I don’t claim to be a pacifist. If I would have been at that school the other day, and I had a gun, I would have shot that man in a second to stop him. What I’m not going to say is that this response would have been the Christian one. I’m not going to say that I know that this is what Christ would have done. Jesus, the one who taught us to turn our cheek when our enemies strike us. Jesus, the one who taught us to pray for our enemies, love them, give them more than they ask for ...

Ok, I can’t stay quiet about it anymore. I can’t take anymore of the sentimental religious bs in the wake of these shootings. This kind of evil must be lamented, and I don’t buy it that this sort of lament must be limited to cheap little clichés about how we are so sorry and are praying for the victims families and friends. We need to pray, but we need to do more than that. We need to do our best to build a world where this sort of thing doesn’t happen to our kids. If my neighb...

An excerpt from "The Crowd, the Critic and the Muse" (Appendix 2): A typical conversation I might have on an airplane: Stranger (upon seeing the guitar on my back): Hey, are you gonna play us something? Michael: Ha ha! Maybe, we’ll see! (Note to jokesters: anybody who regularly carries a guitar onto a plane is tired of this joke.)  Stranger: You know, I’m not sure that guitar is going to fit in the overhead . . . Michael (trying to stay nice): Yeah, it does actually. I pla...

I was leading a question and answer session a couple of days ago, and a young man who looked to be 12 or 13 asked me if I believed in a literal six-day creation. I suddenly felt very awkward. Now, to be fair, I have no idea what this kid actually believed himself. But I assumed from the question that he believed in a literal six-day creation, and from how random the question was within the context of what I had been talking about, I also assumed that it really mattered to him that I believ...

According to a tweet I saw today from Relevant Magazine, Billy Graham’s website recently removed “Mormonism” from its list of cults. All silliness involved with cult-listing aside, when we start changing our theology because of our political alliances, something has gone awry. But I guess this should not be that surprising in a culture that idolizes nationalism like we do. Do you know how many churches in the United States have American flags on their church stages? Do you real...