Recently, Elijah and I and our baby son packed up our home in a Pennsylvania city and moved ourselves to the land of our ancestors. We now live on the edge of a little village nestled in the Taunus mountains and are slowly discovering what it means to call this … Read More
I once attended a talk on the early Christian church by a professor of history. I don’t recall many details; however, one bit has stuck with me. It was after the presentation that I sidled up to the professor with a question. I had noticed that the historic church throughout … Read More
I’ve been writing and podcasting about authority and how it’s been abused, specifically in the Gothard/IBLP context. For some, I imagine my choice to focus on abuses of authority has seemed a bit edgy, an odd choice in an era where church authority is already under a lot of attack. … Read More
A few years ago, I would cringe when folks started talking about worldliness. It felt lame to get so concerned over expensive weddings, edgy clothes, and sports cars. Why can’t we focus on things that really matter?, I thought. People are dying who haven’t gotten eternal life, and we’re contentedly … Read More
I recently wrote a post that reviewed Jinger Duggar Vuolo’s process of disentangling truth from error in her upbringing in the Bill Gothard / Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) movement. In this post I’d like to address what I think has been the most harmful and abused of Gothard’s … Read More
There have been too many stories of “deconstruction” lately. The pattern is simple: a young, conservative Christian zealously promotes the faith, only to hit a crisis of doubt that leads to an end of faith. The most famous example of this is Joshua Harris, the prominent purity culture figure who … Read More
As Christians, we believe in God. We believe Jesus came to earth, died, and rose again for our salvation, that he is seated at the right hand of the Father and is coming again. We do not believe the resurrection is just a story; we believe it is a historical … Read More
From the Author: I have two major concerns for this article. First, I don’t want it to be taken as an attack on the plain lifestyle or conservative values. That is an entirely different discussion and not one I’m trying to engage in here. Second, there is a strong tendency … Read More
Belief vs Behavior I have often heard it asserted that early Christians emphasized a holy lifestyle, not theology. This assertion usually flows out of a concern to combat Christians who define faith as mental assent alone—not a changed life. However, I am certain that juxtaposing belief and behavior this way … Read More