Reading Time: 7 minutes Lately I can’t seem to listen to my streaming music app without hearing Lauren Daigle‘s “You Say” at least half a dozen times a day. What makes this significant (other than the fact that it’s a beautiful song) is that it’s a song by a Christian artist…except I’m not listening to a Christian station. Living […]
self loathing
Posted inThe Secular
Writing My Way Out of Brokenness
Reading Time: 5 minutes Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for Brokenness is what I need Brokenness, brokenness is what you want for me. – Micah Stampley, “Take My Life” That praise and worship song was usually played with the lights of the sanctuary low, the guitar soft, eyes closed, and hands raised. It was often accompanied by tears […]
Posted inReligion
Chris Pratt Wants You to Think Less of Yourself
Reading Time: 6 minutes Dr. Strange: “What master do you serve?” Peter Quill: “What master do I serve? What am I supposed to say? JESUS?” (from Infinity War) Evangelical Christians get very excited whenever an A-list singer or Hollywood actor openly professes faith in Jesus, and last weekend that thrill came again when Chris Pratt (a.k.a. Andy Dwyer from Parks […]
Posted inUncategorized
Why Christianity Works So Well (On Some of Us)
Reading Time: 8 minutes When talking about my past relationship with Christianity, I talk a lot about shame. When I think back over the thirty-odd years I lived as a Christian, as far back into my childhood as I can remember, what stands out most to me is the guilt and shame I carried for all my sins, past, […]
Posted inCartoons, General
Panic and Regret Over Unmerited Discontent
Reading Time: < 1 minute You know the deep existential depression that sets in after looking at your phone screen for 2 or 3 hours too long? That’s not good for you.
Posted inCartoons, General
So What’s Your Defense Mechanism?
Reading Time: < 1 minute Science specialist, Luna, gives the lowdown on the various defense mechanisms of the main characters of the Blinky & Sal universe.
Posted inCartoons, General
Taking Some Time for Self Reflection
Reading Time: < 1 minute “When you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
Posted inGeneral, Psychology, Religion
So Long, Self: How Christianity Teaches You to Hate Yourself
Reading Time: 10 minutes One of the great joys of living in the Bible Belt is that you can hear Christian music played overhead almost anywhere you go. Just last weekend I had to make stops at a coffee shop, a gym, a fried chicken place, a doughnut place (I know, the irony), a clinic office, and a pharmacy, and […]
Posted inGeneral, Psychology, Religion
Evangelical Christianity and Low Self-Esteem
Reading Time: 8 minutes Like most swimmers, I try to get in some laps almost every day, but there is only one health club with a pool within decent driving distance from where I live. It doesn’t call itself a Christian gym, but it plays primarily Christian music overhead, holds prayer meetings and Bible studies, and incidentally it also […]
Posted inGeneral
Anti-humanism: How Evangelicalism Taught Me the Art of Self-Loathing
Reading Time: 7 minutes I have a confession to make. I still struggle with a deep self-hatred which I inherited from my Christian upbringing. It’s been more than five years now since I “broke up with Jesus” and yet after all this time I still have this unhealthy undercurrent pulling me down, making me think less of myself than I […]