Crucible of Thought

When we think about foreign policy, it's easy to forget that nations are made up of people, and how we treat individual people was incredibly important to Jesus, far more than national identities. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/nations-and-individuals

Those maps showing a shrinking Palestine are widely disputed by Zionism supporters, but there are some major problems with those counter claims. But there's a better way than political or military solutions. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/about-those-maps-of-a-shrinking-palestine/

Some kinds of testimony probably do more harm than good. Too often, a story about ourselves comes across as an accusation about the other, and actually harms our witness. We can do better. You can also read this post at https://crucibleofthought.com/a-different-kind-of-testimony/

Considering Israel and Gaza in light of Isaac and Ishmael, peace is not gained through superior firepower, but superior love. You can also read this post at https://crucibleofthought.com/peace-through-superior-love/

I've been in an interesting place for a while now, trying to come to grips with a God who turns out to not meet my old expectations, and watching a lot of people who call themselves Christian act rather unlike the Jesus I read about in the Gospels. So I've been thinking hard about the nature of truth, and the nature of the Bible itself. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleoft...

The Bible portrays a complex, changing view of God. To find the Truth of who God really is, I need to follow the trajectory of God's self-revelation to humanity. You can also read this as a blog post - and find the graphic I referenced during the episode - at https://crucibleofthought.com/trajectory/ This is the image: https://crucibleofthought.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Trajectory.jpg

When we learn to release what other people think of our doctrine or politics or God, there's a real joy and freedom. I may be feeling betrayed, but I'm also feeling released and freed. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/there-is-joy-in-disconnection/

Betrayal causes a trauma response in humans. Institutions, not just people, can be the source of betrayal. A normal human response to betrayal trauma is to disengage completely from the institution. That's where I am in relation to several institutions I previously trusted and depended on for my identity. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/betrayal Papers quoted: h...

As my religious understanding changes, I'm discovering that so does my language about religion. But to "be all things to all men, so that I may save some," I have to become multilingual - fluently speaking the native language of whatever tribe I am with. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/becoming-multilingual

The current trend of avoiding issues by using fear to cause division and boundaries and othering is incredibly problematic: it fundamentally opposes the very first two original purposes of God towards man: being a single unified body made of many individuals, and ruling faithfully over the creation that God gave to us. And that failing is causing deep harm to the Kingdom, by chasing people away fr...

A transformative moment for me recently was realizing that my compulsive need for labels to figure out how to treat people was harming my relationships, and keeping me from truly loving people who are very different than me. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/labels

Did God stop speaking at the end of the first century AD? Did He tell us literally everything we need to know in the Bible? I've been thinking about the various basic approaches to reading and understanding the Bible. It seems to me that there are at least two related methods of Bible interpretation, and their interaction results in some rather different outcomes depending on your assumptions....

What is an enemy? Do we Christians really even HAVE enemies? For that matter, are we supposed to? You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/whos-your-enemy/ The book I reference, Faith After Doubt, can be found at https://amzn.to/3PfDKCx

Our testimony isn't just for unbelievers. Sometimes it needs to be for our fellow Christians, inviting them to see a different perspective, expanding their existing awareness. And a gentle invitation is so much more effective than a demanding assault on what we see as error. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/a-new-kind-of-testimony/

It's taken a couple years, but I realized this week that I'm completely done with being called an Evangelical and a Republican. I simply cannot abide the toxicity inherent in both labels. Here's some thoughts about why. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/the-end-of-my-evangelicalism/

Faith perhaps, should be something like a basket of Easter eggs: each one colorful and unique and ornate in its own way, each containing something different and surprising, but all together comprising the totality of Christianity, in the promise offered by Easter Sunday. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleoffaith.com/rainbow-of-faith/

Do we as Christians have the moral right to preemptively use deadly force? And do we as Christians have the moral right to kill to defend ourselves or our property? Some thoughts. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/shoot-first-ask-questions-later/

Lately I've participated in several discussions about the fundamental nature of the Bible. A frequent refrain is the all-encompassing, totally sufficient, utterly complete, perfect nature of the Bible. But is the Bible truly everything we need to know about God and the universe and history and our lives? You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/an-incomplete-bible/

Recently a friend asked me what it felt like to lose so much of my faith. I don't think I lost anything: instead, I feel like I've shed things that weren't mine to begin with. Let me tell you about my own encounter with Aslan. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/shedding-my-dragon-skin/

I've always believed that Christians go to heaven when we die. It's a staple of many people's faith. Where did that doctrine come from, and what does the Bible say about heaven? Join me as I survey the various verses that talk about heaven. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/am-i-going-to-heaven-when-i-die/ One of many articles discussing the Jewish doctrin...

What's more important? Evangelicalism, or Christianity? Lately I've seen a lot of people defending the former at the expense of what I believe is Jesus' example of how we should live as a community of faith. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/the-preservation-of-evangelicalism/

Jesus said we'd know a tree by its fruit, and perhaps we can also know a doctrine the same way. I grew up with an end-times doctrine that is widespread in the church, but which I now recognize is bearing a lot of bad fruit. Maybe it's time to recognize the harm. You can also read this post at https://crucibleofthought.com/how-revelation-warped-my-theology/

I'm intrigued that for an institution so absolutely central to human life, the Bible has shockingly little information about the ideal marriage. Hardly any of the examples about marriage fit our modern Christian definition of "one man, one woman, for life, with the blessing of the church and the state." You can find links to the sources mentioned in this episode on the Crucible of Thought blog at...

Too many Christians seem obsessed with power and control. But being oppressed was the very thing that helped the early church grow explosively. Are we pursing the wrong thing? Good Faith podcast episode: https://thedispatch.com/podcast/goodfaith/learning-to-live-in-exile/ You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/everybody-wants-to-rule-the-world/

Today's media systems use outrage as a currency to drive engagement. But is outrage a poison pill that is tearing us apart? I suggest there's a better way to exist in this modern social media world. You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/outrage-as-social-currency/