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Finding a New Name for My Christianity
About eighteen months ago I wrote a passionate blog post called I Don’t Want to be an Evangelical Anymore. My post was inspired by a quote I came across from Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican National Committee. Angry with Evangelical leaders who were once again defending President Trump, Mr. Steele said, “I have a very simple admonition at this point. Just shut the hell up and don’t ever preach to me about anything ever again. I don’t want to hear it.” Yikes! As I processed this quote, I came to an important conclusion. I don’t think I want to call myself an Evangelical anymore. It didn’t take long to discover that…
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The Christianese Religion and the Real Jesus
The scariest thing about the Christianese Religion is that you don’t even notice you are following it until it stops working for you. The formulas, phrases, and culture seem good and real while you are in the bubble. The things you do and believe appear to be genuine. You are part of a community that is like-minded. What do I mean by the Christianese Religion? In his book Recapturing the Wonder: Transcendent Faith in a Disenchanted World, Mike Cosper says this, “Religion is the business of appeasing gods.” For the past year, I have not been able to get that sentence out of my mind. It finally connected the dots between the ten…
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The God We Long For…and the Real Jesus
A couple of days ago I threw a few scattered thoughts out on Facebook. “What if God cares more about your heart than your outward actions? What if He wants to heal your deepest wounds and messes more than He wants your behaviors to change? What if He wants you to understand yourself…your deep needs and longings and the things that trigger you? What if He cares about ALL of you, the visible and invisible parts? What if, instead of expecting you to get your act cleaned up, Jesus wants to sit with you in your mess? Sift through it? Sort it out? What if He is totally okay with…
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The Elusive Knowledge of Good and Evil
“You won’t really die,” the serpent hissed. “God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God. You will know about good and evil.” What the serpent said made sense…maybe Eve was just confused. Maybe she had misunderstood God’s original instructions. The fruit was lovely to look at, and it would make them more like God. Why would God keep this knowledge from them? Surely, eating the fruit was the right thing to do… The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil offered an elusive promise. Forgetting she was already made in God’s image, and thinking she was becoming more like God,…
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Rediscovering Jesus – Rediscovering the Bible (Part 3)
I was five years out of my cult, graduated from secular college, and married to my completely opposite husband, before I started to understand how the Bible was put together. We were at a tiny Bible school in the state of Wyoming and my husband was taking a class on Biblical interpretation. One day as we talked about class, a light bulb turned on and I was filled with questions: The books of the Bible are different genres with different purposes? They were written to unique people? The prophetic books are mostly meant for the nation of Israel and I can’t just apply them to whatever I want? Verses have…
