Pastor Mark Driscoll isn’t the only person to take issue with The Shack. Author Paul Young said his mama had a hard time with the book, too. The difference between Driscoll and Bernice Young, however, is that at least she tried to read it. Driscoll didn’t bother to read it before he took to the pulpit...

Pastor Terry Jones has General David Petraeus worried. Jones and his congregants at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida intend to hold an old-fashioned book burning. The bonfire is intended to commemorate those who lost their lives in the attack on 9-11, and, most importantly, to ignite...

There are well-meaning good-hearted people on both sides of the Ground Zero mosque issue. I believe that, I really do. It’s just hard right now to see that, what with the way the people are carrying on. If I were Frank Peretti writing This Presence Darkness, I might imagine that demons are dancing,...

It’s taken me almost a lifetime but I’ve finally grown comfortable in my own skin. Oh, sure, I wish there wasn’t so much of it, and, yes, what there is of it sags off me like an ill-fitting suit.  There are days I need a wheelbarrow to haul butt. I look at my hands and see my granny’s skin....

Michael Spencer, the man widely known as the Internet Monk, passed away this week. Thousands are mourning his passing, me included. I am more an admirer of Michael, than a friend. We never drank a brew together, never shared a meal. We did, however, exchange some emails and Michael graciously granted...

Shame is my least favorite emotion. It’s different than guilt. Guilt I can deal with. Guilt compels me to action. I can confess my sin, ask forgiveness and strive to do better next time. Shame is the stranger who leads me down a dark road where more shameful things await, things that will surely cause...

Count me among the millions. It’s been a year since I lost the best job of my journalism career, working as an editorial writer and columnist for a family-owned newspaper. Call it what you like – riffed, cut, layed off, let go – I joined the ranks of the nation’s unemployed. Tears welled up in...

Rescue crews hadn’t even begun to unload supplies before Pat Robertson began to upbraid Haitians for their “pact with the devil.” Robertson said Haitians joined forces with Satan’s Army:  “They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story. And so the...

As creator of The OOZE, Spencer Burke is usually the one pitching questions to some of today’s most prominent voices affecting the church in transition, from Shane Clayborne to Phyllis Tickle. But when Burke made a recent swing through Portland conducting interviews for THEOOZE.TV, he took time to...

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...