Songs to sing to God when life is hard — One of the things that used to irk me about church was feeling like I had to sing worship songs that were entirely at odds with how I was actually feeling inside. Who rocks up to church and wants to sing “O Happy Day” when their dog just died? No…

Why Believers Are Ditching Church for a Deeper Connection — A man stranded by himself on an island was finally discovered. His rescuers asked him about the three huts that they saw there. He pointed to the first hut and said, “This hut is my home.” Then he pointed to the second hut and said, “And this one is my…

The Unexpected Consequences of Overzealous Evangelism — I drove out of the hospital parking lot. I had just finished visiting my wife, leaving her in the intensive care unit. She has a tumor. Across the street from the hospital, there is a church. I turned toward home and passed by the church. There, standing on the sidewalk…

Unchained Faith: From Pews to Beers — It has been over three years since I last went to church. For a kid who grew up going to church every week, twice a week, for the first 38 years of my life, this feels like a big deal. Occasionally, I feel like I should get out my Sunday…

Champion of ‘Family Values’ falls from moral high horse — If you’re going to ride into town on a moral high horse, be sure you’ve got a sturdy saddle. You wouldn’t want to fall off, after all. This sage advice seems tailor-made for Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado’s self-appointed champion of so-called Christian values. Now, I’m not the kind of person…

A Poem for Those Who Feel Trapped — In Limbo Land, you spend your days Fixed in lonesome, longing gaze Through constant night, across a sea In wrathful tempest caught You scour the line beyond, that lies Where ocean billows meet the skies For any sign of breaking dawn But sadly, there is naught. And Limbo Land’s terrain…

The billionaire brothers who fund the religious right — In a baffling display of cognitive dissonance, two “Christian” Texas billionaires, Farris and Dan Wilks, have emerged as the patrons of climate change denialism. Their substantial wealth, built on an industry that contributes substantially to the destruction of the planet, now fuels a movement that contradicts both the scientific consensus…

Non-Negotiables for a Faith Community I Would Join — It’s been five years since I last stepped into a church. Occasionally, I bump into old church friends who ask me if I’ll ever find my way back, and it’s a question that’s been on my mind, too. I was not just your average run-of-the-mill church-goer either. I was a…

How Christian Conservatism Paves the Way for Social Progress — If you want to kill a friendship before it even starts, then introduce yourself as a conservative Christian. This is bound to send most people into a hasty retreat unless they, themselves, also happen to be a conservative Christian. In that case, there will probably be much back-slapping, ‘me-too-ing,’ and…