On Value vs. Sin

This post in inspired by Caroline Vandenbree.I have grown up in the tension between being loved and being sinful. I’ve grown up in no man’s land, between the “liberal” trench of grace on my left and the “conservative” trench of the reality of sin on my right. I’ve heard and seen many leaders berate the…

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How Do You Say Nothing?

There are times in life where I simply have nothing to say. While I generally can’t sleep because I have so many thoughts and ideas racing around my cranium, recently I have been sleeping like a baby. I love it! But that means I have nothing to say to the world through this little blog…

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Biblical Texts We Ignore

I got to thinking the other night about how every Christian position seems to orient itself towards certain interpretations of certain biblical passages while ignoring others. It seems that any doctrinal statement is at the expense of a comprehensive reading of the bible. Why is this? “Numbers. Nothing good here; just a bunch of numbers…”–…

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Bleed.

This has been a summer where every ounce of optimism I had about being a Christian was vaporized like so much water in the California drought of public opinion. This has been a summer like so many others that will stand as the harbinger of things to come. From ISIS to Ukraine to Ferguson to…

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A New Language

Do you know anyone who is a racist? Or, better yet, do you know anyone who would claim to be a racist? Do you know anyone who would not object heartily if he were called a racist and refuse to accept that he was such? A word devoid of meaning It seems to me that…

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Them

There is no shortage of rhetoric regarding the division of people. From racial divisions to cultural divisions; from socioeconomic divisions to religious divisions. It seems that humanity has some ingrained nature to construct barriers to determine who is or is not a part of my group. By what they are not. Group identity is a…

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The Bible: Literal? Inerrant? Infallible? Authoritative? True?

There are just so many semantic and linguistic nuances flitting about regarding the bible that a person hardly knows what to make of it. For many of us, the designations “inerrant” and “infallible” are academically split hairs that have become the weapons of war for those who find in them ultimate meaning. But we find…

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Tone

Have you ever noticed that you can tell which side of an argument a person favors just from the tone of their voice? They don’t even have to take a side for you to know where they stand. You can just tell. Tone is also indicative of religious or philosophical leanings. I can peg a…

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The Genie is Not Free; He’s Dead.

Robin Williams died yesterday of an apparent suicide. By now I’m sure this is not news, and in fact most of you will be tired of reading about it; but please, don’t stop reading this now because I have jumped on the bandwagon. I actually have something I wish to say. The Academy tweeted this after…

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The Web of Time and The Permanent Now

I currently contribute a thought or two to a Facebook Discussion Group/Public Forum called “A / THEISM: An ongoing discussion on religion, irreligion & morality”. One of the recent discussions centered around the relationship between humanity and the potential of divinity. While I would love to wax poetic about the nuances and finer points of this topic, I would be remiss to do so here,…

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