Millennia of being treated as second-class citizens (often legally designated as such), being forbidden certain rights and privileges afforded to men, and generally being taught that God has made them inferior to men... that's rough. [...]
The nonbeliever often perceives Christianity as being a set of arbitrary rules and regulations to follow in order to meet some equally arbitrary goal that permits some reward called "heaven" after one's death. The mature believer, apart from knowing no obedience to a set of rules (arbitrary or not) is sufficient for heavenly rewards, recognizes the Law of God to be not arbitrary at all. Rather, His rules are for our best interests. [...]
I had the privilege of witnessing Chick-fil-A employee training while I mooched on their wifi and nursed their tea, and I found the process fascinating. [...]
What does this much-vaunted idea of humility entail? Is there room for a Christian self-love or self-esteem? Or are we all depraved and worthless? [...]
Years ago, I was fiery evangelical. Today, I'm very much not. Did I backslide? Or did I mature? I've been wrestling with this question a lot lately. [...]
There's a third way explicit language comes under attack, empowered by Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus. "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth..." [...]
Last time I complained about the hypocrisy of Christians rabidly condemning Halloween for its pagan origins while happily celebrating Easter despite its arguably pagan [...]
Some Christians even claim that 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 refers to an early Easter celebration, but serious scholars dismiss that out of hand. Still, the celebration of Easter is quite old. [...]
The common tradition often holds the Creation story in Genesis as a historical, scriptural precedent for the built-in superiority of man over woman. That's misogyny and malarkey. Typically, Genesis 3:16 is the go-to verse for substantiation of this idea that men were created superior. [...]
Paul's teachings found in Ephesians 5 have long been used to communicate that wives (and therefore women) are positionally beneath their husbands (and therefore men), as God has placed man as the "head of the household". [...]
In my youth, I took the teachings of church culture as gospel, even if they didn't sit right. Now, I openly face the hard questions that challenge my faith. [...]
Something inside knows we're being deceived. In this fast-paced world of email, smartphones, and even WebMD, we can accomplish most of our needs without ever seeing another human face. And our spirits grieve something lost. [...]
I thought the idea strange —one series of sounds from someone's mouth forms an unacceptable word while another series of sounds makes an acceptable word. Sounds are sounds, right? But like a "good" Christian noob, I obeyed first and asked questions later. [...]
In both Easter and Christmas, we’ve seen Christians attempt to redeem the festivals and holy days of pagan religions by freeing the harmless customs from the ungodly [...]
Many months ago, I asked Freya to consider sharing some insights from her family’s heritage, expecting a fascinating look into a culture that has so much to do with our [...]
When I was a child, my parents took me to a local race track with a communal urinal full of yellowed ice and the fetid bugs that had fallen from the fluorescent frivolity [...]
