One unseasonably warm spring day in Southern California when I was 18 years old, I crammed into a car with 4 or 5 of my closest friends from choir at our Assemblies of God university and drove an hour inland for a concert. We parked in a vast asphalt parking lot surrounded by empty land, … Continue reading Then Sings My Soul
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Burdens We Weren’t Meant to Carry
https://youtu.be/fKkQMTm0sY0 "Obsessed" from the film Twister (1996, Universal Pictures) I’ve always loved extreme weather. Not the destruction it leaves in its wake, but the wildness and mystery created by our planet’s atmosphere. Probably why the film that the clip above is from was one of my favorite movies when I was a teenager. I can … Continue reading Burdens We Weren’t Meant to Carry
Identity is (Not) a Sin
Here we are together at the end of this long journey back in time, processing a set of teachings that has left a visible scar across the landscape of millennials and beyond. If you’ve been reading every week since this began, I hope you’ve found comfort and solidarity knowing you’re not alone. If you’ve just … Continue reading Identity is (Not) a Sin
Honey, I’m (Not) Home
Purity Culture Part IV: Gender roles within purity culture and beyond. Heteronormative: “of, relating to, or based on the attitude that heterosexuality is the only natural expression of sexuality.” This term will be used ad nauseam over the last two parts of this series. Mostly due to the fact that evangelicals have built their entire … Continue reading Honey, I’m (Not) Home
Tackling Core Beliefs: Sin
Something I've been working on in therapy lately is addressing all the negative things I believe about myself. Those pervasive, absolute truths that provide our default way we feel about ourselves, and ultimately how we view the world around us. Being born into Christianity, some of our core beliefs about ourselves are formed by indoctrination. … Continue reading Tackling Core Beliefs: Sin
Dear Church, Culture is Not the Enemy.
We hear this term a lot in church lingo, its part of “Christianese,” if you will. This idea of “culture” and giving into it. That culture is the enemy of bible believing Christians. And what they really mean by “culture” is; secularism. Culture to them, essentially means living your life outside the church community while … Continue reading Dear Church, Culture is Not the Enemy.
My Spiritual Deconstruction: Part 2
[This post is a follow up to Part 1 which I posted last year, you can read that here first if you want to get caught up.] Onward and Upward When I was twelve years old my family moved to a new town a few hours away where we didn’t know a soul. It was … Continue reading My Spiritual Deconstruction: Part 2
Love in the Wilderness
"I'm not the enemy, religion is." That specific sentence popped into my head, the first morning of Evolving Faith, when Barbara Brown Taylor was speaking. She was talking about the wilderness. How God is in the wilderness if we allow her to be, just as much as she is anywhere else. She spoke of the … Continue reading Love in the Wilderness
Come as you are, except…
Hey lets talk about churches that pretend to love everybody always. What I mean by this are churches (especially megachurches and church plants) that love to advertise how much they LOVE people. All people. Doesn't matter how you dress or how colorful your past (colorful pasts make quality testimony, great witnessing material). Come as you … Continue reading Come as you are, except…
What does “exvangelical” mean?
No, it's not a typo. It's a real word with a lot meaning for a lot folks who grew up in the church. When I say "the church" I'm referring to evangelical Christian churches, mostly on the North American continent. Lately I've had a couple people hanging out in my DM's on Twitter asking a … Continue reading What does “exvangelical” mean?
The Life She Wrote 