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August 2015

August 20, 2015

Why moralistic meritocracy is incompatible with Christian teaching

There's a meme going around Facebook about a famous football player who boasts that he...

July 2015

July 07, 2015

Six scriptures I would use to address Kevin DeYoung’s 40 questions for rainbow flag-waving Christians

Kevin DeYoung’s 40 questions for rainbow-flag waving Christians has been making rounds across the internet...

June 2015

June 19, 2015

Why I can’t use euphemisms for anti-gay Christians

I have many anti-gay Christians in my life and I love them at least as...

June 12, 2015

If God is a cop, then every cop is God

Over the past year, as police brutality against people of color has come under increasing...

June 03, 2015

What Russell Moore gets right about transgender and intersex identity

Predictably, there have been a lot of ignorant Christian responses to Caitlyn Jenner's coming out....

May 2015

May 14, 2015

Jesus’ holiness vs. our moralism (with Debra Hirsch)

I've been reading Debra Hirsch's Redeeming Sex as part of the Patheos Book Club for...

May 11, 2015

How would Jesus behave on social media?

Christians behave badly on social media. We're rude. We're arrogant. We gossip. We spread rumors....

May 06, 2015

How a core evangelical doctrine became my gateway heresy

The other week, a friend playfully tweeted out a warning not to mess around with...

May 01, 2015

Why white Christians need to listen to Amos and Isaiah

"But let justice roll down like waters; and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Amos 5:24...

April 2015

April 26, 2015

Six ways I will never stop being evangelical

The Christian blogosphere seems to viralize two things: 1) numbered lists (five reasons why this,...

April 17, 2015

Another world is possible (a shout-out to the #FightFor15 and #DivestTulane movements)

During the past week, I have had the privilege of supporting two different political campaigns,...

April 06, 2015

I choose to live in a world where resurrection happens

During Lent this year, a Presbyterian minister named John Shuck posted on the Friendly Atheist...

April 03, 2015

Embracing godforsakenness: how Jesus’ cross saves the human community

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" These words that Jesus spoke on...

February 2015

February 18, 2015

Radical Jesus 101: Two very different ways of defining sin

I figured Ash Wednesday would be a good day to meditate upon the meaning of...

February 13, 2015

Can Christianity be sex-positive? A chat with Dianna Anderson

Dianna Anderson is a twitter friend and conversation partner who is part of our growing tribe...

February 09, 2015

On self-serving appeals to God’s sovereign “natural” order

In response to the backlash against Barack Obama's Prayer Breakfast remarks about violence that had...

February 02, 2015

Is God offended by our sin?

What is God's attitude toward our sin? How you answer this question says a lot...

January 2015

January 24, 2015

Radical Jesus 101: Is humanity good or evil?

Is humanity good or evil? Some conservative evangelicals would say that the answer to this...

January 14, 2015

Radical Jesus 101: What is God?

Most cultures in human history have had some concept of God, whether it's one god...

January 07, 2015

Radical Jesus 101: a new series

First of all, I'm completely dissatisfied with the title. Few words are more played out...

December 2014

December 31, 2014

Seven posts from 2014 that I wish more people read

A lot of bloggers at the end of the year put out a list of...

December 29, 2014

A hopefully friendly Christian response to the atheist ten non-commandments

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine shared a set of ten "non-commandments"...

December 27, 2014

Which narrow gate is the narrow gate Jesus wants us to walk through?

At a recent campus ministry conference, the closing sermon was about Jesus' exhortation to "enter...

December 18, 2014

Original sin and the identity of the other (questioning an apparent collision of values)

At a campus ministry conference I've been attending, a conservative evangelical speaker talked about the...

December 15, 2014

Making space in the Advent/Christmas wars

There's a war during the Christmas season that's different than the supposed "war on Christmas"...

December 05, 2014

How Jesus saves through Michael Brown and Eric Garner

One thing that I never tire of pondering as a Christian is how Jesus' cross...

November 2014

November 20, 2014

If you need for undocumented immigrants to be punished, then you don’t believe in Jesus’ cross

We have a broken immigration system. And it's broken in a way that is incredibly...

November 19, 2014

Two offensive analogies in the gay marriage debate from David Gushee and Andrew Wilson

During the past couple of weeks, two arguments have surfaced on opposite sides of the...

November 17, 2014

The Jesuit martyrs, the pueblo crucificado, and the kingdom of God

25 years ago, on November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter...

November 07, 2014

Can God improvise outside the boundaries of Christian orthodoxy?

Generally there are two extreme positions that Christians can take when talking about where other...