Christian Piatt

A friend of mine, Andrew, who considers himself marginally religious, if at all, is a regular follower of my stuff. He sent me an article recently that cites research finding that atheists are more compassionate and generous than highly religious folks.

Actually, this doesn't surprise me. Back when I...

I wrote a story a while back about a family in our church back in Pueblo whose baby was due just after we left town. Early in the pregnancy, doctors diagnosed little Avery with HLHS, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. There was a good chance he'd need surgery in...

A new translation of the Bible called "The Voice" (no, Cee-Lo makes no appearances in this one), published by Thomas Nelson, has created quite a buzz. The discussion is not so much around what is in the newest version, but rather what's left out.

According to a

Two recent articles grabbed my attention, partly because they resonate quite a bit with the pieces I've written about why young adults leave church. It's also interesting to me that so many people seem to be talking about this at this particular time. Rachel Held Evans and I...

I've written a couple of pieces lately that have gotten a lot of attention about why younger people tend to walk away from church. (If you haven't seen them yet, here are the links:
"Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Quit Church" and "Four More (BIG)...

I was Donald Miller.


Once upon a time, a lot of us were. Some of us still are.

I, too, grew up in the church. Then it hurt me. So I walked away -- injured, disillusioned and pissed off.

I, too, went away to college and left my faith behind...

Atheist activism is hardly news these days. Folks are feeling increasingly convicted about making their disbelief public, and more specifically, pointing out the damage done by religion in the past.

But it seems the most recent publicity campaign by a group called American Atheists has gone a little...

From time to time I revisit the question: why are young adults walking away from religion? Although the answer(s) vary from person to person, there are some general trends that I think apply in most cases.

In the list below, when I refer to "we," "I" or "me," I'm referring...

It seems lately that the Republican party is painting itself into an angry corner that it can't find its way out of.

Rush Limbaugh's recent loose-lipped "slut" comment is a clarion call to his significant conservative base to forge ahead in a direction that leads nowhere good. Basically, he cast...

I've written quite a bit about churches like Mark Driscoll's Mars Hill and the concerns I have about a lack of accountability, given that they're not part of a denomination or other larger body of oversight. Churches led by ministers like Driscoll and John Piper seem to be independent, yet...

Usually when I hear people talk about finding the good in the midst of a difficult situation, my cynical radar goes up. I picture the scene in Monty Python's "Life of Brian" where Brian and the two thieves are being crucified while whistling and singing "Always look on the bright...

Before anything else, I have to give serious props to Jennifer Hudson for doing her a capella tribute to Whitney Houston, whose death at age 48 cast a noticeable pall over the otherwise celebratory evening. With a photo of the recently deceased pop legend hanging over her and millions watching,...

Our son, Mattias, is eight years old. Everyone thinks their kid is special, and in a lot of ways, he's just a regular kid. He loves fart jokes, enjoys riding his scooter and is obsessed with video games. But we've known he was different from a very early age.

Mattias...

There's an awful lot of talk in the political forum lately about restoring America to some nostalgic state of yesteryear, when supposedly everything was better. If we could only get back there, everything would be all right again.

I guess that depends on who you ask, doesn't it?

Author Melissa...

For some, the central message of Christianity is about personal salvation. What it is exactly that we need saving from is debatable, depending on who you ask: from the fires of hell; from ourselves, from an apocalyptic end to the world as we know it. But I've been thinking about...

It's funny, but I realized that when I talk about myself in relationship to atheists I often sound like a post-civil rights white person trying to minimize the gap between myself and another group.

I don't have anything personally against atheists.

Some of my best friends are atheists.

I even...

I have a number of identifiers on the various venues I write for and on my e-mail signature: heretic, antagonist, father, son, instigator, pop culture junkie, theologian, social media guru and so on. But one seems to resonate with folks more than any other:

God Nerd

For some it's just...

I was a Star Wars kid. I was almost six years old when the first movie hit theaters and it blew my mind, as it did the minds of all my friends. We all wanted to grow up either to be Darth Vader or Obi-Wan Kenobi, depending on your particular...

Having grown up in the Dallas.Fort Worth area, I'm quite familiar with the Grapevine, Texas megachurch known as Fellowship Church. In fact, while my wife, Amy, was in seminary at TCU's Brite Divinity School, we went to Grapevine to participate in one of their worship services.

Suffice it...

This has been quite a year for Christians. Actually, it's been more of a year of prominent Christian stereotypes, but they've been entertaining if nothing else. So I thought for my final post of the year that I might share my "favorite" Christian stereotypes of the year.

The Glad-Handler
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