1+ day, 20+ hour ago  (918+ words) You see, I used to think I was a Christian. I was raised in a Christian home and went to a Christian school. After a few meandering spiritual wilderness years, I attended a Christian seminary, became a Christian pastor, and…...

3+ day, 9+ hour ago  (1042+ words) (This message is for David Byrne. If you're not David Byrne, feel free to scroll away.) You don't know me, but I was row G, seat 112 at your performance in Durham on Monday night. (By the way, this is not…...

3+ day, 19+ hour ago  (776+ words) Not the Patriot Front or the Proud Boys. Not Neo-Nazis. Not the Evangelical thugs crashing Pride parades, health clinics, and civil rights protests. Not homegrown, white, Conservative males (who comprise the lion's share of our mass shooters). They're coming for…...

4+ day, 20+ hour ago  (528+ words) Like many truthful things, the reply arrived housed in humor but left a terrible lingering aftertaste of regret. I was joking, but I also wasn't lying. I wonder if that resonates with you: the grief of remembering the person you…...

6+ day, 17+ hour ago  (732+ words) Immediately below that post was another, absolutely identical to the first, except for a different account handle. Scrolling through my timeline, this morning alone, I encountered, not only five more greetings from my now ubiquitous brunette, shapeshifting female MAGA warrior,…...

1+ week, 20+ hour ago  (472+ words) For many people, that means flowers, handmade cards, Sunday brunches, and waves of laughter. It means celebration, and gratitude, and warm embraces, and great rejoicing. It means resting fully in loving and being loved. But not for some people. For…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago  (657+ words) To hell with you, as you have the unmitigated audacity to fill churches throughout this nation on Sunday, after celebrating the silencing of your black and brown neighbors all week, as you've applauded the erasure of six decades of civil…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago  (764+ words) As a Christian for most of my life and a pastor for nearly three decades, I'm quite familiar with the Old Testament story: supposedly faithful people fashioning an idol made of gold and cravenly bowing before it, in complete contempt…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago  (629+ words) What would I have done? Who would I have been when everything went to hell? And regardless of how we may have answered those questions back then, that was all theoretical; just an interesting, yet ultimately hollow intellectual exercise. The…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago  (287+ words) If you're paying attention, you've probably noticed the symptoms. Your buildings are slowly clearing, your pews gradually emptying, your congregations visibly aging away, your voice carrying less resonance than it used to. The reasons for this are complicated and interconnected,…...