Believe to Reason

Two days ago, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that players could continue to kneel or sit during the National Anthem without facing any penalties. The next morning, President Trump predictably took to Twitter to decry the decision: “The NFL has decided that it will not force players to stand for the playing of our National…

Last Friday night, Netflix began streaming the first season—ten episodes—of Big Mouth, a half-hour, animated “edgy comedy” (their words) that invites the viewer to “relive puberty from the safety of their sofa.” And mainstream critics so far have been unanimous in their praise of the series, garnering the show a coveted 100% positive rating on…

(Though September 23 has passed. The day and our reaction were a fascinating lesson in eschatology) As I write this, Jerusalem—the city that many Jews, Christians and even some Muslims consider the navel of this world—quietly slips into the early hours of September 23. While most of its citizens sleep and dream, thousands of Christians…

On Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 a total eclipse of the sun will make its way across America. The last time the contiguous United States experienced one was in 1979. But it will be the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in 99 years and the first to be visible only in this country since before it…

My Facebook post after the tragic fiasco in Charlottesville garnered more than a little pushback. Most of it dealt with my contention that Trump’s comment about the hatred, bigotry and violence coming from “all sides” (his words) was “ill-timed” (my words) and further that his overall handling of the growing controversy surrounding racialism has fallen…

In the movie Citizen Kane, the last words of Charles Foster Kane–“rose-bud”–served to frame the movie’s narrative and provided the key to understanding the man’s tragic but world-changing life. So too with the greatest story ever told. A little less than 2,000 years ago, Jesus was wrapping up his three-year ministry intensive with his small…

As followers of Christ, the NO’s we present to the world must always be in the context and service of the far greater, transcendent YES’s. For example, pre-marital sex, adultery, homosexuality  and divorce—for sure big no’s—are only condemned because they are cancers on the YES!: the boundless joy, mystery and blessing that is One-Man, One-Woman,…

Our God and Father, we know You desire truth in our most inward parts (Psalm 51:6). You have told us to have nothing to do with the unfruitful deeds of darkness but rather expose them. (Eph. 5:11) Your Son, our Lord,  declared that those things that have been covered up will be revealed, the hidden…

  Among the things I struggled with during my foray into the Republican Pleasure Dome this past week was the music that was played throughout. Imagine having Ted Nugent direct the house band at a PETA/Vegan conference. There were times during the convention where I could relate. As someone whose grew up under the musical…

It’s possible that 2016 will go down as the most bizarre, polarizing, conventional-wisdom-shattering presidential election in our nation’s two hundred and forty year history. It has brought together so much in the way of synchronicities, oddballs, schisms, drama, corruption, scandals, pratfalls and fodder for conspiracy theorists, that if it were written up as the backdrop…

FILE THIS UNDER MISSING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES: Christians as well as other folks are up in arms at the prospect of after-school clubs that openly try and “evangelize” and train students in the dark arts. And obviously we should be. But what most people miss is that this kind of stuff is the…

I have been told by more than a few sincere Christian friends that the Lord has anointed Donald Trump to be the next president. And I have seen variations of it posted in cyberspace more times now than I can count. God, the gist of it goes, has chosen an admittedly very earthy, earthen vessel…