Thomas Friedman and the loss of the American “We”

Thomas Friedman wrote a terrific column in the New York Times yesterday that captures much of what worries me about the current political climate in America.
In it, he compares the political environment in America today to that which he observed in Israel in 1995 prior to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Friedman writes:
I [...]

Rob Bell Defines “Evangelical”

Recently, super mega Christian superstar Rob Bell was interviewed by the Boston Globe while speaking in Boston as part of his Drops Like Stars Tour (I should note that despite calling him a “super mega Christian superstar”, I am, generally speaking, a Rob Bell fan who appreciates most of his work). As part of the [...]

“When My Heart Is Overwhelmed”

Yesterday Pastor Britt Merrick preached at Reality, the church he pastors in Carpinteria, California.
There is nothing especially remarkable about that fact. He teaches there almost every week and has been doing so for many years.
My first encounter with Britt was through mp3s of his teaching that I listened to in college. At the time he [...]

Fighting the Zoolander Effect

Last night as Christie and I walked out of the gym at Azusa Pacific University I kept thinking about the Zoolander Effect.
We’d just finished hearing Donald Miller and Susan Isaacs speak as part of the A Million Miles in A Thousand Days Tour. It was a wonderful evening, and I highly recommend shelling out the [...]

Some Disorganized Thoughts on “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller

As any of you who read this blog with any regularity know, I read a lot of books and I like to write about what I read. Sometimes, like with this post, I’ll write my thoughts on a particular book as a whole. These thoughts are far too disorganized and haphazard to be called a [...]

Thinking about Our Stories

So I just finished reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. When I say “I just finished reading” it, I mean I literally closed the book, sat in silence and reflected on what I’d read for a moment, dried my eyes, stood up, sat back down and began typing. I’ll take [...]

A Theology of Dating From “How I Met Your Mother”

Today I spent some time writing another somewhat serious post about another somewhat serious issue. Then I decided that I’d publish it tomorrow, and that today, I’d go with something a little more lighthearted. In honor of tonight’s premiere of season five of How I Met Your Mother (a show my wife and I are [...]

Creationists on par with Holocaust deniers?

Part of me hates to draw any more attention to this story, because it really is unfortunate, but I thought it was interesting in light of the post I wrote the other day about the importance of using language appropriately. That post was about translating the Bible in a way that is driven by what [...]

A Follow Up to Saturday’s Post

On Saturday I posted this picture, and I asked what your gut reaction was:

Thank you to those of you who left your comments, either on here or on facebook. In yesterday’s post I gave no context for the picture, nor did I say anything about my gut reaction to it. I saw the picture in [...]

Jesus Washing World Leaders’ Feet

What is your gut reaction to this picture?

For those who can’t identify everyone in the picture (I couldn’t), from left to right they are Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany, Tony Blair (former U.K. Minister) , Kofi Annan (Secretary General of the U.N.), Osama Bin Laden, George W. Bush, Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister of India), and [...]