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Palm Sunday kicks off the biggest week of the Christian calendar. What’s ironic is that central to Palm Sunday is Jesus’ most dramatic attack against “Big Religion.” In Luke Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and the destruction which is coming to her. Jesus’ only recorded act of violence is directed against the stewards of the temple [...]

It wasn’t long into “Clash of the Titans,” the remake of the cheesy 1981 special effects extravaganza, when I realized that this was the most religious movie I’d seen so far this year. Not Christian, mind you, but certainly religious. “Clash of the Titans” is primarily a creature feature – there are giant scorpions and screeching [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]