Here’s why there was an horrific earthquake in Haiti: It sits on an unstable fault line between two tectonic plates, just like the one a few miles away from where I sit in Southern California. The awful, simple truth is that the beautiful island of Hispaniola rests on a piece of the planet that’s...

My wife TiVo’s The View and watches it at night. Sometimes I’ll catch a snippet while I’m waiting for my turn to watch Friday Night Lights, The Office, or Sportscenter. I do not watch The View on purpose. Ever. When I do it’s only for the sake of my marriage. Let it go. Anyway, I heard one of...

Let’s get something out of the way: I don’t smoke weed. As a psychologist, I discourage recreational use of marijuana. Chronic use can result in permanent neurological changes that give you Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. And smoking a joint has about the same effect on your lungs as half...

The Kava plant grows in southeast Asia and the islands of the south Pacific. Pacific Islanders have known about its calming properties for centuries. They use the plant in beverage form to treat anxiety and insomnia. It’s also popular with tourists trying to relax into a vacation. One benefit of Kava...

The intersection of Burnside and SW Stark in downtown Portland. In 2005, I Googled Don Miller’s name after reading Blue Like Jazz. This led me to BWC. Ten minutes later, I knew I’d found a home. Big names like Donald Miller, Lauren Winner, and Derek Webb drew me in, but I stayed because of Jordan...

As a kid, I wasted hours relishing Atari’s big-pixel carnage. I mastered games like Missile Command and Pitfall, not caring everything on the screen looked like Legos. In high school, I discovered girls and sports and lost interest in gaming. Then, in 1995, my grad school roommate blew his tax return...

I was about fourteen when I noticed putrid smells coming from certain rooms in The Church: racism, hypocrisy, profiteering evangelists, prosperity gospels, and other such piles of bullshit that I had to step over on my journey of faith. When I brought these subjects up to my Sunday School teachers and...