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July 2018

July 24, 2018

What I Learned About My Faith When I Visited Cuba

Fifteen years ago, I was part of a group of a dozen or so academics...

July 22, 2018

Don’t Be Afraid

I had the opportunity to spend two hours with a young man named Hayden Bruce...

July 19, 2018

Making the Universe More Beautiful Through Diversity

A number of years ago, during a public forum on my campus focused on steps...

July 10, 2018

God’s Works Are as Good as We Make Them

God would have us know that we must live as people who manage our lives...

July 08, 2018

God is Just a Story (and so are we)

Although the name of this blog is “Freelance Christianity,” and it is published on Patheos’...

July 01, 2018

Prayer for People Who Don’t Believe in God

Last week I contracted with a publisher to write a book on prayer--the working title...

June 2018

June 25, 2018

You Don’t Have to Believe Everything You Think

I have grown weary of trying to understand the unquestioning support that Donald Trump receives...

June 21, 2018

This is What You are Afraid of

Frederick Buechner says that vocation is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s...

June 10, 2018

What Do You Do When No One Is Watching?

Hey Justin! What if you had a ring that made you invisible when you put...

June 03, 2018

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Weed

My family and I spent three years in the middle nineties living in the South—specifically,...

May 2018

May 28, 2018

A Memorial Day Question: Is Democracy Overrated?

It is Memorial Day, a great day to honor those who have made sacrifices over...

May 27, 2018

Love and a Honda Accord Stationwagon

On a very sad morning almost ten years ago, my favorite vehicle ever was towed out...

May 22, 2018

Why the Liberal Arts Matter

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning historian David McCullough was the speaker at Providence College's Commencement exercises...

May 10, 2018

The Crooked Timber of Faith

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made. Immanuel Kant...

May 06, 2018

What Christians Get Wrong About Jesus

Historical Christianity has fallen into the error that corrupts all attempts to communicate religion ....

May 01, 2018

Taking a Moral Holiday

So here we are, a year and a half since Donald Trump was elected President....

April 2018

April 19, 2018

A Liberal and a Christian Walk Into a Bar . . .

Not long ago, The Atlantic published an article by Emma Green entitled “Democrats Have a...

March 2018

March 27, 2018

A Holy Week Reflection: Why Doctrine and Faith Don’t Mix

Holy Week is upon us once again—as good a time as any to step back...

March 22, 2018

Morality By The Skin Of Your Teeth

Any caring human being asks the question What is the right thing to do? on...

March 20, 2018

What is it Like to be You?

During the last third of the semester in my General Ethics class this semester, we...

March 13, 2018

Dr. Seuss, an Unborn Child, and Why Each Of Us Matters

Dr. Seuss was a regular in our house when my sons were young—my thirty-something sons...

March 11, 2018

Childish or Childlike?

One of stories that was emphasized regularly in the Baptist Sunday school of my youth...

March 08, 2018

How Atheists and Theists Can Get Along

This coming week I will be starting a unit with my General Ethics students called...

March 06, 2018

A Few Things That I Know To Be True

Today is my birthday, so I ask for your indulgence. Our culture tends to assume...

March 04, 2018

On Being Made of Meat

“What’s the difference between chili con carne and chili con queso?” I ask my freshman...

March 01, 2018

A More Plausible God

In a couple of weeks, we will be starting a unit in my General Ethics...

February 2018

February 27, 2018

Why Teachers Should Not Be Armed

As a proposed step in our continuing struggle to address gun violence in schools, President...

February 25, 2018

Sharing My Faith

I grew up in the world of evangelical Christianity, and have spent much of my...

February 24, 2018

What I Can Do About Gun Violence

The year anniversary of the horrific massacre at The Pulse in Orlando a week ago,...

February 18, 2018

So Much Good. So Much Evil. Just Add Water

So here we are again, seeking as a country to deal with the latest horrific...

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