The Christian Skeptic

His life did.
When we think of our salvation, we usually think of Jesus' death and resurrection. We celebrate Easter and sometimes Good Friday and thank God that his agony made our five-second prayer meaningful.
We don't usually think of Christmas. Christmas is great for talking about the deity of Christ or, for some, the historicity of his coming, but we rarely associate it with our salvation. As miraculous as his birth was, Jesus' incarnation was only necessary so he could get here and die for us.

Though many western Christians (Protestants and Catholics) disregard the incarnation, eastern Christians certainly do not. Eastern Orthodox churches believe that we're saved through a process called theosis which means that we become like God.

Unfortunately, whenever westerners hear "become like God", they immediately flashback to Genesis and accuse our eastern sisters and brothers of sinning like Eve and Adam. They probably don't recall Peter's words abou…

It's about treating those who aren't like they are.
Ten years ago, I spent my first Thanksgiving away from home in a small, Chicago apartment with people I didn't know. Having just moved from New Jersey for college, all of my family lived twelve hours from campus and I didn't have a lot of money. So my wife and I decided to stay put and celebrate alone.

It was weird being without family, but to our surprise, we received an invitation from a classmate who was hosting Thanksgiving for stranded students like us. I still remember the five different kinds of pies, the awkward but fun game of Cranium with complete strangers, and the broad smiles that our presence gave our classmate and his wife. They were overjoyed to welcome us into their home.
Ten years later, we're talking about immigration bans, internment camps, and registries of foreigners.
Last year, Donald Trump called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." Two weeks …

We don't need the government to fulfill our obligation to love one another.
The working class of America have spoken. They're tired of being forgotten and ignored. They're tired of working hard while their tax dollars go to people who don't work at all. So they elected Donald Trump as our next president.
The irony is that both the working class and the poor rely on the government. Poor folks need welfare because they either can't work or can't find work. Likewise, the working class apparently need international trade agreements to change in order to find work.
I won't pretend to understand what it's like to work in an industry where you, your father, and your grandfather have worked. But I do understand how scary it can be to switch industries and start a completely different job.
Last year, I quit radio and moved into marketing, partly because I could see the death of that industry rapidly approaching. So I took the plunge and bailed on a career I had …

The only people who think I do are those with something to lose.
Few would contend that this election is the most divisive in recent history. Never in my young life have I seen two candidates more radioactive to the opposing party. And never have I seen the rhetoric stronger that this election will spell certain doom for the country if the wrong person is chosen.
Everyone is scared. With such entrenched ideologies, there is little hope of swaying either candidate's supporters. So the war for hearts and minds is taking place among the undecided's--the skeptics and cynics such as myself who find support of either candidate at best dubious and wrought with conflict.
Even suggesting a non-vote on Facebook is bound to unleash hellfire. "There is so much at stake", they say. Or, "a non-vote is just a vote for Trump or Clinton anyway".
But it is entirely fallacious to equate a non-vote with a vote unless, of course, you assume that a non-vote would've been a v…

The kingdom of God makes for terrible national policy.
Plenty of people have a good reason to vote for Donald Trump. They're called the working class.
Blue collar folks--the under-paid, under-appreciated, multi-generational backbone of America--fear for their livelihoods as foreign outsourcing continually puts their jobs in jeopardy. They're bitter and disillusioned with the nation that once relied on them but has now discarded their memory for increased profit margins. They love this country and they hate that they feel betrayed by it.
Enter the savior, Donald Trump. The man who will put America first and make America great again.
Trump won a significant number of hearts and minds by turning the working class against the rest of the world. Rather than address corporate practices that he himself has utilized, he claimed that foreign nations were exploiting our trade agreements while polluting our fair land with job-stealing rapists and jihadists. Essentially, he created an ene…