A Cautious Defense of Boycotts

By now I'm sure that most of you are aware of the Bud Light/Dylan Mulvaney debacle. Just in case you haven’t heard, let me bring you up to speed. In an effort to make the brand more inclusive and less "fratty," executives partnered with actor turned transgender celebrity Dylan Mulvaney for a small ad campaign....

The Best Super Bowl Commercial

There is no cultural event in contemporary life that draws as much cross-demographic interest as the Super Bowl. In a world where the monoculture has largely gone extinct, the Super Bowl remains that one thing where men and women, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, conservative and liberal, the football passionate and...

Confronting My Inner Deist

If I hadn't already sworn off using the word, I'd say that I was deconstructing my faith a bit lately. Don't panic. I'm not experiencing anything like a crisis of faith. In some respects, it's just the opposite. Lately I've been questioning some of the unconscious assumptions that inform my faith with the result that...

An Argument Against the Existence of Terminators (and For the Existence of God)

In my last post, I gave some of my initial thoughts about ChatGPT, the powerful new chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. Any sudden leaps in technological advancement lead to two different feelings among most people, amazement and paranoia. It is only natural that people would feel wonder and curiosity when what was recently impossible is...

The Robots are Coming

The world changed forever at the end of this past November. If you aren't a very online person, you may not have any idea what I'm talking about. But if you do spend much time online, particularly on Twitter, you are aware of ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. It is certainly...

3 “Through Lines” of Contemporary Culture and How Living Churches Probably Shouldn’t Respond

Recently I was speaking at a church on the topic of cultural engagement. It's a huge and complex topic. It's also, understandably, a controversial topic. It's controversial for a few reasons. First, there are often very controversial issues at stake, issues related to politics, sex, family, entertainment, education, and wealth to name just a few....

Social Justice from the Left and the Right

Within the Church (broadly speaking) there are two groups of people. Not everyone in the Church fits into one of these groups. In fact, many people in the Church are a little weirded out by these two groups. This is largely because the people in these two groups tend to be agitators. They stir things...

Pageantry

An estimated 4.1 billion people watched Queen Elizabeth's funeral. That number is literally incomprehensible. Even if it is a wild overestimation, it seems reasonable to assume that people numbering into the billions watched the services. In a time where monoculture has largely ceased to exist, it's hard to imagine any event coming remotely close to...

5(ish) Books on Understanding and Ministering in the Transgender Moment

A while ago I wrote a piece titled "What is a Woman?" I'll admit that it was a provocative piece. I frankly don't see any reason to write anything unless it is provocative. What a waste of time. My intent is never to provoke purely emotional responses. Emotional responses are easy to illicit on the...