When I was about twelve years old, I went through a phase when I was terribly afraid of hell. Like, wake-up-screaming scared of hell. Shouting-at-the-ceiling-because-God-won’t-answer afraid of damnation. My parents probably thought I was mentally ill, but that wasn’t quite right. I was living in a persistent state of spiritual terror. Somewhere along the way (maybe at …
Read more “I Want to Follow Jesus. Do I Need to Be Baptized?”
I believe that climate change is real, and that it’s caused by humans burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon into the atmosphere. I believe, not because I am personally competent to prove it, but because I rely on the analysis of climate scientists who, by a 97% margin, agree that this is the case. I have faith …
Read more “What is Real Faith? Actually Doing What You Believe”
As he poured the gallon jug of kerosene over his head, onlookers reacted with disbelief. Before anyone knew what to do, he lit a match. In one terrible instant, 31-year-old Quaker Norman Morrison set himself ablaze in front of the Pentagon, just 40 feet below the 3rd floor window of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. …
Read more “Fifty Years Ago, a Quaker Lit Himself on Fire to Protest War. How Can I Understand It?”
Isn’t that what being young is about, believing secretly that you would be the one person in the history of man that would live forever? – Vanilla Sky (2001) It’s not just the young who think they can cheat death. Most of the time, none of us dares to hold that stark reality before us. We live …
Read more “You’re Going to Die (And Why That’s a Good Thing)”
When Jesus called the first disciples, he totally disrupted their economic lives. Simon and Andrew, James and John were working for their family business as they were raised to do. Their fathers were fisherman, just like their fathers’ fathers, stretching back beyond memory. Fishing was a way to make money, but it was also much …
In the months leading up to George Bush’s 2003 invasion, “everybody” thought that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In the months before the housing bubble burst, “everybody” insisted that the market was healthy – nothing to worry about. At one time, everybody knew that asbestos was a great material for use in home building, and that BPA was a harmless additive …
A funny thing happened when I moved to DC six years ago. I went from being surrounded by a laid-back crew of seminarians, pastors, poets, and radicals, to living in one of the most powerful, motivated, and highly-paid neighborhoods on earth. It was a big shift in perspective. I had gotten used to living among …