What does it mean to be a Christian? What is required? In America, this debate is often framed by conservative fundamentalists who seem overly concerned with who is in and who is out. Do you believe the “right,” things? If not, you’re not a true Christian. Christians like me — those with liberal, progressive and… Continue reading Who is a Christian?

The Bible has a healthy dose of mythology in it. Some Christians might be offended by this idea. When I say, “mythology,” I don’t mean it in the colloquial sense of a fiction or half-truth. MythBusters is a great series, but when I speak of myth, I don’t mean urban legend. The Cambridge Dictionary defines… Continue reading Functions of Mythology

Amos 8:4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy,    and bring to ruin the poor of the land… Do you have conservative friends and family who are concerned that schools, books, Disney and Taylor Swift are indoctrinating your family into the dark world of social justice? Wait until they hear about the Book of Amos.… Continue reading The Book of Amos on Social Justice

In a previous post, Apples Are Not Bananas, Theology Is Not History, I discussed what I think is a major problem in either criticizing or defending the Bible. Namely, we shouldn’t be taking the Bible as literal, inerrant history. It was never intended to be read as such. Somehow, inerrantists have decided that there is… Continue reading How Many Donkeys?

If Grace is a free gift of God, then why should a Christian worry about participating in the means of grace? When I think of the means of grace, I sometimes think of two metaphors. They are both far from perfect, as all metaphors are imperfect, but they help me to grasp the importance of… Continue reading Means of Grace

How do ex-Christians lose their faith? There are too many paths to count, but a primary way is to become disillusioned when they find out that the Bible isn’t what they thought it was. I wanted to outline some common arguments I hear from Christians-turned-atheists and why I think typical Christian apologetics fails to answer… Continue reading Apples Are Not Bananas, Theology Is Not History

The problem with trying to prove whether God exists is that God doesn’t exist, at least not in any way we can understand what it means to exist. God is the ground of all existence. Further, I’ve yet to come across an airtight argument for or against God. Every argument has flaws, holes and in… Continue reading There’s No Single Proof for God’s Existence

Why would a good God permit evil? Ultimately, I don’t think we can ever get to a proof of God’s existence through logic and the problem of evil in the world is the best argument against God. The problem of evil argues that the existence of an all-powerful and all-good God is incompatible with the… Continue reading Alvin Plantinga’s Free Will Defense

I didn’t intend to address the He Gets Us campaign here. It’s bad enough that every time I log into Reddit, I’m bombarded by He Gets Us promotions. But after their Superbowl commercial, I’ve gotten a few questions from friends about my thoughts on it. I’m a theological marketing guy – more accurately I’m a… Continue reading He Gets Us: Lost Opportunities

I remember one time I was reading Bart Ehrman’s book, Did Jesus Exist? and I left it on my coffee table when a friend came over. The friend was instantly ruffled by the book’s title, and no doubt, the name of the author. “Of course Jesus existed, what a waste of time!” I can understand… Continue reading Reading Bart Ehrman Will Not Turn You into An Atheist