Corporate worship got you down? Tired of all those exhausting trips to church, kids screaming in the backseat, only to sit through the dull droning of another Sunday sermon? It’s easy to stream your family’s favorite weekly service from your living room, but what about those pesky sacraments?
Should We Use Red-Letter Bibles?
Ever wondered why some Bibles emphasize Jesus’ words in rubric (red lettering)? Who originated this tradition? For what purpose? What about the impact of this practice on our reading of the text? As a writer, I was certainly curious about this typographical feature, and so set out to uncover the meaning behind those infamous red-letter…
Jesus Is Not Your Boyfriend!
I’ll try to keep this short and sweet as we’ve previously touched on the importance of mindfulness in worship, but we need to address a persistent trend in Christian music that should go the way of the dodo before it’s allowed even a swan song. I’m referring to the ongoing proliferation of lyrics that romanticize…
San Diego Comic-Con: Your Husband is a Superhero
This weekend I’m attending Comic-Con in San Diego. Not only is this the 50th year of the event, but 2019 also marks 80 years since Batman’s inception (see what I did there, Christopher Nolan). Given that I’m a diehard Batman fan, one of the highlights of the trip has been a 68,000-square foot experience honoring…
“The Music Man”: Professor Harold Hill as Anti-Christ
I recently had cause to rewatch The Music Man, seeing as it was the Fourth of July and that timeless classic has always served to remind me of my youth spent in a rural farming community in southeastern South Dakota−a place not so far from Iowa, where every summer day might have been Independence Day…
“The Awakening”: Destructive Feminist Propaganda
Kate Chopin’s classic novel The Awakening caused an uproar when it was published in 1899. Edna Pontellier, the main character, shocked readers with her disdain for the traditional family life, preferring the pursuit of artistic endeavors and extramarital affairs. Today’s readers call it daring, even brave. You’ll find it on many a course syllabus, lauded…
Masturbation: A Christian Woman’s Perspective
Like men, women struggle with pornography and masturbation. But unlike men, women feel alone in confronting these sins. Sermons and statistics tend to focus on men in addressing the issue of pornography and masturbation. This article from Desiring God, though dated, explicitly states its intended audience is male. Not much has changed in the decades…
Deny, Deny, Deny
Peter’s threefold denial of Christ is one of the most well-known Biblical stories and rightly so. Peter’s actions remind us that even as Christians we can sin against God, even in grievous ways, and must be continually turning to Him in repentance. Even face to face with the Messiah, Peter’s faith was not infallible. Today…
“Where the Crawdads Sing”: Natural Does Not Equal Moral
"Where the Crawdads Sing" by wildlife scientist Delia Owens is marketed as an “ode to natural world”, but Owens takes the theme farther than a simple celebration of nature and into the realm of morality. At the heart of the novel is this presupposition: what is natural is inherently moral. Owens’ story follows Kya Clark,…
Protecting the Gospel in Pro-Life Ministry
Pro-life organizations are notorious for their association with the Roman Catholic church. Look no further than the recent popularity of Unplanned, a movie about Abby Johnson’s experience as the former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic and her transition into pro-life ministry. Abby Johnson is not only the new darling of the pro-life movement; she…
