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May 2020

May 02, 2020

Can We Have a Queer, Erotic God?

One of my more mischievous hobbies during the pandemic over the past few days has...

April 2020

April 14, 2020

Love Letter to A Diva God (A Poem About How Love Is Delightfully Infuriating)

You have been tuning me into your song, For every time my signal fails to...

February 2020

February 01, 2020

Resisting Harm Is What Holiness Is For

One way to talk about the tragic division in contemporary American Christianity is to say...

November 2019

November 13, 2019

Why Isn’t Perfection In Love Good Enough For Wesleyan Theology?

As United Methodism approaches our denominational apocalypse at the May 2020 General Conference, I've come...

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...

February 02, 2019

Nein! A Response to Jason Micheli on Holiness and Christian Sexuality

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

January 2019

January 09, 2019

Why Does Holiness Matter?

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

May 2018

May 19, 2018

Imagining a World Where Love is the Way (HT Bishop Curry)

In his sermon at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Episcopal Presiding...

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...

February 02, 2017

A visit to the ICE office

This week, I got to do church in a way that I hadn't experienced before. After...

November 2016

November 09, 2016

Love wins (still)

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

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 11, 2016

Who are the false prophets? (Matthew 24:11-12)

I stumbled across a scripture that I've been meditating on this week. The Ferguson Declaration...

May 2016

May 26, 2016

What would it look like for love to win in the United Methodist Church?

Love wins. Ever since Rob Bell wrote the book in 2011, it's been the battle...

May 12, 2016

Why we’re ethically incomprehensible to each other

A recent commenter brought up an important point that provides a different angle for understanding...

April 2016

April 20, 2016

No, heaven and hell are not about afterlife insurance

I was handed a tract last night on Tulane's campus that gave me the answer...

April 21, 2015

Love and the day of judgment (1 John 4:17)

1 John 4 is one of the most comforting and life-giving chapters of the whole...

February 2015

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...

November 2014

November 06, 2014

Love is not our choice, but God’s gift (featuring Simone Weil)

One of the most problematic axioms in the popular evangelical culture that raised me is...

October 2014

October 29, 2014

Wisdom from Thomas a Kempis #1: esoteric words vs. virtuous life

Thomas a Kempis was a 15th century German monk who wrote The Imitation of Christ,...

August 2014

August 12, 2014

A brilliant thing Kierkegaard wrote about love

I discovered the Danish Christian existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard my first year in college. He...

July 2014

July 20, 2014

An enemy is someone whose story you haven’t heard

A couple of weeks ago, Brian Zahnd preached a sermon on the healing of Naaman...

January 2014

January 31, 2014

Is God’s love more holy than his holiness is loving?

It may seem like a nonsensical distinction but I think it makes all the difference...

October 2013

October 02, 2013

The God who wants us to stay thirsty

Eros is an exasperatingly paradoxical kind of love. It is most fulfilled by being perpetually...

September 2013

September 30, 2013

C.S. Lewis on loving God through loving people

For our sermon series Love Actually, which we wrapped up this past weekend, we've been...

August 2013

August 28, 2013

Why the dream has been deferred (purity culture as the backlash against the civil rights movement)

You can't say the N word anymore. You get sued if you racially discriminate in...

August 14, 2013

Does doctrine inspire love? (more fallout from @renovatuspastor’s sermon)

Well I got into a twitter argument with a young Calvinist named John following his...

August 13, 2013

Is morality the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil?

This past weekend, I got to hear my favorite podcast preacher Jonathan Martin live for...

July 2013

July 12, 2013

Should women cover their heads in church?

The latest movement in neo-patriarchal evangelicaldom is a call for women to return to covering...

June 2013

June 28, 2013

Love is not love unless it becomes flesh

One of the things I acquired from growing up in evangelical youth groups and parachurch...