My life divides into geographical thirds—one-third in Atlanta, one-third in Chicago, and one-third in Colorado—and each has presented a different perspective on winter. In the Atlanta of my childhood enough snow would fall to accumulate on the ground maybe once every two or three years.  These were magical days of cancelled school, snow forts and snowball fights, and snowmen decorated with branches for arms, radishes for eyes, and a carrot for a nose.  The magic was ephemeral, however: a week ...

Various blogs have been hammering me for agreeing to speak to a group called the Gay Christian Network.  I get tired of writing about this issue because it stirs up such a storm of controversy and little of the dialogue seems constructive.  On the other hand, the church must keep engaging, and I know of no better way to engage than to hear the stories of Christians who are struggling personally with homosexuality.  Some conservatives think the very term “Gay ...

Over the last several months I’ve been traveling a lot, mainly in connection with the release of the book What Good Is God? I’ve also done radio interviews from my home in Colorado and written blogs for the likes of CNN.com and The Huffington Post.  Those last two assignments gave me a window into just how much hostility the topic of religion stirs up. In answering the question, “What good is God?” I respond that I note positive benefits on ...

Drew Dyck’s book Generation Ex-Christian includes the following anecdote about the author’s visit to the Wheaton Atheist Club (Who knew such an organization existed?). Somewhere in the midst of our conversations, a jovial young man named Dan came clean as a former Christian.  He’d left the faith only months earlier. “I was in the Assemblies of God all my life,” he said.  “I even played in a Christian band.” What had caused his crisis of faith? “I always believed the ...

Roaming in Romania: October 2010 November 2 was election day in the United States, and on the Internet I read about the “Tea Party Revolution” sparked by dissatisfaction with President Obama and the Democrats.  Earlier in the day I stood on Revolution Square where a local told me his memories of that fateful day 25 years before, on December 25, 1989. “I was a teenager, son of a pastor, and one of my earliest memories was of my father lying ...