It's not been a good week for evangelical Christians.

Last Friday, Gawker, no stranger to harsh criticism, posted an article declaring that "Christian Evangelical" is now an empty phrase. A few days later, a Barna Group study made the rounds on the internet declaring that...

One of the quickest ways to shut down any type of theological discussion is to utter these six words: "Well, the Bible is clear that..."

Gay marriage is wrong.

Women should stay silent in church.

Hell is a real, literal, fiery, place.

Any attempt to counter these claims, with or...

Tim,

I've been following your career for years -- but not by choice. I went to Bartram Trail High School in Jacksonville, the rival of the school you later played football for, Nease. After graduation I attended Florida State University (go Noles), the rival you famously defeated, leading the Florida...

Cake is a divisive food. It separates people easier than most savory or sweet dishes. Chocolate or vanilla. Cream cheese or butter-cream. Gay or straight.

That last category is one that applies for Oregon based bakery owner Aaron Klein, who recently refused to bake a wedding cake for...

A friend of mine, who is now the father of an apple-cheeked blonde little boy, used to have a disgusting hobby. He would photograph his bowel movements and text the pictures to his buddies. They, being college-aged guys, found this hilarious and would do the same in return. That Instagram...

In 2007, I was one of the 21,000 college students packed into the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Ga., for Passion, the now infamous mega Christian conference founded by Louie Giglio. It was incredible. I'll never forget the feeling of worshiping God with that many people --...

Taylor,

First off, let me just say how much I love your music. It's fun, catchy, easy to sing along to and endlessly relatable. During college, your song "Teardrops On My Guitar" helped me get through a terrible crush on my own Drew, who ended up marrying the girlfriend he...

God answered my mother's prayers. I met my husband at church. Not that skeezy bar with the sticky floors she didn't like me going to on the weekends. When he and I met, at age 25, scores of our friends were already married. We were Christians in the south. I...

Friday morning, as the news trickled in about the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., I stared at my computer screen in abject horror. When it was confirmed that the victims were children, first graders no older than 6 or 7, tears streamed down my cheeks. Like...

My husband and I spent last night watching the election results with two of our most liberal friends. They flipped back and forth between MSNBC and CurrentTV, while I secretly longed for John King's magic map. Slowly, the polls closed. Results came in. Once Pennsylvania was called the...

Like Timothy Kurek, the man making media rounds for "pretending to be gay" for one year, I was raised in an evangelical household. A Christian since the age of 4, I was taught right and wrong through the lens of the Bible. Homosexuality was always something I knew...

The first time I met Craig, he was sitting in a diner, dancing to a Britney Spears song. He had dark brown hair, thick black framed glasses, and the slight hint of stubble that I found ridiculously attractive. It only took three seconds of watching him bounce to "Toxic" though,...

I loathe checking Facebook during election cycles. My husband and I are two lone Obama supporters among a sea of conservative friends and family. The main reason for this is that we're both Christians, and grew up in conservative Christian families. We defected from conservatism for different reasons; me after...

Like the ones I'd attended before, the meeting began with a prayer. Even though this was not my first time listening to a church worthy prayer (in length and vocabulary) within the walls of government, it still shocked me when the council member asked that "everything we do tonight be...

I've been attending City Council meetings recently. At my first meeting, it surprised me when they began with a lengthy, detailed prayer. Not just any prayer, but one that ended with the words, "In Jesus name, Amen." As I looked around the Council chambers wide-eyed with disbelief, I saw that...

A few Saturday's ago, my husband and I spent our afternoon in the fellowship hall of St. Luke's Community Church. As Christians, it's not uncommon for us to spend part of our weekends gathered with people at a place of worship. What was different about this church gathering was that...

A very good friend of mine recently broke up with her boyfriend. They were both Christians, very involved in the church and on the outside seemed happy. I was not shocked when they broke up though, because she had confessed to me their biggest problem: He would not let go...

A few weeks ago, I saw a notification on Facebook that caused my eyebrows to raise in suspicion: Someone had added me to my high school's reunion planning group. Who remembers me from high school? After pondering that one a moment, I clicked on the group.

The first thing...

Like most sane bloggers, I try my hardest not to read the majority of Internet comments. Especially on articles that have anything to do with religion, homosexuality, politics or the holy (or un-holy depending on who you ask) trifecta of all three. Recently, though, I caved and peeked on an...