Getting closer to God might mean getting told to love someone I don’t even like, or to give away even more of my money. It might mean letting some idea or dream that is dear to me get ripped away.
Christians should help one another to silence the voice that accuses. To celebrate a repentance—a snapping out of it, a thinking of new thoughts—which leads to possibilities we never considered. To lo...
But then at two a.m. I was startled awake with what can only be described as a bitch slap from the Holy Spirit.
And I get it. I can be cynical myself. Every time I see some smiley TV preacher talk about God’s plan for me or hear Sarah Palin say something irretrievably mean and stupid about poor people, or every...
Allowing ourselves to name the harm and be angry about the past is not a bad place to be; it’s just a terrible place to stay.
Sometimes the origin of the harm can be the most powerful source of its healing.
Even though this is often how we treat Jesus, like we are trying to shelter him from reality. We often behave as though Jesus is only interested in saving and loving a romanticized version of ourselve...
Demons, whether they be addictions or actual evil spirits, are not what Jesus wants for us, since basically every time he encounters them he tells them to piss off.
Trying to prove scientifically the historical accuracy of events in the Bible is to faith what having your spouse under twenty-four-hour video surveillance is to marital trust.
Truth. It can make me hate the person speaking it. Until the point at which I want to kiss them for setting me free.
This, to me, is the point of the confession and absolution in the liturgy. When I first experienced it—the part where everyone in church stands up and says what bad people they are, and the pastor, fr...
The testimony is followed by another montage of Team Impact feats of strength. Ladies and Gentlemen, an amped up announcer voice a la Monster Truck Rally proclaims, We are Team Impaaaaact. Standing on...
The religiosity of the prohibition movement was stoked by a genuine desire to lead holy lives pleasing to God. But purity is easier to regulate than holiness.
The Jesus whom God sent to claim and save us is what keeps me in Christianity, despite a hundred reasons to pack up and leave.
The Gospels are the canon within the canon. The Bible, as Martin Luther said, is the cradle that holds Christ. The point of gravity is the story of Jesus, the Gospel. The closer a text of the Bible is...
Sometimes the fact that there is nothing about you that makes you the right person to do something is exactly what God is looking for.
So my argument in this book is this: we should not be more loyal to an idea, a doctrine, or an interpretation of a Bible verse than we are to people. If the teachings of the church are harming the bod...
Smiley TV preachers might tell you that following Jesus is about being good so that God will bless you with cash and prizes, but really it’s much more gruesome and meaningful. It’s about spiritual phy...
Singing in the midst of evil is what it means to be disciples. Like Mary Magdalene, the reason we can stand and weep and listen for Jesus is because we, like Mary,
Maybe we want the people who care for us and lead us to not be like us, to not struggle like us, because if we realize they, too, are hurting and needy, then maybe the spell — the illusion that we’re...