The kingdom is for outsiders: a “skinny-jeans evangelical” response to...
I‘ve been enjoying the stimulating conversation at the Ecclesia National Gathering in DC. Scot McKnight started things off with a polemic against the “skinny-jeans evangelicals” (like me, sometimes)...
View ArticleThe 12 scriptures that inspired my book
When I was a Southern Baptist, we used to believe that Methodists didn’t read the Bible at all. What may be shocking to some evangelicals is to discover that even progressive, LGBT-affirming Methodists...
View ArticleIs there a Christianity that isn’t toxic?
Have American Christians become what Jesus came to stop us from being? It’s not an unreasonable question after decades of toxic culture war. Growing up Southern Baptist, I used to think there were two...
View ArticleWhen the kingdom of God disrupts my church marketing
Everyone is always marketing. I suspect there were hundreds of college classrooms that began their first meeting this semester with that claim. It’s a true statement, especially in an hyper-capitalist...
View ArticleToxic Christianity encapsulated in a church sign
This church sign captures everything that is wrong with toxic Christianity and why it positions itself against the struggles of marginalized people, whether they’re brown, queer, female, or poor. The...
View ArticleWhen Jesus’ garden becomes a monoculture
I have been a gardener for many years. And I hate weeds. In Louisiana, the weeds are much fiercer than they ever were in Virginia. There’s one type of vine in particular that has enormous root systems...
View ArticleHow do I preach the gospel at the #1 party school in the country?
It’s official. The Princeton Review has declared Tulane University the #1 party school in the country. Our ministry building is located next door to a bar on a thoroughfare where many drunk students...
View ArticleLee Wyatt’s Gospel for People Who Aren’t Guilt-Ridden
My Facebook friend Lee Wyatt has written a book called The Incredible Shrinking Gospel about the way that the gospel in American Christianity has been reduced to so much less than the gospel really is....
View ArticleDid Lou Reed understand God’s kingdom better than evangelicals do?
Admittedly I put the word “evangelicals” in the title of this blog post as click-bait, to some degree. I’ve been so busy trying to start a coffeehouse that I’ve blogged only one other time this month...
View ArticleThe Conservative Insight I Cannot Reject
We live in an age in which actual conservative principles have been buried by tribal political discourse. There is such a thing as a valid and valuable conservatism that exists apart from things like...
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