Brian Bantum
Can inclusive churches grow and thrive?
When my spouse’s church became more affirming, the major givers left.
Can inclusive churches grow and thrive?
When my spouse’s church became more affirming, the major givers left.
The 80/20 rule is a problem for churches
So why do so many of them embrace it as a solution?
Spending Lent with people in recovery
In the company of church members in recovery from addiction, I’m feeling more open to the doctrine of original sin.
William Guthrie’s weird Christianity
The rector of St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery brought the church into relationship with the Greenwich Village avant-garde of the 1920s.
Speaking of death
Christians have an opportunity to eschew euphemisms and talk honestly about mortality.
The bones in God’s garden
Will my daffodil bulbs overcome their trauma and rise up despite the odds? Will we?
Annie Dillard in spring
Each March, I find my thoughts returning to Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
Showing up for church when I don’t want to
When I show up, God shows up—although not always in the sermon.
Metaphors for the spiritual life
I have been an onion peeler and an excavator. I hope God will form me into a bridge.
Days of wanting
My family didn’t want to go to America at all; we left Vietnam on pain of death.
Harmful people with helpful ideas
I still read Luther, Calvin, and de Beauvoir. But John Howard Yoder’s sexual abuse has made me rethink my mindset.
Faith, hope, love, and AI
Our different responses to artificial intelligence point to different stories—and different Christian virtues.
Can inclusive churches grow and thrive?
William Guthrie’s weird Christianity
Annie Dillard in spring
Days of wanting
Showing up for church when I don’t want to
Speaking of death
Spending Lent with people in recovery
Faith, hope, love, and AI
Holy attachments
The bones in God’s garden
Metaphors for the spiritual life
A landscape of lost denominations
The patron saint of in-between things
Sharing the burden of language disorientation
Caught up in the sweep of history
Nature is not an escape
Harmful people with helpful ideas
The 80/20 rule is a problem for churches