I believe Thomas Umstattd Jr. has written an important book in “Courtship in Crisis“. Umstattd effectively answers the concerns which Joshua Harris brought up in the infamous book, “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”. Similar to that book, “Courtship in Crisis” has two main parts: a problem and a proposed solution. The main problem Umstattd addresses, and
Taking America Back For God
I will confess to you that I honestly don’t have a clue what it even means to say, “Take America back to God”. I hear that a lot—all the time, more and more on the radio and television. And every time, something inside of me turns. I’m really wondering when the golden age of America
Review: Rob Bell Everything Is Spiritual Tour
I saw some of the Nooma videos in the past and have heard about the controversy surrounding some of his books, but apart from this, I haven’t been overly familiar with Rob Bell. I heard he was going to be speaking in Nashville and, after some debate, decided it would probably be interesting enough to
Questions of Interacting With Differing Beliefs
This post is part of the July 2015 synchroblog which invited bloggers to write about “Gay Marriage”. Due to the “hot topic” nature of this subject, I’ve written quite a few times about homosexuality already. In this post, I want to try briefly and (hopefully) clearly state some of what is important to me in
Religious Trauma Syndrome
I expect this topic to be controversial. I have observed that at times people confuse a criticism of something done in the name of Christ with a criticism of God himself. But this fails to recognize that we are imperfect, and that we can make mistakes and do the wrong thing even when we are
How Understanding the Gospel Affects One’s View of Homosexuality
I began to respond to a comment my cousin Jeremy made in response to my recent blog “The Surprising Reason I’m Not Celebrating Homosexual Marriage“. He says: Doug, I really like your approach, but it’s hard to draw a line between what the Bible teaches, and what we think it teaches (i.e. our interpretation). You
A Christian Nation
Christians’ beliefs understandably inform their views on politics. We passionately believe that if everyone were to be more Christ-like, our country would be a better place. We long for people to be treated equally, compassionately, and healed from their ailments. We long for peace, security, and freedom. We long for the end of injustice and
July 4th Sermon
For the forth of July, I want to share a sermon from one of my favorite preachers, Greg Boyd: The Rorschach Test. I think it’s well worth watching or listening to. photo credit: Waving Flag via photopin (license)
The Surprising Reason I’m Not Celebrating Homosexual Marriage
Friday the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. Many people I know are celebrating. However, I don’t feel like I can join in. I feel that to do so would be to rub in the face of many other people I know. I want be cautious not to become whom I
Reflections on Reviewing Church Websites
It is possible you have noticed that I have not posted any new content in a while. There is a reason for this—I have just relocated to Nashville, TN. As you might imagine, I’ve been quite busy both preparing for the move and in working on settling into my new residence. This leads me to