United States
I'm a graduate of Kent State University with a Bachelor's Degree in English and a minor in Japanese. I'm currently a writer for Patheos, a massive online religious publication, where I write about various religious issues.
I can be contacted at the following email address:
"Quis ut Deus?" Blog Posts
In August 2013, only a handful of months after I graduated from high school, I found out that one of my graduating classmates, a boy named Will, had committed suicide. It left me and numerous other students from our school devastated. For me, my pain was magnified because I had seen him two weeks before he died.
"If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all...
"Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me." (Psalm 27:10) (Note: For those of you who intend to eventually play SH1, please be aware that this post will contain heavy spoilers about the game's plot, especially the ending.) The Silent Hill series is primarily known as a Japanese psychological/survivor horror series...
To say that this election process has been tumultuous for Americans would be putting everything in too light of a fashion. As the world has seen, there's been a monstrous amount of tension in the air as we awaited the results of a painfully drawn out race.
When I heard John Cooper mention a "sexual revolution" during his mid-concert speech against deconstruction, I felt lost and confused. I haven't kept up to date with current religious news, so I had no idea what he was talking about.
Hell is probably Christianity's biggest "elephant in the room", something that nobody wants to talk about for obvious reasons. To fully understand God and His mercy, we need to reconcile the existence of Hell with His nature. And without cheap excuses that blindly follow any doctrine that spits on His Mercy.
I regret feeling sheltered from much of what goes on in the mainstream Christian world. It wasn't until I recently joined Patheos as a writer and read other authors' articles on deconstruction that I learned about the horridly harsh reactions it receives from other Christians. Specifically from those on the Evangelical/fundamentalist side of faith.
When I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I finally got around to reading my downloaded Kindle copy of The Books of Enoch, the famous apocryphal books. 1 Enoch was fascinating! It goes into great detail about Genesis 6:1-4, the Biblical passage about fallen angels taking human wives and creating the nephilim.
This is a topic that is extremely important to me, for natural reasons. I count myself lucky that I grew up in a liberal United Methodist church that taught us, first and foremost, that God is unconditionally merciful towards all. Thanks to my religious upbringing, I know that God reacts with convicting compassion instead of...
Marian apparitions are a curious matter to me, especially as a Methodist who was never taught about these mysterious incidents. Recently, the one apparition that I've focused on is the one in Medjugorge, Croatia, where Our Lady appeared to six different children, and revealed visions of heaven, hell and purgatory.
I've heard myself saying, "I don't recognize myself anymore" for the last few weeks, because of how different I feel compared to my younger years. Self-awareness can be an extremely uncomfortable thing to deal with, but it's necessary for intrapersonal insights and growth. For some reason, I had a massive moment of self-awareness happen to...
"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise." (Jeremiah 17:14) This is the Bible verse that my daily Bible app delivered to me the morning after I had a particularly disturbing nightmare.
"Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away;for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.Truth is lacking,and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that...
I made an incredibly uncomfortable personal discover after rifling through my favorite photographic adventures from the last 5 years. My interest in photography began in my senior year at college, which was when I became aware that my emotional health was hurting. Who knew that photography is actually a wholesome release for those of us...
Note: If you haven't watched the original Twin Peaks 1990-91 series and/or Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, please be aware that this post will contain a few spoilers. Twin Peaks, with its bizarre themes and perspective on the paranormal, would certainly not be a top pick for Christian audiences to enjoy with their families....
Kent State University Fusion Magazine
During the third presidential debate, on the grounds that she takes money from Middle-Eastern nations that commonly condemn and kill gay men. Trump once again generalized all Muslims as falling under the violently anti- Trump attacked Clinton #LGBTQ views of ISIS, an organization that this brutal method of execution against men accused of homosexuality.
Reconciling one's faith with one's political beliefs has recently been a struggle for much of this nation, especially with evangelicals who are divided on whether or not they should continue to back Donald Trump.
Now that Trump is evidently our nation's president elect, the fear of what that means for American #LGBTQ rights is gripping the nation. It's a valid fear, considering the anti-LGBTQ history of Mike Pence, Trump's running mate.
Ohio's opioid epidemic has made national due to its horrific potency. In 2014, Ohio led the nation in overdose deaths and the rates have remained high since. Currently, the number of overdose deaths exceed the state's capacity of morgue space. The epidemic's impacts are far-reaching and addiction doesn't discriminate.
Kids who grew up in the '90s were thrilled by Disney's remake of the 1991 film, Beauty and the Beast . But after director Bill Condon that Gaston's sidekick, LeFou, would be gay, homophobic critics were infuriated.
LGBTQ Christians are, as one may suspect, constantly torn between making choices that honor either their faith or their identity. Managing to find a bridge between the two can be highly difficult, if not downright impossible. Perhaps the biggest issue that falls into this Venn diagram is how LGBTQ Christians go about their #sex lives, including the question of celibacy.
The Gaily Grind
Donna Kikkert, a 59-year old student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, is attempting to sue her creative writing professor for giving her a failing grade in Dyjak's poetry class, USA Today reports.
As Pride month kicks off, LGBTQ citizens and allies like the Pittsburgh Police Department have been showing their support by posting rainbow decals on their vehicles which say "Pittsburgh Police support Pride 2017". While this is an important statement of support from the city's police, not all members of the police in Pittsburgh approve.
Yesterday, we told you about a Russian Orthodox store owner who posted a sign in his store window that declared "no entry for f*ggots." Today, The Moscow Times reports that the head of the Russian Orthodox church himself, Patriarch Kirill, has likened gay marriages to the horrors of Nazi Germany.
German Sterligov, a devout Russian Orthodox millionaire who runs a series of organic shops in the city of Moscow, Russia, recently posted a sign in the window of one of his shops with a message that translates to "No entry for f*ggots".
As if the LGBTQ community needed yet another reminder that President Trump isn't our ally, Mr. Trump has chosen to headline an anti-LGBTQ event led by the Freedom and Faith Coalition conference on Thursday, June 8.
Once again, Canada has one-upped the United States with inclusive legislation aimed at protecting non-cisgender children from unaccepting parents. This time, the Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act of 2017, also known as Bill 89, was passed in Ontario by a vote of 63 to 23.