If you are a man struggling to remain humble as you and your spouse heal from your destructive behaviors, here is a centering prayer to help you recover and stay rooted in your true self. Loving God, I come before You broken, Acknowledging the pain I have caused, The abuse [...]
Welcome to the Narcissistic Bible. This work is an audacious celebration of self, a guidebook for those who dare to place themselves at the center of their universe instead of God. This book dares to assert that self-centeredness and self-importance are acceptable and essential in a world where selflessness is [...]
CBE (Christian for Biblical Equality) International has become my go-to place for academic study on my latest book Safe Church: How to Guard Against Sexism & Abuse in Christian Community and I wanted to highlight their vital work on my blog today, by posting their statement on “Men, Women, and [...]
Being around Alzheimer’s/dementia feels like being around death. My mom is void of herself—a shell of a human still trying to be polite, hospitable—yet she is gone. She is no longer the woman who raised me. I have noticed this week, being around her, that I too feel gone. As [...]
I am honored to feature my wife, Dr. Christy Bauman, and her essay below. You can find her work https://christybauman.com/ and www.ChristianCC.org and follow her on Instagram. My story is that I grew up with a father who is a sex addict. While he never touched me, his sexual unhealthiness [...]
One way to retraumatize and groom a victim of abuse is the promotion of the “marriage, no matter what” ideology which is common for women coming out of Christian abuse-affirming churches. The damaging “marriage, no matter what” ideology is a salvation fantasy and a form of idolatry that must be [...]
Abuse in the Protestant Church is a serious concern that has caused immense pain and suffering for so many, especially women. I have spent the last year of my life listening to women’s stories for my dissertation and my newest book project called, The Elephant in the Church: What Women [...]
Watching my mom die in such a gruesome way has been agonizing. You see, it’s not your typical tragic ending. It’s not like the horrific cancer that stole my sister-in-law Julie so quickly, or the unknown reason my father passed away after routine outpatient surgery, or the haunting suicide which [...]
The purity movement of the 90s created some odd sexual behaviors that we are still seeing play out 30 years later as those adolescents have become married adults attempting to have healthy sexual relationships. One of those sexual outcomes is that men (and many women) are proud that they “waited” [...]
Though the words egalitarian and complementarian never appear in the Bible, the ideals espoused in both theologies have resulted in frequent debate among evangelicals (Giles, 2020). The debate centers around a difference of interpretation of the biblical text regarding gender roles and submission (Roat, 2019). “In many ways, the debate [...]
The answer to becoming a safe and good man is not becoming weaker (humble, yes—weak, no); it's about becoming more powerful (not aggressive). However, stepping into authentic masculine power can seem like an oxymoron that conjures up images of the Marlboro man, or thoughts of violence, homophobia, misogyny, money, and [...]
Hello, Grief. Come into my house; make yourself comfortable. I trust you, as you are a relentless yet steady companion. Come to my table. Yes, my friend, you are invited to eat. You may have the seat of honor, for though I do not love you, I respect you. I [...]
God wasn’t that good, but he loved the game. He loved the smell of felt, whacking the ball as hard as he could into the back cobblestone fence, even enjoying a little smack talk with Simon Peter, as God knew exactly how to get into his head. What God liked [...]
For over 30 years, I’ve been drawing the same image. It's a large oak tree, some green grass, a few shadowy mountains in the background with a vast sky, a few puffy clouds and a bright yellow sun in the upper left corner. (I drew it for you, I’m no [...]
This is an excerpt from my book, The Sexually Healthy Man For us to break free from our unwanted compulsive behaviors, we must have the courage to delve deeper into our woundedness and explore what lies beneath it. We must begin to kindly yet decisively cut out the roots of [...]
I am proud to feature the work of Dr. Nancy Murphy on my blog today. Dr. Murphy is a professor, former Executive director of Northwest Family Life, and created Speaking Up online course to help educate churches in navigating issues of Domestic Violence. She has been my teacher and supervisor [...]
I am proud to highlight the work of writer Kaitlin Shetler today on my blog. When I came across this viral piece my heart nearly stopped and started at the same time. I had never thought about Mary this human before. Mary has always felt out of reach, this poem [...]
The romanticized idea of continued schooling/training or of stepping out into a career often clash with the stark truth. The first can mean strained finances, relationships, and pulling all-nighters, while the second could look like a nine-to-five, consistent income, and vacation time. Each is hard in different ways. Very hard. [...]
I knew what had to be done; now I had to convince my body to carry out what my mind was telling me. It was about 9:00 p.m. when I reluctantly began gathering my belongings. I opened my pack and began filling it with my sleeping bag, a lighter, a [...]
"We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten who we really are.” -GK Chesterton Who you are now is not who you were. Who you are becoming has not yet been defined. This is our greatest gift and our sharpest [...]
