Scribblings on Jesus and his kingdom from one repentant church-goer
If we denounced Donald Trump, how many congregants would leave our pews? In 2004, Pastor Greg Boyd gave a sermon entitled “The Cross and the Sword,” in which he claimed that a “significant segment of American evangelicalism is guilty of nationalistic and political idolatry.” Over a thousand people left his church after the sermon.1 Boyd … Continue reading Donald Trump and the American Gospel
When I told my mom that the neighbor had cut down the trees in the large field at the bottom of our hill, she cried. This practice—removing hedge rows and wooded plots—is a common agricultural practice used in the land around me to maximize yields per acre. It makes sense for my neighbor to maximize … Continue reading To Fell a Tree
Content warning: statistics of drug use, depression, and suicide are discussed in this article. Preface To those in the church, I want to talk about the casualties of American Evangelicalism, specifically those casualties who are queer. I will not be talking about biblical texts as they relate to homosexuality or marriage. I am unwilling to … Continue reading The Proof of the Pudding: LGBTQ Casualties of American Evangelicalism
Part One The east wind came through my screen door on the first day of September, still warm and carrying the smell of sweetness and fertilizer. At the bottom of the hill, a hundred-acre field of corn stands nearly ready for harvest. Out of this same door a hawk, perching on the porch railing, startled … Continue reading When the east wind blows
Sunday, May 16, 2021 was a day when from dawn to dusk the clouds unleashed torrents of water. You know the kind of day. It seemed that the earth had received all the substance it could hold, but the sky kept weeping anyway. The ground turned into a swiss-cheese landscape of small ponds as the … Continue reading When Clouds Weigh Me Down
Regarding Life 