Race Relations: My Journey

What follows is just what the title suggests, my personal journey with race relations as an American-born United States citizen. I was born just after the “end” of what history has come to call the Civil Rights Movement. Greenville, South Carolina, a town with its own infamous history of racial tension, was my birthplace. From […]

Gender Identity & A High Regard for Scripture: A Review of Understanding Gender Dysphoria

Disclaimer: the post that follows is a recent book review that I did for a Christian publisher. As such, I was mainly critiquing the author’s work. The main title for this review borrows a quote from the book’s author, Mark Yarhouse. He details a disparaging story (as most of his eventually are) of a man who, […]

Responding to Gay Marriage

Awhile ago I wrote a piece that that went crazy. In case you missed it, you can find it here… LGBT: It’s All or Nothing. If you didn’t think this was an important issue… clearly, it is. For those who are interested, I thought we could dig down a bit today. This is a re-post that […]

The Spirit of Jesus and Religious Freedom

With all of the venom (from both sides of the issue) coming from and to Indiana regarding the recent Religious Freedom Restoration Act, I thought it might be helpful to be reminded of the words of Jesus. The phrase I use in this title is one I have come to use frequently. I am often asked […]

Ferguson and Immigration: Root v. Fruit

So I had a mostly-written article on immigration that I started over the weekend and then on Monday evening came news from Ferguson, Missouri of the the grand jury’s decision. I opted to scrap much of what I had written and lean into the heat of the Ferguson situation, as I see them both in much the […]

What You Probably Never Knew About Robin Williams

The answer to this title… anything. For the last few days I have read and heard pontifications surrounding the unfortunate death of Robin Williams. The fact is that a very minute number of those same people knew anything about him. Most of us only knew his persona. So for anyone to draw “certain” conclusions about […]

The Fox News Channel Wasn’t Good for My Soul

Reposted with permission. Article written by my friend Tim Stevens. On November 7, 2012, I stopped watching the Fox News Channel (FNC). That might not seem like a big deal if you didn’t know that I probably averaged 7-10 hours a week for years. I was a news junkie. I LOVED watching the news, hearing […]

You Can’t Spell USA Without Jesus

Oh, wait… there’s no “a” in Jesus. Well there is in the Hebrew version… Yeshua. There you have it… USA! USA! USA! All joking aside, churches have often confused patriotism and pietism. They are not the same. Perhaps somewhat ironically, I am actually ok with both patriotism (to appropriate degrees) and pietism. Where I get […]

An Eye for An Eye

Comedian Ron White hails from the great state of Texas. Part of his routine includes a bit about the death penalty… That’s right, if you come to Texas and kill somebody, we will kill you back. That’s our policy. That would be funny, except that it isn’t. Most of us do not need any convincing […]

Calling Foul On the World Vision Debacle

In case you missed it, this week World Vision decided then un-decided to amend its hiring policy as it relates to same-sex couples. In my view this now-event highlights the growing polarity that exists within Christianity as well as the majority of the American culture. Frankly I am most often at odds with both extremes […]

Weeping With Westboro

Most of the tears I have shed in the last many years with regard to the Westboro Baptist Church have been because of their actions. However, Romans 12:15 also reminds those of us who follow Jesus that we are to… Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. And so today […]