The Dreaded “A-Word”

It was asked of me recently, “Is the purpose of your blog to start arguments or conversations?” I said arguments. Let me explain why. What Arguments Actually Are I think arguments have a bad rap nowadays, and it’s because the word has been misused to mean “nasty screaming matches that are completely illogical where no coherent point is being made.” That’s not an argument. That’s a fight. An argument can, however, have a range of legitimate definitions. Here are two of them: An argument is a series of statements intended to build a case and make a point about reality. … [Read more]

Super Heroes Do What the Church Won’t

Superhero movies are doing what the church won’t: teach theology. I really wish the general public got better theology than what’s taught in superhero movies. This is a thought I’ve had for a while, pretty much since The Dark Knight came out, but it hadn’t been blatant enough for the public until Batman vs. Superman. I saw the movie last night and my friend Sam Bennet, who we ran into at the theater, warned me, “You’re going to want to write a blog post about it.” He was right. Batman v Superman was the first one to make it unmistakable … [Read more]

My Ideal Youth Ministry

This is a paper written for my Christian Ministry with Youth course at DTS. The assignment was to write your philosophy of youth ministry and include things like your essential theology, the purpose of youth ministry, and the structure and outcomes of your ideal youth ministry. It is intended to be used in interviews and applications for youth pastor jobs. If nothing else, it will give you a glimpse of what I think about how the church should be run and what the essential doctrines of Christianity are. Introduction The purpose of this work is to tell you about my … [Read more]

Baby Don’t Hurt Me: Four Things Love Isn’t

Let’s define love. My absolute favorite extra-biblical definition of love comes from J. Budziszewski’s “Ask Me Anything.” “Love is a commitment of the will to the true good of the other person.” This succinct, profound, and jam-packed definition is my favorite because it clears up so many misconceptions about love that people have these days. Let me show you four of them. LOVE IS NOT A FEELING I think many people would affirm this fact when talking about the definition of love, but forget this fact when they go about loving. Love is not a feeling. As the great theologian … [Read more]

People Have Sex, Words Have Gender

I’m writing this days after Bruce Jenner decided to become Caitlyn Jenner and the question of Transgenderism is hotter than it’s ever been. Introduction To those who support Jenner’s decision, I ask a single question of you: If Jenner changes back, will you be equally supportive? I’ve been thinking it through for days to be sure I don’t say something about this that I’ll regret. There are so many angles from which to look at this. There’s the Jon Stewart angle, which unknowingly exposes the inconsistency of supporting both feminism and trans-genderism. There’s the Walt Heyer angle, which traces the gruesome … [Read more]