I don’t write much anymore. But when I did write a lot, one of my favorite things to do was take pieces of pop culture and see where and how they intersect with the Gospel. Yesterday, after almost crying in a gas station parking lot, I knew I had to write again, if only for this one post. That’s right: a song from Demi Lovato had me all up in my feelings outside of a Weigels. Many of you, when you hear the name Demi Lovato, you think one of three things: 1. The girl from Camp Rock 2. That pop singer on the radio 3. Who?! Demi Lovato is 25-year-old singer and actress who is a former child star. After getting famous at such a young age, she – like many child stars – developed a dependency on alcohol and drugs. She eventually ended up in rehab and celebrated…
On teenagers, depression, and growing up; or five ways the Church can help prevent teenage suicide
Has your best friend ever looked you in the eye and told you you’re “just so G– damned depressed all the time”? Has your grandma ever looked at you and said she was worried about you because you weren’t smiling? Have your friends ever stopped inviting you to things because you simply weren’t any fun to be around anymore? Those things all happened to me within a three month span my first year of seminary. A few months earlier, over the course of a weekend, I lost the job I loved, got dumped by the girl I loved, and got in an ATV wreck where I flipped over the handlebars without a helmet. Oh, and I was starting grad school working in a program that I ended up hating. It wasn’t a fun time. The whole thing led to a downward spiral of depression. The only thing is I didn’t…
Three reasons why the death of Aaron Hernandez is a tragedy, even if it doesn’t feel like one
This morning around 6:30am I was hanging out with my six-month-old son before heading off to daycare. Like most mornings, I had the TV on to Mike & Mike just to get an idea of what the sports stories of the day were going to be. After coming back from commercial, Mike Greenberg broke the news that former Patriots tight end and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez had been found dead in his jail cell. I knew this would be the story of the day. By mid morning there were articles floating around Facebook. Once the afternoon hit, we started getting videos of different takes on the news from different commentators around the sports world. One of those takes was from Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd. You can watch his view below: In that clip, Cowherd says this: “My sympathy and sadness is for orphans, burn victims, poor kids beaten viciously and…
A letter to everyone with different beliefs than me
Hi. I’m Jonathan. I’m a white, 30-year-old husband, dad of two, home owner, and business owner. I grew up in a middle class bedroom town made up of 90% white people. When I was a junior in high school, someone asked my principal how many black people went to our school and she answered by naming them all. There were 11. Rebel flags, gay slurs, and the n-word were so common growing up that weren’t offensive to me. My parents even tell a story of how when I was two years old a black kid in my neighborhood knocked on our door and I ran to my parents saying, “Mommy! Daddy! There’s a little n——r boy at the door!” I’d picked up the word from one of my dad’s coworkers. I could continue telling you stories of where I grew up but I think you get the picture. It was the stereotypical…
Trust vs compromise; or should I vote for Donald Trump?
Before we even get started today, I’m going to warn you that this post is political in nature. You probably gathered that from the title. With that said, here’s what I want you to know: This post is meant to start a conversation. What I’m writing today is what I’m wrestling through as a Christian in this political cycle. It’s not the end all be all “I’m an expert and you should agree with me because of these three reasons.” In truth, you may agree. You may disagree. Whatever your opinion, I think it’s vital for us to have hard conversations about important issues. I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments or on Facebook. My name is Jonathan. I’m a 29-year-old registered independent from North Carolina currently living in Tennessee. For as long as I can remember, I have been a Christian. I wore cheesy Christian knock off tshirts…
Jesus and politics; or why I’m rethinking everything I thought I knew
There are two things you don’t talk about in public:
Religion and politics.
Well crap.
I’m about to do both.
Religion and politics.
Well crap.
I’m about to do both.
The red cup crisis; or how we got worked up over a lie
Red cups. That’s what we are offended by this week. Towards the end of last week, a video of an angry dude with a beard started getting shared on Facebook. In it, he claimed Starbucks hated Jesus and therefore took the word Christmas off their annual holiday cups. On Friday night the video had been seen over six million times. By midday Saturday almost ten million. By Saturday night it was trending nationally. There’s only one problem with the video and its message: It was based on a lie. Starbucks did not take Christmas off their cups because Starbucks never actually had Christmas on them in the first place. In the past there have been drawings of snowflakes, tree ornaments, reindeer, snowmen, and other winter or holiday symbols on the cups. But never the word “Christmas.” So how can Starbucks show their hate of Jesus by taking Christmas off their…
What we can learn from Chris Stapleton, or why you shouldn’t give up yet
I’ve admitted on this blog before that I have a not-so-secret love of country music. The town I grew up in was next to a town called “Tobaccoville”. There was always going to be a little inherent redneck in me no matter how hard I tried to fight it. Last night was the highlight of the year for country music: the CMAs. In my judgment, the CMAs are the best award show of the year, including the Grammys. It’s always a good time. At the beginning of the show, there was a guy up for an award I’d never heard of: Chris Stapleton. I didn’t know his music but I knew from looking at him for one second that he was country music in its purest form. When he won new artist of the year, I was happy for him. Then he won Album of the Year. Then he performed with…
Welcome to the Offended Church of America; or how we’ve forgotten Jesus’ promise
Hashtags! Facebook rants! Angry blog posts! Too often in today’s climate, Christians are known more for these things than we are for anything else. Whatever the current news cycle is, there’s something that has offended us enough for us to tell the world how offended we are. The latest in this cycle of the Offended Church of America (OCA) is a football coach in Washington state getting suspended (with pay!) for disobeying his public school district’s ruling against praying on the field. A Christian man took a stand against secular rules and was forced to pay the consequences. Instead of cheering this coach on for standing up for Jesus in the face of opposition, the OCA responded like we always do: with outrage, hashtags, and viral complaining towards the school district. We, the Offended Church of America, act as if its our right to practice our beliefs in front of…
Maybe Tupac was right; or reactions to the Oregon shooting
Yesterday there was a mass shooting at a school in Oregon. It was the 994th mass shooting in America in the past three years. We’ve lost over 1200 people to these shootings in the same time frame. Those numbers sound gigantic – mainly because they are – but yet we don’t bat an eye to them. President Obama’s response to this latest shooting sums up what many of us feel: “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it… We’ve become numb to this.” — I have a group text message with some guys I went to college with. We talk so often that my wife calls them my boyfriends. On Thursday morning I was listening to ESPN Radio. One of our favorite radio hosts was talking about violence in football. He mentioned…