A Social Experiment in Creative Thinking
A little girl born with girl parts grew up liking other little girls with girl parts. Now that little girl is a boy with girl parts who likes other boys with girl parts. Soon, that little girl will be a boy with boy parts who likes other boys with boy parts. Yet we are … Continue reading Transreality.
I was talking to person of color yesterday about the lack of a major church led peace rally in response to the Black Lives Matter riots, and the conversation ended with me essentially being called a racist. How did we get there? This person, a self-professed Christian who happens to be biracial, seemed like a … Continue reading I am a “Racist” and That’s Okay.
Rape culture. Have you heard of it? Are you aware that we allegedly live in one here in the US of A? Did you know that our college campuses have rates of sexual assault on par with the Rwandan genocide (23% if you take the highest possible estimations) where rape was used as a weapon. … Continue reading Let’s Talk About Rape
We are staring into the eyes of what Jurgen Habermas called a “legitimation crisis.” There is a fundamental mistrust of our government, churches, media, education, legal system, and other administrative agencies that are supposed to be in place to protect us from tyranny. Regardless of our political or religious affiliations, we feel let down. This … Continue reading The Cure for Legitimation Crisis
What would you do if your child was confused about their gender identity? This was a question posed to a group of college students, and I found their responses to be quite interesting. Answers ranged from “I don’t know” to “I would love them no matter what,” which is quite refreshing. Some of the more … Continue reading The Reality of Transgender Children
I want us all to really think hard about this: There will be people voting in the next election who have no personal connection to America prior to George W. Bush. There is a massive voting bloc who were 3 years old when the World Trade Center went down. There are millions of eligible voters … Continue reading The Postmodern World
As a Christian social scientist, my personal views are often at odds with those of my peers. That is not to say that I cannot apply sociological thought and theory to the world around me. In fact, I believe it gives me a unique perspective in both the academic and religious worlds. I believe that … Continue reading Evil is NOT a Social Construction
Operational Definitions: Sex is biological. This is your DNA, your genitalia, and any physiological marker of male and female. Gender is socially constructed (Berger 1967). This is a fluid construct that can change over time and context. It is your behavior at any given moment. A century ago, it was proper for a “man” to … Continue reading How Do You Gender?
Why? It is one of the first questions we articulate as children, yet we often forget to ask it as adults. Perhaps we were told too often by our parents to stop asking, and we listened too well. Perhaps we should start asking it more often. Why do I want this job? Why do I … Continue reading Critical Thinking in the Modern Age
I just watched a documentary on Netflix called “Fight Church” about the increasing number of American pastors and churches that not only accept, but participate in mixed martial arts. The argument that the movie makes is this: should Christians engage in an activity that inevitably ends with two people trying to physically harm one another? … Continue reading Has the Church Lost its Fight?
