On Actually Reading What People Actually Say
Here are excerpts from interviews or brief writings on issues of sexuality, sin, and concupiscence from three pastors: Pastor A: Interviewer: It sounds like you’re saying that original sin is culpable sin, but then it produces something that is not...
How to be an Evangelical Influencer (Apparently)
Endorse a book you didn’t actually read. Capitulate to a Twitter mob demanding you retract your endorsement for the book that you didn’t actually read. Call the book’s argument, which is almost identical to things you’ve said in your own...
Wild Christianity
Kingsnorth has a must-read in First Things: Everybody is talking these days about the decline of the West, and with good reason. Some people think that Christianity should have something to say about this: that as the faith was the rock...
Evangelistic Postures
(Note: I’m going to be using the short hand from Mike and Skyler’s six-way fracturing article throughout this piece. So if you haven’t read it, start there.) The core problem facing the preservation or formation of conservative Protestant coalitions right...
Once More re: the Uselessness of “Christian Nationalism”
Let’s do this one more time. We live in a moment with (somehow!) a uniquely cursed discourse concerning religion and politics. Much of this is connected to “Christian nationalism.” The problem here is that the term as it gets used...
The Durant Trade
So for those who don’t know: I’m a lifelong Phoenix Suns fan. My uncle lives in Phoenix and had season tickets so when our family would visit, I’d get to go to the Suns games. Those were the Charles Barkley,...
Education, Catechesis, and the State
Just before starting second grade, my grandmother Mary died. Though her death was a deep grief to me—we had been quite close and many of my earliest memories involve her—it was not unexpected. She had a myriad of health issues,...
Reading Ratzinger
Luke has written an obit for the Pope Emeritus over on the main site. So I have little to add to that. I may have something further to say related to Benedict’s passing later, but for now I’m curious to...
My Work This Year
Almost everything I wrote this year ran here at Mere O, either on the main site or here at Commonplaces. Here’s a link to everything I wrote on the main site. It’s been rather a busy year—I’ve written about 110,000 words on Mere...
Where Did the College-Aged Evangelicals Go?
I’m trying a new format out with some short-form videos. Here’s our first foray: You can subscribe on YouTube to get alerts when we publish more videos. I’ll also likely cross post them here as well.