In his most recent book Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat traces the roots of America’s current spiritual and political decline. In a chapter entitled The Locust Years, Douthat identifies five trends that developed in the 60s and 70s, which permanently, radically undercut American Christianity and have led to orthodox [...]
One evening, my wife, mother, and I were eating at a sidewalk cafe in Maui. A homeless man walked by, stopped, and we began a discussion for the next ten minutes. He was tanned and carrying a fistful of change. He wore a plaid fedora and a matching vest (without a shirt). During the conversation, [...]
I’ve had two very close friends commit suicide. The psychological effects to those left in the wake of suicide can be overwhelming. We ask, Could this have been prevented? Were there signs I missed? How could the victim have been so selfish? The questions are never-ending and can leave survivors emotionally weary, if not beaten and [...]
Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} I wrote recently about some of the junk I’ve went through in church. One of the easiest things to do would have been to portray myself as a victim and [...]
One reviewer of Lauren Winner’s popular memoir Girl Meets God interestingly suggested that the author was not far enough removed from her own history to see it clearly. There’s much truth to this. No doubt there’s events in our own lives that require distance — both physically, emotionally, and chronologically — for us to perceive [...]
I recently sat down with my pastor for a conversation and, among other things, asked him where I can best be used in the church. My writing did not come up. I don’t blame him for not seeing an immediate place for a fiction novelist in the Body of Christ. I mean, if you have [...]
Roger Ebert died today. I used to watch Siskel & Ebert regularly. It changed the way I watched movies. So much so, that I purchased one of Ebert’s voluminous Movie Home Companions and followed it religiously. Under Ebert’s “tutelage,” I dug into the classics, foreign films, and cult classics. I loved his take on art [...]
One argument for the validity of the Christian religion is the number of apparent biblical contradictions and paradoxes it embraces. Why would someone inventing a religion include such paradoxical beliefs as the Trinity, the Deity/Humanity of Christ, and Divine Sovereignty/Human Autonomy? Rather than trying to evade or explain these possible discrepancies, orthodoxy embraces and codifies [...]
This is an excerpt from the non-fiction project I am currently working on. Tentatively entitled How I Survived the Church (Without Losing My Faith), this memoir-style project will trace my troubled upbringing, my conversion to Christianity and call to the ministry, and the eventual disbanding of my church. Along the way, I will introduce you [...]
Rosario Butterfield went from being a professor in Syracuse University’s Women’s Studies Department, an English major specializing in Critical Theory, particularly Queer Theory, a practicing lesbian who owned two houses with her partner, a political activist and outspoken advocate for numerous gay and lesbian causes, and a “tenured radical,” to being a Christian, heterosexual, married, [...]
