"Empathy almost needs to be struck from the Christian vocabulary... Empathy is dangerous. Empathy is toxic. Empathy will align you with hell." - Josh McPherson on the Strong Men Nation podcast

A few years ago, I visited a conservative church in my area. The young, white, male pastor stood in front of his congregation and, in the middle of his sermon, declared that Genesis 2 “clearly shows” that women were created inferior to men.

Here’s my unpopular take for the day: it has to do with spanking.

Have you ever been through a really hard move? I have moved around quite a bit in my life, actually, but the hardest move I remember was when I was seventeen and just finished my junior year of high school. My father had been out of work for a while, working temp jobs and such, so when he got a job in another part of the state, we had to take it – even though it meant moving at a very inconvenient time in my life.

"There's a God-shaped hole in all of us... And the restless soul is searching..."

In 2022, I decided I wanted to write a book about my journey of deconstructing religion... and finding Jesus inside. At that time, however, the pain was still very raw. There were still a lot of questions and unknowns. And the concept of a book wasn't quite coming together for me.

Many people are still under the impression that our country is currently deporting only "the worst of the worst." Perhaps some of the confusion comes from the mislabeling of people and the general misunderstanding of terms. Labels matter. Words matter. So, I thought I would help set things straight:

Last week, I was sitting with a group of women in a Bible study. We were sharing some of our recent struggles.

"Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law." - Romans 13:8-10

I’ve been hearing a lot of talk recently about how many Christians believe we are living in the last days.

It seems to me that the majority of U.S. churches today are feed-good churches. They are designed to help people feel good. Good about themselves, good about God, good about the church.

I remember reading a story about an evangelist who visited one of the leper colonies in India. I don’t remember who it was or even where I read the story, but I’m pretty sure it was a true story.  They had all the lepers gather together in a large tent, waiting to hear what the evangelist had to say. As he stood in front of them, though, he wondered, God, what could I possibly say to them? They were in various stages of leprosy, living in a colony, separated from friends and family, ostracized from their communities. As he stood there, he was overwhelmed with love for them. He went up to one of the lepers in the front row, leaned down, and hugged him. Then he hugged the next man. And the next. And the next. Until he had hugged every person there, and they were all weeping.