We have a Christmas tradition around these parts.  Every year, we re-post Burnside’s most popular article of all time: “The Abominable ‘O Holy Night’”.  Along with the Advent Conspiracy, this insanely awful little diddy gets us in the Christmas spirit. The Abominable O...

As I walked through the front door of the post office, I was faced with a choice. On my left was a vending machine from which I could purchase books of stamps, and to my right was the customer service desk, where I could make the same purchase from actual human beings. Because there was no line at...

I’m in Cambridge, England to do more work on my faith/science book that focuses on the physicist/priest John Polkinghorne. He’s an amazing guy — stepped out of the physics world (he helped the world understand the smallest known particle, the quark), and became an Anglican priest....

With my dad being the oldest of five children, Christmas on his side of the family involves a lot of people —aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, fiancés, girlfriends, and now a new generation of young children.  The yearly holiday get-together is a pretty big deal and for over 20 years the way we’ve...

The first small group my wife and I led was over in a matter of weeks. One couple moved from Chicago to Seattle. Another couple moved from Chicago to Dallas. The fact wasn’t lost on us that people would rather endure a cross-country move than remain in community with us. With time, however, we recognized...

(Editor’s note: Earlier this week, long-time Burnside contributor Rachel Pater wrote an excellent, thought-provoking piece on the often problematic depiction of God as male and father.  Months ago, we scheduled this article, by the Merry Monk, to run on Father’s Day.  While Burnside strives...

(This is a rerun of a post we ran on the Burnside Blog last year.) Wandering the wastelands of Facebook today, I stumbled across the status update of Michael Radcliffe, a contributor to Burnside on occasion: “Kiss me; I’m British-German and lack the scrappy, drunken and witty insecurity...

Ten years ago today, I wrote my first top 10 list, a cobbled list of the best albums of the millennium (mostly, it was Beatles and U2).  I think that’s when I fancied myself a writer for the first time.  Ten years later, I’m still that deluded. This New Years, I’m in Murietta, California,...

When my nephew, an Iraq war veteran, married recently his brother bought him a gift – an assault rifle. I was mortified. “John, why in the world would you buy David an assault rife?” I implored. “Uh, because he gave me one for my birthday,” John replied, as if the exchange of assault...

“Where is Christ for you right now?”  This question was posed at the 11pm Christmas Eve service at my parents’ church, after which we were encouraged to take a few moments of silence to reflect. Truth be told, Christ wasn’t forefront for me this season.  In fact, the only time I really thought...