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Mercy Not Sacrifice

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September 2020

September 23, 2020

When God’s A Cop, Every Cop Is God

Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers who killed Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY, sent...

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...

June 18, 2020

Why Kevin DeYoung’s “Culture War Strategy” Fails

The Gospel Coalition published an article by Kevin DeYoung decrying the Supreme Court decision that...

April 2020

April 13, 2020

Is Progressive Christian Twitter A Middle School Cafeteria?

During the pandemic, I have been having a fascinating and frustrating journey in my various...

February 2020

February 07, 2020

If Shakira’s Tongue Causes Your Eye To Sin, Cut Your Eyeball Out

I wasn't going to post anything about the Superbowl halftime show. But people kept talking...

January 2020

January 06, 2020

Iran, Mike Pompeo, and the Total Depravity of The Other

[Mike Pompeo: U.S. Department of State, Public Domain] Donald Trump may not be an evangelical...

December 2019

December 13, 2019

Is David French or Mayor Pete Right About Christian Salvation?

My buddy Jason Micheli recently wrote about the gap between the Christianities of conservative evangelical...

June 2019

June 22, 2019

“Sugary Preaching Leads to Truth Decay”

Our Virginia annual conference happened in Roanoke this year. As I drove from my parents'...

May 2019

May 04, 2019

Rachel Held Evans and the Democratization of Theology

I was motivated to start this blog after I discovered Rachel Held Evans in 2011...

February 2019

February 02, 2019

Nein! A Response to Jason Micheli On Sanctification and Sex

Jason Micheli is my closest frenemy who isn't openly Calvinist. I love Jason, but sometimes...

January 2019

January 20, 2019

“Unfortunate and Regrettable”

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

January 09, 2019

Why Does Holiness Matter?

Holiness is one of the most important and controversial aspects of John Wesley's 300 year...

January 08, 2019

Theology That Builds Walls

Donald Trump would not be fixated on building a wall on the southern border of...

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...

November 2018

November 20, 2018

A Love Letter to Ex-Evangelical Twitter

I debated whether to call this a love letter or an open letter. Love letter...

October 2018

October 31, 2018

Can Wesleyanism Evolve Or Does It Belong To The 18th Century?

The continuous meta-debate within the United Methodist debate is to ask: what are we really...

May 2018

May 23, 2018

Why Did Patheos Evangelical Push Out A Whistleblower Blog?

I've just been informed that the Patheos Evangelical channel has closed down the blog of...

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"...

January 2018

January 12, 2018

How Can We Talk Forgiveness in the Age of #MeToo?

This Sunday I will preach the kickoff sermon of the spring semester at my campus...

December 2017

December 14, 2017

Grace, Truth, and Eucharist in an Age of Disposable People

I was originally going to write something about Roy Moore and the 81% of white...

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...

August 2017

August 17, 2017

The week I stopped hating white evangelical men

[Content Note: childhood sexual trauma] Sometimes my personal life is out of step with the...

August 13, 2017

What If This Is the New Church?

I've been thinking about what I would preach today if I were preaching. And I...

July 2017

July 19, 2017

7 Ways I’m Not Entirely Progressive

I just got back from the Wild Goose Festival. It's a great experience every year,...

July 03, 2017

When God Won’t Let Me Go Off On The Evangelicals

I was planning to go off on the evangelicals in this blog post. After First...

June 2017

June 22, 2017

A Response to Seedbed’s Five Marks of Theological Liberalism

I would not call myself a liberal Christian. I self-identify as a progressive evangelical, which...

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...

May 2017

May 02, 2017

United Methodism Was Designed for Relational Discipleship Not Ideological Takeover

The United Methodist Judicial Council ruled this past weekend that Karen Oliveto was elected illegally...

April 2017

April 27, 2017

The narrative that’s destroying United Methodism

There’s a narrative circulating around United Methodism. It goes something like this: if preachers would...