I watched that new Cosmos show’s first episode last night. I had to reach for a tissue at the end when Neil deGrasse Tyson, the host, talked about how he’d met Carl Sagan, the famous host of the previous Cosmos incarnation. He talked about how he’d been this black teenager Read more
Today we’re going to talk about how older Christians are dealing with the growing tide of disengagement among their younger adherents. When I talk about “disengagement” among Christian youth, I’m talking about the steady rise in people walking away from formal activities within their old religion. People who disengage from Read more
(TW: Child abuse.) Meet 35-year-old dipshit and criminal Robert David Wright, who was a youth pastor. You’re already cringing, aren’t you? You know what’s coming. And you’re right. Or maybe not right enough. Robert David Wright’s home computer was found to contain all kinds of images of babies being raped. Read more
I’ve written before about Christians I think who are kinda getting that whole “love your neighbor” thing right, and I like hearing about them just like I enjoy hearing about anybody doing good in the world. When I heard about a group calling itself “Quiet Christians,” I was considering adding Read more
You don’t often see Christians talking about their terror of Hell in their out-loud voices. Usually they at least try to make Christianity sound like a voluntary decision they made out of sheer love for their Savior and Messiah, and they try their best to downplay all that stuff about Read more
To wrap up Love Week, I want to talk about some of the biggest taboos in Christianity: porn consumption and masturbation. I did not masturbate as a Christian. I can’t even claim it was because I was such a true-blue Christian. The embarrassing truth is that I just didn’t know Read more
Just a quick little note about creationism again, because I saw a link you folks would probably dig. We’ve talked here before about “high and low” Christianity–this idea that there is a “high Christianity” full of high-end theology and education, sophisticated arguments and a whole whale of a lot of Read more
Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I got my first taste of Star Wars at a cinema. I remember lines going around the theater and around the block to get in. My mother, correctly, saw that this movie was going to be one of those big cultural things that Read more
This week I’m going to be writing about love. It seems like a good time for it. Let’s kick off with these poems attributed to the Greek poet Sappho. She’s one of the poets I love most. Her work has always spoken so loudly to me. I discovered Sappho in Read more
Well, it’s happened. I have officially hit that age where I want to shake younger people by the shoulders and scream at them not to waste their beautiful, precious, oh-so-finite youth. I can hardly bear to see young people trapped in relationships that make them deeply unhappy, toiling away at Read more