Being a pastor is an honorable and downright odd calling. — Church social media has been talking lately about this post by former Presbyterian pastor Alexander Lang as he discussed not simply leaving his call at a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation, but leaving the ministry altogether. This brought up a lot of thoughts and feelings for me that I want to…

We don’t need to agree with them (or their actions) to hear them out. — I don’t know when it happened, but I’ve become more and more suspicious of people who say they are inclusive. It’s not that the people who say this are liars, but they tend to love all the “right” people, people of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants, and others. But Jesus calls…

Why Americans are losing trust in media. — I’ve never really watched FOX News very much over the years. It wasn’t because I disagreed with their views, I just wasn’t very interested in it. …

How the Internet Became Boring. — I started blogging about 20 years ago. I started a blog on Blogger, creating a blog on politics and started another one on religion a few years later. Both blogs started receiving attention with people commenting on my posts. This led to being invited to join other blogs to share…

Why we need to move from just affirmation to discipleship for LGBTQ people — One of the things that I appreciate about the Mainline Protestant/ Progressive Christian family that I’ve been a part of for lo these thirty years is the emphasis on Jesus reaching out to those on the margins of society. Growing up in evangelical culture, it was easy to focus on…

How do we treat strangers, especially those who don’t agree with us? — Preached at First Christian Church of St. Paul on July 2, 2023. The text is Matthew 10:40–42. Earlier this week, there was another one of those controversies on Twitter is just like a car accident in that you just can’t look away. The controversy that went viral is actually local…

“Ebony and Ivory” was a bad song. I wish there were more songs like it. — When we think of forgiveness, we usually think of people who have gone through a traumatic event that might involve losing a loved one and they end up forgiving the perpetrator. But forgiveness isn’t just about forgiving someone who murders your sister- it also has a role in how we…

Donald Trump is a loser for the GOP, but that might not stop Republicans from making him the nominee or from becoming President again. — Conventional wisdom suggests that if Republicans continue to lose with Trump as they have in 2018, 2020 and 2022 then the GOP will dump him. This belief is based on the belief that political parties want to win and govern. All of this makes sense, of course, because in the…

Heaven isn’t about escape. It’s about hope. — A few weeks ago, I did something that was rather risky, at least for a pastor. I preached about heaven. It seems rather radical these days in Mainline Protestant churches to preach about heaven. It can seem rather escapist and a way to not focus on the problems here on…