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June 2020

June 29, 2020

“All People Are Holy”: The Theology Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez summarized one of my core religious convictions in a speech given on February...

May 2020

May 11, 2020

The Light That Will Not Be Seized

[This is a poem about reinterpreting the Genesis 3 Garden of Eden story and how...

April 2020

April 30, 2020

Babel (A Poem About Empire, Heresy, and Speaking In Tongues)

She is gathering the trumpets: Maybe there are 7; Maybe a prime number Like 29...

January 2020

January 04, 2020

Ten Spiritual Lessons From A Decade of Failures

I first became a licensed local pastor in July 2010. Over the course of the...

January 20, 2019

“Unfortunate and Regrettable”

The boys of Covington Catholic High School stole the show at this weekend's March for...

December 2018

December 28, 2018

The Evangelical Zeal For Zeal

Fred Hartley's Dare to Be Different was one of the books that defined my evangelical...

June 2018

June 15, 2018

Jeff Sessions and Law and Order Christianity

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a United Methodist layperson. Somewhere along the way in his...

April 2018

April 17, 2018

Why Evangelicals Need #ChurchClarity

When I was a first year student at the University of Virginia in the late...

April 13, 2018

Control: The Greatest Temptation of Satan

One of my favorite songs by the dark industrial synthpop band VNV Nation is "Control"...

April 03, 2018

When Martyrs’ Legacies Are Whitewashed and Coopted

Fifty years ago, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, he had...

December 2017

December 31, 2017

November 2017

November 30, 2017

Sex As Grace (Reflecting On A Discussion With College Men)

"Togetherness in Bed," rt69, Flickr C.C. This week, I decided to go through former Archbishop...

June 2017

June 23, 2017

Atonement: a basic explanation

Atonement is the centerpiece of Christian theology. It’s a compound word that literally means what...

June 01, 2017

Why Toxic Christianity is a Threat to Our Planet’s Survival

Today, Donald Trump announced that the US is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, an...

April 2017

April 14, 2017

Seven ways that Jesus died for our sins

Painting by Bec Cranford-Smith What does it mean that Jesus died for humanity’s sins? It’s...

February 2017

February 09, 2017

The spirit of power, love, and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7)

On Tuesday, the daily office lectionary included this verse from 2 Timothy 1:7: "God did...

January 2017

January 24, 2017

Five #AlternativeFacts of toxic Christianity

While government officials have always distorted truth, the Trump Administration is the first to openly...

December 2016

December 13, 2016

Decolonizing Christianity with Alicia Crosby and AnaYelsi Velasco-Sanchez

Today on Crackers and Grape Juice, we shared an interview I did with Alicia Crosby and...

November 2016

November 16, 2016

Intersectionality for bewildered white evangelicals

In the Washington Post this week, white evangelical millennial leader Katelyn Beaty said, "I can’t...

November 09, 2016

Love wins (still)

Last night, after our Election Day Communion service, I walked over to the Audubon Park...

November 03, 2016

If Donald Trump wins, I will blame toxic Christianity and here’s why

There are many different factors at play in the rise of Donald Trump. His popularity...

September 2016

September 18, 2016

My seven salvations so far

There is nothing more anxiety-inducing about growing up Southern Baptist than the obsession with having...

September 13, 2016

We’re all a basket of deplorables

Basket of deplorables. What an odd phrase that Hillary Clinton chose to use. She was...

September 07, 2016

Toxic Christianity encapsulated in a church sign

This church sign captures everything that is wrong with toxic Christianity and why it positions...

August 2016

August 20, 2016

Does love really trump hate or is that just a hashtag?

For the past week, I've been haunted by a moment that occurred during some dead...

August 14, 2016

It’s time to put the knife down

At our joint book event this weekend, Liz Edman read a passage from her book...

August 13, 2016

My conversation with Queer Virtue’s Liz Edman

Today was the big day. I got to have a public conversation with Liz Edman,...

July 2016

July 28, 2016

Seven ways to be an untoxic Christian during a toxic presidential campaign

We're living through what seems like the most toxic presidential campaign in American history. It's...

July 19, 2016

Six things that make white Christian America toxic

Since it's Donald Trump's big week and he's an excellent bellwether of the toxicity of...