Facts are Stubborn Things
Private Hugh White stamped his feet and rubbed his hands together to warm them in the blistering cold of a March evening in Boston. Snow blanketed the ground around the Custom House he was tasked …
Religion
A Reflection on the Life of Esther: For Such a Time as This
The text in the book of Esther may be rarely encountered and unfamiliar to our ears, but the relevance of this book to our modern world should not be overlooked. In the book, we are …
Dear Lee University and the Church of God
Dear Lee University and the Church of God, I remember once in my early twenties having a flashing suicidal thought while going through a rough time. That was the only time in my life, until …
1982: Observing the Evangelical Church’s Embrace of Right-Wing Politics
Rise of the Moral Majority I was youthful and apolitical in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I listened to almost every gospel program on the radio. As a member of a heterodox Christian …
I want to live a faith worth reviling
In 2016, then-future President Donald John Trump gave a speech in Sioux Center, Iowa, that would define not only his presidential campaign but the next four years of his time in office. He could shoot …
Johnny Fencerider, Demon Sperm, and the Real Threat to Freedom of Conscience in America
I had a pastor friend who at one time I considered to be a mentor. Sadly, he proved to be a disappointment both as a friend and as a mentor. I remember as a very …
A Life Etched into the Mountains
“Can you tell me what kind it is?” A rock, thrust in my face by my keen-eyed daughter, looked like the kind of shale we’d been examining for the better part of an hour. The …
The Person My Mother Thinks I Am
My mother is fond of telling me, “Scot you’re David!” The David she has in mind is the biblical one. And when she conflates me and King David, I’m positive she is thinking of the …
A Call for Christians: Challenge Hell’s Native Tongue by Telling the Truth About American History
In my 7th-grade history class, I was taught that American slaves were treated well by their masters and that most of them preferred life on the plantation to freedom. This obvious lie was among several …
White Jesus: Is it a Symbol of the Church’s Hate That Needs to be Toppled?
As an Artist, Arts & Religion Scholar, Christian, and Hispanic who has been vocal about racial issues, I received messages and comments from friends when Shaun King’s tweeted a few years ago, arguing that statues …