Category Archives: Reviews

Beauty and the Beast and Gospel Redemption

My wife and I were afforded a date night this weekend and went to see Beauty and the Beast. I thought this was just a chance for me to go see a movie with her that she would like that didn’t involve something blowing up, but God had something different in mind. Despite this being a fairy tale, and a musical at that, when I would normally kind of check out and let my eyes glaze over a bit, God pulled me into the story. God pulled me into his story.
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Some Thoughts on Jesus > Religion

So, there’s been a lot of controversy around Jefferson Bethke and his viral video from 2012 and his new book Jesus > Religion. This all started when he made a Spoken Word video in 2012 about why he doesn’t like religion but does love Jesus.
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When We Were On Fire

How do you review a memoir? That’s what I’ve been asking myself for about a week now. Because it’s not just a story, it’s a person’s story. It’s not a parable, it’s someone’s life experience. I mean, you can’t very well say “I agree with this” or “I disagree with that” when it’s real life. You can say you don’t understand their story, but you can’t deny it. The reality is, though, that I do understand. All too well.
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In which I review Jesus Feminist (and steal the “in which” tagline)

Jesus. Feminist. I’ll admit, part of my curiosity with this book was putting those two words together. Not just in the same sentence, but right next to each other. Sarah Bessey is one of the bloggers I heard about through the Deeper Story crowd, and at this point it’s been so long I can’t remember if it was directly or indirectly, but over the past couple years I’ve tried to track with her blog as best I can. Through this, I learned enough to know that I like her writing, and that her imagery is often pure gold. I knew that she and I didn’t really agree on all aspects of the mammoth topic that is “gender roles” but when I saw the title of her book, I literally asked “What the Hell?” (sorry, grandma). Out loud. At work. Still, I had a feeling this book was going to be a game changer for us. I wasn’t disappointed.
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Swoon: Style vs Substance

Several weeks ago, I was goofing off on Twitter instead of reading because my brain was completely fried, when Tracy Pendergast mentioned the Swoon Dating App. I asked her about it and she explained what it was and said I should give it a try. I thought “I’m bored now, and it might make for a good blog post later. Why not?”
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