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Mercy Not Sacrifice

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April 2020

April 26, 2020

Judas (A Poem About The Freedom To Be Wrong)

I will arrive when I Can be wrong without shame, When I know that I...

January 2020

January 24, 2020

Sin and the Rules of the Market

A couple of weeks ago, a Calvinist bro on Twitter was talking about how liberation...

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...

January 22, 2019

Our Sin Is Not A Zero Sum Game

I sinned. I reacted impulsively and opportunistically to the Covington Catholic drama with my hot...

January 09, 2019

Why Does Holiness Matter?

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

December 2017

December 21, 2017

Can Jesus Forgive Sins Without Transforming the Economy? (A Response to Tim Keller)

Jesus didn't come primarily to solve the economic, political, and social problems of the world....

August 2017

August 26, 2017

The Theology That Pardons White Supremacy

Last night I witnessed a white United Methodist pastor seeking to justify Donald Trump's pardon...

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 13, 2017

The 7 Best #GospelBro Retorts to #EugenePeterson

I don't have time to write a real blog post since I'm leaving for Wild...

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...

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...

March 2017

March 01, 2017

My ashes are my promise to resist sin (Ezekiel 9:4)

It's no secret that the mainline church would prefer not to talk about sin. That's...

October 2016

October 17, 2016

Christian spirituality for a non-Christian audience

I've been offered an amazing opportunity by the Tulane Hillel rabbi Yonah Schiller to talk...

August 2016

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,...

August 05, 2016

Wayne Grudem and the evangelical double-standard of sin

Donald Trump received a significant endorsement recently from Wayne Grudem, the man who wrote the...

July 2016

July 28, 2016

I alone can fix it: the delusion of the white messiah

"I alone can fix it." Donald Trump has said a lot of things that he's...

April 2016

April 22, 2016

Responses to a thoughtful book critic

Edwin Tait is one of my most thoughtful internet conversation partners. We disagree on some...

April 15, 2016

The 12 scriptures that inspired my book

When I was a Southern Baptist, we used to believe that Methodists didn't read the...

April 10, 2016

Do we need to be saved like Saul of Tarsus was saved?

Today's lectionary scripture includes Acts 9, the story of Saul's conversion into the apostle Paul....

January 2016

January 28, 2016

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and white evangelical nihilism

It's going to be hard to write this without it coming across as trolling, but...

January 06, 2016

Can Jesus save the world from Christians?

It seems there are two kinds of Christians: those who think the world needs to...

December 2015

December 23, 2015

Jesus’ name and the meaning of salvation

In Matthew 1:21, the angel Gabriel tells Mary what to name her new baby: “You...

April 2015

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 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...

October 2014

October 13, 2014

Is God arbitrary? (my point of contention with conservative evangelicals)

Is there anything that God asks us to do for no other reason than because...

September 2014

September 29, 2014

“Against you alone have I sinned” (the solipsism of evangelical morality)

"Against you alone have I sinned." These words from Psalm 51:4 are attributed to the...

September 17, 2014

Do you deserve to be crucified for your sin?

This past week, Brian Zahnd and Michael Brown held a debate on the penal substitution...

February 2014

February 13, 2014

Have you ever been thrown into hell or did you pluck your eyeball out in time? (Matthew 5:29)

Jesus says some pretty wild things, but this week's lectionary reading includes one of his...