Sarah McCammon, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church (New York: St. Martin's Press). 320 pp. $30.00 cloth.   ..read more

I. One of my favorite scenes in the Coen brothers’ film The Big Lebowski is when Walter and the Dude walk across the bowling alley parking lot moments after Walter has threatened a competing bowler at gun point for stepping over the lane line. The Dude explains to Walter that Sparky is a pacifist and kind of fragile. Walter replies that he himself also dabbled with pacifism at one time. Seated in the vehicle Walter waves off the accusation as “water under the bridge” since their team is through to the round-robin anyway. “Am I wrong?!”, asks Walter repeatedly. “No, no, you’re not wrong, Walte ..read more

For a brief moment last week my home state was in the news ..read more

As depictions of contemporary moral reflection go, I doubt we'll find anything more accurate or chilling than the finale of The Good Place. To briefly summarize, the episode wraps up a several season run in which the protagonists start out in Hell, though they are led to believe they're in Heaven before earning their way into Heaven, as it were. The final episodes of the series take place in Paradise, showing how the characters adjust to their perfected place ..read more

Let our formulas find your soul. We’ll divine your artesian source (in your mind), marshal feed and force (our machines will) to design you a perfect love—or (better still) a perfect lust. O how glorious! Glorious! A brand-new need is born. Now we possess you! (You’ll own that. You’ll own that.) Now we possess you! (You’ll own that in time.) Now we will build you an endlessly upward world, reach in your pocket, embrace you for all you’re worth. Is that wrong? Isn’t this what you want? Amen. -- Vienna Teng, The Hymn of Acxiom The Library of Babel was first imagined as a short story by l ..read more

Should modern Christians fast? There’s a danger in talking about fasting, because the power of fasting and prayer is almost entirely in the doing, not in explanation, but in bodily participation. We do it, and then we tend to see what it’s for. But since so many Christians in our disembodied cultural moment have perhaps never fasted or never even considered why it might be a good thing for Christians to do, it might be worth saying a few things about it as a way of re-introducing a notion that, perhaps for many of our ancestors, would have needed no explanation at all ..read more

The moniker of “Christian Nationalism,” a term that is still being defined and debated in academic circles, is now a common subject in elite discourse. The term is regularly referred to by news outlets with little to no explanation, just an assumption that good people will oppose it. Members of Congress host documentaries about the subject made by big-time Hollywood producers. We should be wary of the use of this term. The concept of “Christian Nationalism” has questionable utility as an interpretive tool--it obscures and evades more than it elucidates--but what should be ..read more

When he was three, my middle son went through an unfortunate—and unfortunately long—phase of writing on the walls. It wasn’t exactly recognizable missives per se at such a tender age, or at least no prophet was on hand to interpret said writing. But these were obvious and joyful attempts at writing. My darling scribe knew in which desk drawer his father kept pens and would simply borrow one on occasion before going full graffiti-artist mode on yet another spot in the house. Any blank canvas seemed to beg to be filled. Being the thoughtful guy that he was, he would usually return the pen to it ..read more

We won't be publishing normal content this week as we mark the high point in the Christian year: Holy Week. We will, however, be sharing various things related to the week for the edification and encouragement of our readers.  ..read more

We won't be publishing normal content this week as we mark the high point in the Christian year: Holy Week. We will, however, be sharing various things related to the week for the edification and encouragement of our readers.  ..read more