As the imminence of graduation grows ever more real with each passing day, my post-college plans become all the more muddled and desperate. I find myself constantly re-evaluating what I have studied and what it is that I feel “called” to do. At times it seems as though my entire life has been a series [...]
With the infamous words, “God wills it,” Pope Urban II proclaimed a crusade, a war of the cross to be conducted against the Islamic occupiers in Palestine. Four years later, in 1099, western Christians would take the city of Jerusalem. Its streets were “littered with bodies and stained with blood.” The massacre of the city’s [...]
At its core, Christianity has a very straightforward message: love God and love others. It is this simplicity that led some opponents of Christianity to dismiss it as a religion belonging only to the gullible and the dumb. Writing in the second century, Celsus accused Christians of only preaching to the “ignorant, or unintelligent, or [...]
Since I first came to Lee University three and a half years ago I have been to church almost every Sunday. These Sundays have been, at the very least, diverse, since Cleveland has a seemingly endless supply of churches. By now I feel like I have seen it all. I have heard shofars, maracas and [...]
I’m going to be forthright and admit that Deke Day was one of my least favorite experiences freshman year. My group was informed that we would be traveling to a retirement home to “minister” to its residents. I was nervous because I have never been especially comfortable around geriatric persons, but I tried to keep [...]
On Nov. 30, 2008, the Rev. Frank Harris, Jr. called his wife to inform her that he had picked up two hitchhikers and would be driving them home before coming home himself. His body was discovered late that night in the driveway of a vacant home. Hours later, the two hitchhikers would be arrested on [...]
Every year Charlie Brown, the Grinch, Macaulay Culkin and Santa Claus show up on our primetime television networks, purporting to tell us the true meaning of Christmas. There is talk of spending time with family, lending a helping hand to the poor and getting kisses under the mistletoe. Meanwhile, churches stage large Christmas productions that [...]
This article was co-written by Katie Blaylock. The early Christian community was defined by their progressive stance on the cultural issues of the time, especially with regard to women’s rights. At a time when it was “better to burn the Torah than to teach it to a woman,” Christianity emerged with its liberating message that [...]
For several days now I have had the song “I’ll Fly Away” stuck in my head. The cheerful gospel chorus goes “I’ll fly away, Oh glory/I’ll fly a way (in the morning)/When I die, hallelujah, by and by/I’ll fly away.” There is no denying that it is a catchy tune, but I wonder whether or [...]
In high school, my youth group participated in a weekly evangelistic study titled “The Way of the Master,” hosted by the former child star turned corny Christian movie star, Kirk Cameron. In each episode, we were taught to approach strangers on the street and ask them questions such as “have you ever told a [...]
I’ve heard a lot of absurd things since coming to Lee, but one of the least intelligent statements I have ever heard uttered came from a woman I encountered in the Humanities Building. She was talking about the end times and said, “Well, God is going to burn everything up in the end. So there’s [...]
In the eleventh century, the Christian theologian Anselm defined Christianity as faith seeking understanding. In so doing, he identified the central element of Christianity to be inquiry, a quest for the truth in the mode of questions. To ask a question honestly presupposes that the answer is unsettled. One cannot truly question something unless the [...]
I’ve seen it at least a dozen times in my life. The pastor stands up and tells of a member of the congregation who was diagnosed with cancer. They had to have surgery to remove the tumor but when they went in for the operation the doctor told them the tumor was removed. The congregation [...]
Coca Cola ran this inspirational commercial during the Olympics that showcased various triumphal Olympic moments as the announcer proudly informed viewers, “If you’ve had a Coke in the last eighty years, you’ve had a hand in making every Olympic dream come true.” You can’t watch the commercial and not feel satisfaction in knowing that your [...]
