faith. music. truth.

Why I Don’t Use Leviticus to Defend Christian Ethics

Shellfish, Sexuality, and the Savior Imagine someone says to you: “Yes, British law says theft is illegal. But it also says you’re not allowed to shake your rug out in the street. So if you care about theft, why aren’t you protesting all the rug-shakers?” Bizarre, right? (And

This Is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy

There’s a video I’ve come to believe every American should see. It’s one I’ve quietly saved, shared more than once, and promised myself to repost every time it reappears in my feed. If you haven’t seen it yet, I hope today is the day that

How should we then engage? [3/3]

Engaging Without Enflaming In Part 1 of this series, I argued that the church must resist two equal and opposite dangers in our deeply polarized cultural moment: unloving criticism and uncritical love. We’ve drawn sharp divisions—not just as a nation, but tragically, even within the church—around policies,

The Law on the Wall

Why the Ten Commandments Don’t Belong in Your Public School In June 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10, requiring every public school classroom in the state to post a framed, 16×20-inch copy of the Ten Commandments by September. Supporters hailed it as a victory for

How should we then engage? [1/3]

Part 1: Trump and the Polarization of the Church Above, you see a screenshot of what Google returned when I typed in the word, “evangelicals.” Not “evangelicals and the gospel,” not “evangelicals and Jesus”—but “evangelicals and Trump” and “evangelicals against Trump.” It’s a small snapshot of a much

How should we then engage? [2/3]

Part 2: Echoes of Nebuchadnezzar In Part 1 of the mini-series, "How should we then engage?", I suggested the need for Christians to bring a spirit of critical love and loving criticism into the chaos of political discourse. That plea isn't theoretical. It’s deeply personal

The Church's Happy Gilmore Problem

I really don't know much of anything about golf. Certainly there's risk in trying to leverage illustrations using contexts which you know nothing about. I enjoy putt-putt as much as the next person, but truth be told, I've never once in my life stepped

Welcome to my Notebook.

Hello there — and welcome. This is the inaugural post on a blog I’ve been thinking about launching for a long time. If I’m being honest, it’s not my first attempt. I’ve had a few starts and stops over the years — moments of inspiration that fizzled out,