It has felt more complicated to comment on politics lately.  You are either for separating children from their parents; or you are for all of Central America coming to the US and potentially destroying our economy.  You are either for destroying this planet with greenhouse gases, or you are for crippling the 3rd world by preventing … More Christian Politics

UPDATED (updates at bottom) Well, I’ve settled on it.  I’m going to embark on one of the tougher challenges of my life.  I’ve hiked 100 miles in 10 days.  This will be harder.  I completed a Doctoral Program in less than 24 months with 2 jobs, a wife, and a kid.  This will be harder. … More My 1 Corinthians 6:12 Challenge (or Joe’s 7 Deadly Sins)

Have you ever felt like God isn’t listening?  Like He was distant?  Your head tells you that He’s always there or at least right around the corner, but your heart is screaming, “Where the heck is God?”  I’m going to call this a desert – a spiritual desert. Now there are several possibilities here for why … More Growing in a Desert

While in Greece this past summer, I remembered something I forgot.  (I tell my children often that I have forgotten more than they will ever know.)  Athens had 12 gods they worshipped and a temple set-up for each one.  But they also had one additional place of worship established to an Unknown God.  Let me … More Shadows in Pagan Lands

Some funerals are harder to speak at than others.  I don’t think this is any huge revelation, but maybe you had a hard time putting your finger on why it was so difficult.  The key thing to remember is that no death exactly matches another death.  The severity can even change between family members.  It’s … More Not All Funerals Are Created Equal

Well, the Boy Scouts are no longer going to be Boy Scouts.  The official title I believe is now Scouts of the BSA which Definitely Doesn’t Stand for Boy Scouts of America (or something like that.) This is a little outside the normal social issues I tackle but I think there’s crossover.  First, Boy Scouts does … More The Scouts – this Eagle Scout’s Opinion on the Good, the Bad, and the Neutral of Admitting Girls into the BSA

I’m certainly not the first one to point out the uniqueness of the centrality of women in the Resurrection accounts in the Gospels. What stands out is that in that society, women were not thought of very highly. They, in many ways, seemed more like property than people in the ancient near east. So the … More The Women at Jesus’ Resurrection

I’m not here to throw shade (as the kids used to say in 2017, but now they act like no one has said that since the 1940’s), but I am going to share my thoughts. I don’t like when churches charge money for outreach events like Easter Egg hunts and I don’t even like when … More Churches Should Stop Charging Money for Easter Egg Hunts and Other Outreach Events

I think churches deal with church discipline in one of 2 ways. (I’m sure there are those in the middle ground but I’ve never met them.) Churches either do it regularly and consistently or ignore it completely and utterly. Church discipline isn’t usually fun, but I’ve personally experienced some beautiful moments from it. I’ve also … More A Second Look at Church Discipline