These are essays from the Real Live Preacher blog. 2002-2010
This piece was originally posted in February of 2004 and was intended to describe my experience as an anonymous blogger and my creepy feelings about how insulated Church culture is in our world. It also marks the first appearance of Hugh Elliott in my writing. Hugh appeared off and on over the years in things…
I’m in my office reading “Billions and Billions” by Carl Sagan and glancing occasionally at the picture of my youngest daughter that is on the screen of my computer. In this very moment, right now, I am being pulled in opposite directions by two distinct and powerful forces in my life. The one is my…
Forgiveness is the healing of wounds caused by another. You choose to let go of a past wrong and no longer be hurt by it. Forgiveness is a strong move to make, like turning your shoulders sideways to walk quickly on a crowded sidewalk. It’s your move. It really doesn’t matter if the person who…
There is only one righteous way for you to be saved if you’ve spent too much time in the Church. You must lay your religion down. Lay it down hard. Drop it. Leave it on the trail and walk away from it. And you have to mean it. You can’t fake this. You have to…
A man once told me that he believes every word in the bible. I was struck dumb with amazement. He Believes Every word in the bible There is no part of that statement that makes sense to me. He might as well have described the secret contents of every woman’s heart or the sharp edge…
Originally posted at RealLivePreacher.com in October of 2007 I saw him hitchhiking on the shoulder of I-35 the other day. He was walking with his back to the traffic and with his left thumb stuck out. This was just north of San Antonio, right near the town of Selma where the old city hall is…
I saw a TV preacher the other day. I was flipping through the channels, like men do, and there he was. A haircut with a floppy bible and a Plexiglas pulpit. He was pacing the stage like a rapper, arms moving and talking a hundred miles an hour. TV preachers fascinate me to no end.…
A church man came to see me the other day. A churchy man, an important man in his church. A deacon I think, maybe. He came to see me and our little church. He came to see if there was anything of interest going on here. I was wearing jeans and a Snoopy t-shirt at…
I was driving the other day. The August sun was pounding on the car. Everything felt heavy. Things were moving slow and the traffic noise was incredibly intrusive, like it was from some other world. How dare this awful noise break into my world, into my inner world, into the place where I think I…
Originally posted in 2008 at RealLivePreacher.com. This story may only be online for a limited time, since it will be in the new edition of Turtles All the Way Down. I got the news that a minister friend had died in Waco. He dropped dead right on the sidewalk. There was no warning. A witness…