ruled supreme. I was a boy becoming a man and trying to bridge the gap between what I heard and what I saw. I was…
Read MorePerhaps Love Bakes a Cake
It is a culture war that has raged in churches and courtrooms, in parades and fast food places. Now in the most bizarre turn of all, the “gay marriage” battle is being fought in bakeries and restaurants across the country. While many Christians see this as a disturbing indicator of mounting persecution, I see it…
Read MoreDon't Be a Friend of Sinners
When I was growing up Christians didn’t hang out with sinners. Sinners hung out at bars and Christians avoided them – bars and sinners both – so as to not spoil our testimony for the Lord. After all, one drop of muddy water ruins the whole glass. It was of utmost importance to avoid all…
Read MoreI Am Not a Sex-Fueled Robot
They say that men give love to get sex, and women give sex to get love. If this is true, then marriage is nothing but a market exchange where we trade emotion for flesh in a desperate attempt to satisfy our own cravings. If this is true, I am simply a customer settling a invoice…
Read MoreWhy I Can't Say Love the Sinner / Hate the Sin Anymore
I thought we just needed to try harder. Maybe we needed to focus more on loving the sinner, and less on protesting his sin. But I’m done. I can’t look my gay brother in the eye anymore and say “I love the sinner but hate the sin.” I can’t keep drawing circles in the sand. Even…
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