Never oversimplify yourself by using a single word or category to describe who you are. Take the time to tell your story.

I have a lot of friends and family that have suffered because of the church's judgment; my best friend in the world is gay. I felt a lot of people around me drawing lines in the sand, and that year I decided: I don't want to draw lines and have to be on one side or the other, but if someone's going to push me to one or the other side of the line, I'm going to stand on the side of those being judged because that's where I feel Jesus meets people.

At a time when everybody in our culture is talking about tolerance, it seems that tolerance has the highest premium of any response - "If we just tolerate one another..." But my feeling is: Who wants to be tolerated? People don't want to be tolerated; they want to be loved.

The best thing that could ever happen to any one of us is that all our sins would be broadcast on the 5 o' clock news.

Paste magazine has served as a tremendous window into culture for my house. I can think of no other publication that provides such critical yet entertaining thoughts on music, movies, books and gaming as Paste. My mailbox would be a dark place indeed without it.

My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man...not to democracy, or blood; it's to a King & a Kingdom

Are we defending life when we just pick and choose lives acceptable to lose and which ones to defend?