Depression is a real bastard. If it’s ever visited you, you understand. Such a clever and persuasive liar, it doesn’t require facts to rob you of your hope. You may have all the

  White friend, we need to talk. Last year I joined millions of people in loudly declaring that Black Lives Matter. You replied that All Lives Matter. I tried to tell you

This week may have been your last straw. You may have reached the limit of what you can tolerate from the Church and its people. You may have been tending an

You are known by the company you keep. This week the President signed an Executive Order allowing discrimination against the LGBTQ community in the name of “religious liberty.” Not surprisingly,

I was brought up believing that hell was real, though later in life I’d grown skeptical. It seemed like an idea incompatible with a loving God and with the very

Dear MAGA Christian, I have a problem that maybe you can help me with. I keep hearing you tell me that I need Jesus; that he is my only hope,

A lot can change in a year. In the moments following the election, Donald Trump supporters simply beamed, basking in the warm, orange glow of their apparent victory and awaiting America’s returning

  My sweet girl, There are mornings when I wake up and see you for the first time, and it looks like you’ve grown overnight; you’re taller or your face

The woman’s voice began to quiver. She’d just introduced herself to me in the hallway of our church, and for a couple of minutes she’d held it together. But as she

This week a Christianity Today article made some social media noise, asking the question “Who’s in charge of the Christian blogosphere?” It was a loaded one, for sure. On its

Lots of beautiful things grow in manure.  It is often in the absolute worst conditions that life springs up in surprisingly defiant ways, pushing back against the most dire circumstances

From the moment Donald Trump began his Presidential campaign last year, he promised to “Make America Great Again”. I was never all that sure what he meant (and this many days later

As a pastor, you begin to see patterns in people that reveal a great deal about the problematic ways in which we tend to think about God and religion. One

I think many people in America are exhausted right now. I know I am. Hateful people will do that to you. You see, it’s difficult enough on our best days, to

I heard my father laugh today. I was doing some work with the TV on, and as often seems to be the case—a Golden Girls rerun was playing. I wasn’t

Few things are less Christlike than Christians when they’re attacking the LGBTQ community. There is a malice and sadism they’re capable of that simply defy explanation and fully deny the heart of Jesus.

Steve Rogers: Doctor Banner, now might be a good time for you to get angry! Bruce Banner: That’s my secret, Captain: I’m always angry. (The Avengers, 2012) Always angry. It

Hell will be an airport, I’m almost certain of it. The damned will find themselves in a massive, snaking line, boarding pass in hand, their essential earthly belongings heaped upon

The Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN)  reports that 11.2 percent of all college students experience rape or sexual assault while undergraduate or graduate students. A 2015 survey of women

Dear Mr Trump, Mess. I’ve heard you use that word quite a bit over the past few months: The world is a mess. America is a mess. You inherited a

Dear Church Refugees and Religious Orphans, Sometimes people leave organized religion and sometimes organized religion abandons them. I don’t know which is true for you. You may have been so

Some measure of compassion is universal. Every one of us cares deeply about some people; our families, those we feel an affinity for—certainly our own well-being. We all understand selective empathy rooted in self-preservation.

Photo originally from TheWire as printed by the Atlantic. Why are you crying, Trump supporter? I mean, I know why I’m crying, but I’m just a bit confused. You seem genuinely shocked

There is a shape to every life—a specific, precise, never to be repeated space that it occupies for as long as it is here. From the very moment that life