Kerux

A poem about pornography and another about rape – not exactly your usual Kerux fare. Somehow, pastoral odes and free-verse reflections on mundanity’s beauty seem more attuned to a seminary journal. However, upon reading these two poems, the editors of Kerux found themselves intrigued. Despite their reservations, perhaps, just maybe, … ∞

Last night I lay a-sleepingThere came a dream so fair,I stood in old JerusalemBeside the temple there.I heard the children singing,And ever as they sang,Me thought the voice of angelsFrom heaven in answer rangMe thought the voice of angelsFrom heaven in answer rang.Jerusalem! Jerusalem!Lift up your gates and sing,Hosanna in … ∞

Dear Laura, You did the thing! Good job. Seriously. You learned the languages (though, fair warning, you will forget most of the words, so maybe keep up with those flash cards), you wrote the papers, you preached the sermons, you did the internships, you made a fool of yourself at … ∞

Tears were flowing off my face as I knelt at the altar. I was thankful to be the only one at the church that day, because I desperately needed to let everything out. With my face to the floor, I sobbed and prayed and anguished over what I had done; … ∞

I am a male American of mixed-European descent. My skin is about as white as skin can get. If anyone should be awarded this elusive “white privilege” that I keep hearing about, surely it would be me. I have been told I already have it. I wonder if it was … ∞

When a Christian couple gets married, a phrase often on the lips of well-wishers is, “When do you want to start having kids?” This question assumes that the newly wedded couple will be using some method to control how many children they want to birth and when these children will … ∞

My wife and I had the experience of witnessing a conversation at a Christmas party gone wrong. A retired CRC pastor told the out-of-town friend of the hosts that he shouldn’t be pursuing the call of a pastor without first going to seminary. This was all subsequent, of course, to … ∞

My marriage had largely ceased at this point. My wife had sat me down and declared she was done. She wanted a divorce. There was no convincing her otherwise. Our marriage was in decay for years, struck low by the death of our daughter, and all vestiges dissolute in our … ∞

A quick Google search yields many opinions addressing the question, “Can a Christian attend a same-sex wedding?” Many articles say Christians should not attend same-sex weddings. I will attempt to answer this question by sharing how I engaged three other questions and came to a “yes.” I answer this way … ∞

“God is always bigger than the boxes we build for God, so we should not waste too much time protecting the boxes.” —Richard Rohr ∞ I remember sitting there across the table from our foreign exchange student. She was young, fourteen, beautiful, and full of life. She came from Spain … ∞

Travelers Departing, or arriving Belated, or delaying Saying hi, saying bye Or pensive, saying naught Travelers Walking fast, walking slow Or lazily to kill the time Looking around, tak’n it in Or oblivious to it all Travelers Suitcase large, suitcase small Or just a carry on What’s precious, what’s not … ∞

I remember one of my challenging internships while in seminary. How could I forget it? The workload was too much, something that led me to organize a volunteer group. Every week I needed to do a series of regular tasks, such as organizing and distributing printed material, writing projects, and … ∞

There are hosts of good reasons for writing anonymously, and many bad ones as well. Some may be surprised to discover that C.S. Lewis asked if he could write The Problem of Pain anonymously. He asked this because he would “make statements of such apparent fortitude that they would be … ∞