Grace Unbalanced

Something interesting happens whenever I talk about grace, forgiveness, and acceptance. People push back. As much as we like those things, as much as we need those things, as much as we realize that they are central to our faith as Christians, we seem to want to qualify them. To put an asterisk by them....

Blaming the Victim: Rethinking the Samaritan Woman

The typical reading of Jesus’ encounter with the Woman at the Well (John 4:5-30) presents her as a “loose” woman, a serial divorcee (five times!) who is currently shacking up with a man in an illicit unmarried relationship. Because of her well-deserved reputation for immorality she is shunned by all the...

Let God Be Judge

There are things that make us human, and there are things that make God God. If God wants to become human, you end up with Jesus. And that’s a good thing. When humans want to become gods, we become less than human. The evil that is done in this world is not caused by some dark, shadowy figure; it’s caused...

Discipleship and Religious Bullies

Note: This is a repost (with slight revisions) of a blog from January 2014 that has proven to be one of my most popular articles. It is the second in a series of blogs on discipleship in the church.  Click here for part 1. So many of the discipleship programs I have been through have focused on teaching me...

Jacob and the Face of God

In the stories of Jacob and Esau there is a long history of interpretation that presents Jacob in a more positive light than his older twin. That’s understandable in that the Jews trace their lineage through Jacob and not Esau, and it’s rather unthinkable that a non-Jew would be a better example of the...

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