Before one fateful week this fall, I’d never watched a minute of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). All I knew was what I’d read, heard or glimpsed while channel surfing—headlines about mixing money and ministry, a reputation for being cheesy, a talk-show set with golden thrones, and some woman with big pink hair.
I was intrigued [...]

For those of us who label homosexual practice as a sin it can be easy to get muddled up about government attempts to legislate and prosecute sexual behavior. There is a difference between legislation designed to protect the vulnerable from victimization and that which tries to monitor and control consensual relationships. We must stand up [...]

It took me a while to get into advent this year, and I realized recently this might be because the posture is a little bit TOO familiar.
To me, advent is about anticipation and longing. Advent acknowledges that things aren’t ideal, but trusts and hopes that God will save us.  Advent involves not only trust that [...]

I was reading an article from the Religious News Service talking about a new wave of atheism that isn’t completely down on religion.  Make no mistake, the so called “Atheism 3.0” still denies the existence of God, but there is some respect for the values that come from believing in God.
Bruce Sheiman is the author [...]

Something I’ve discovered in my graduate work is that secular authors who are often quite critical of Christianity have beautiful ways of talking about the transcendent or love or relationships between humans that point an arrow straight toward God (or at least, I read it that way).
Here’s an example: today I was reading Undoing Gender [...]

A recent Washington post article talks about the prevalence of faith-based weight loss plans. I had no idea this was going on, and I have to say, I’m torn about the whole thing.  I was more skeptical when I read the headline than I was after I read this justification from Pastor Steve Reynolds:
“About [...]

The problem with turning 500 is that you start to sound old. John Calvin, who was born 500 years ago today, will be remembered by many today as a dour old codger who loved to talk about sin and depravity, someone who was always in a bad mood. It’s true that Calvin [...]

We recently took a poll about how TC-ers juggle summer vacations and going to church.

The vast majority of us, 75%, keep on keepin’ on during the summer.  But about a fourth of us miss a few Sundays at our home church thanks to vacationing, sleeping in, playing in sun, etc.
So I’m wondering, what’s your routine [...]

A good teacher knows where he wants to take his students but begins where they are. A teacher who can’t speak the language of his students won’t be able to teach them his. And this is one of the key features of Christianity. It sneaks into a culture wrecked and dysfunctional and cures it from [...]

I’ve been stewing on this column by David Brooks in the New York Times last month on the supposed irrelevance of moral reasoning in an age of neuroscience. Brooks quotes Michael Gazzaniga’s book Human:
”[I]t has been hard to find any correlation between moral reasoning and proactive moral behavior, such as helping other people. In fact, [...]