An Authentic Urban Paradise
The Lure of the City I admit that I’m a City Guy. As an adult, I have lived in the heart of five great American urban areas. As I was coming of age in a …
Culture
Peace with Graham
One of my pastors offered a humorous shorthand for dealing with the complexities of defining American evangelicalism when I was a teenager. He repeated the joke, popular at the time, that an evangelical was anyone …
There are artists in the church??!
To be honest, the title of this blog post pretty much describes how I feel being an artist within the evangelical church. In my experience, artists tend to live on the fringes of societal norms …
The problem of lost shared spaces in today’s political climate
I’ve always loved history and politics. My earliest reading was filled with adventures on the American frontier. I was probably the only kid in Bernice, Louisiana excited that we were off of school on January …
Exvangelical: Peeps just in time for Easter
In 1953, Russian immigrant Sam Born purchased the Rodda Candy Company and promptly replaced the handcrafted marshmallow chick line with the cold mechanization of mass production to make Peeps. What was once the work of …
Criticism: Any idiot can tear down…maybe, maybe not
In a sermon, the pastor at our church said, “Any idiot can tear down.” He then went on to discuss criticism and being critical. Certainly, there is a great deal of truth in what he …
White Privilege at the End of the World
I grew up in a world where the end was always near. The Rapture could happen before lunch. Jesus might split the eastern sky before supper. The Antichrist was forever warming up in the wings. …
Try Loving like Jesus in a Small Town
For those enchanted by the charm of small towns, the afterlife holds a surprising twist. Heaven, New Jerusalem, is portrayed as a bustling, vibrant, and large city in Revelation 21:2, where the Apostle John describes …
Energized by Armageddon: Iran and American Eschatology
I have some critical questions for the American Body of Christ—a body in which I have been active for several decades. I am eager to know if this describes you: Our Troops Indoctrinated by Apocalyptic …
Profundity and Absurdity
The two aging gladiators met on a makeshift wooden platform outside the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, TN. The most famous courtroom scene in American history did not even take place in a courtroom. The …