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Don’t ask don’t tell is  an attractive philosophy about homosexuality for the church in America, which is why so many Christians favor the policy in the military. But I don’t want to talk about the military, I want to talk about the church. Homosexuality is a closet issue in the evangelical church. With the fall of Ted Haggard, and now the accusations against Bishop Eddie Long (as I write this, a week before it will post, 4 men have accused Bishop Long of sexual misconduct, and he has denied those accusations while he is stepping down from his position.) What is so striking about the Bishop Long and Ted Haggard connection is their strong stand against homosexuality from the pulpit. When I saw the movie Jesus Camp (I’d not heard of Ted Haggard before the movie which came out right before the scandal) I thought to myself, that guy sounds like he is covering something up. I don’t know very many straight, sexually healthy men who talk about having sex with their wives or brag about their sexual prowess. Straight men just have sex, they don’t intentionally project a straight image so people will know they are straight. That’s not [...]

Have you ever noticed how often God addresses communities as opposed to individuals? There are hundreds of “ours” and “we’s” and “us’” in the text. There are also loads of “I’s” and “me’s” too. But as I compare the “ours” to the “mines” I’ve noticed my own use of the plural is lopsided compared to the singular. I pray for my faith, or for my friend’s faith. I rarely pray for our faith, for our health or our protection. A friend asked for a ride to the airport recently, and of course I agreed. And later I thought about how great it is that I have a global family to call on if I ever need anything, that those of us who know Christ are brothers and sisters. In this new family I have fathers and mothers, aunts and uncles, cousins and nephews. We, I realized, are the family of God. I read a book many years ago called Love and Survival by Dr. Dean Ornish. Ornish is a heart surgeon and has done extensive research involving heart health. His findings were surprising. What is most important to heart health, according to Ornish, is community. That’s right…other people. Patients who [...]

I am not a humble person. I’m proud of my accomplishments. I drop names when I’m feeling insecure. I also talk about the cool projects I’m working on when I want to impress somebody. If you’ve known me for long, you’ve probably heard me do it. Sorry about that. But the truth is, I don’t really want to be a humble person. It’s not a goal of mine. I don’t think about it, and I have a lot more emotional stability because I don’t think about it. If I get too arrogant somebody will humble me. When you write a blog you get criticism every hour on the hour, and that certainly helps. Truly humble people don’t get called humble very often. In fact, if you are consistently spoken of as humble, you might want to reflect on whether or not you are trying to project a humble identity, which is just another form of narcissism. People who are humble are too busy thinking about a project they are working on, or their family, or their friends. Their mind isn’t on their humility or their lack of humility; their mind is on something other than themselves. In doing so, they [...]