Features
The parasocial power of AI
For some reason, it is sometimes easier for us to see personhood in a chatbot than in a fellow human.
Yes, Charlie Kirk was a missionary
Trump is right about this—but not for the reasons he claimed.
Mapping my city’s moral geography
When I returned to Harrisonburg, I began to see how the built environment reflects and shapes our values and desires.
Praying the imprecatory psalms with Bonhoeffer
How did these psalms about enemies feel in 1940? How do they feel today?
When theology kills
Ruth Miller’s beliefs led to multiple deaths. Is my own faith giving life or taking it?
The Kirk assassination and the scandal of enemy love
The kind of love Jesus taught may not be popular. But the alternative has already shown its rotten fruit.
Postliberalism and the romantic lie
I love René Girard. I don’t love that J. D. Vance loves him, too.
The fear of being filmed
Tyler, the Creator’s album Don’t Tap the Glass suggests that our phone cameras pose a threat to our embodied human freedom.
The missing head of Pancho Villa
What does the stolen skull of a Mexican revolutionary have to do with my friend and me, living in Colorado a century after his death?
The blasphemy of national Christianity
When push comes to shove for nationalist Christians, ethnicity comes first.
Noah gets drunk. Then he curses Ham.
How on earth did this odd little biblical tale get twisted into a justification for chattel slavery?
We name the holy
For me, pastor and poet are the same vocation.
A growing landscape of religious trauma
The conversation around abuse in religious contexts is intense, varied, and getting bigger.
My artificial chaplains
While recovering from a hiking accident, I posed the same theological question to multiple AI spiritual counselors.
The priesthood of all chatbots?
I’m sure there are good uses for AI in our churches. Prayer and preaching aren’t among them.
Post-truth Christians
I was taught to stay on guard against the left’s postmodernism. Now it’s the right that seems unwilling to look truth directly in the face.
Shiny happy confrontations
The second season of Shiny Happy People reminds me of my year as a Teen Mania intern—and our efforts to become the standard of holiness for the world.
How I became religiously multiple
I’m on a personal journey into Buddhist–Christian belonging.
Tenderness under pressure
I want to be a gentle parent. In our culture, this often feels out of reach.
When Superman deconstructs
Many have criticized the new film’s twist on its hero’s origin story. I found it powerfully resonant.