Shane Phipps
Patheos
Indianapolis, IN, United States
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Past articles by Shane:
Christians Should Be On the Front Lines of Environmentalism-So Why Aren’t We?
"But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind" -Job 12:7-10 The Bible has dozens of → Read More
Tiger Woods Stands in the Breach of the American Faith and Political Dilemma
After Tiger's historic victory last weekend, I read a lot of articles about it and I read a lot of the comment sections following those articles. It became clear that many Christians don't know what to do with Tiger. He creates a dilemma for Christians on both sides of the political divide. → Read More
My Name is Shane. I’m a Recovering Conservative Christian
THE TWELVE STEPS FOR RECOVERING CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS ONE We admitted we were powerless over the political indoctrination supplied by our conservative churches and news sources in which we immersed ourselves —that our critical thinking had become unmanageable and our capacity for empathy severely → Read More
White Privilege: what it is, what it isn’t, and why so many of us don’t want to talk about it.
Andy and I grew up in a small, all white town in Indiana, smack in the middle of “Sundown Town” country. We moved on to live in big cities. Andy married a black woman and has a mixed race teenager. We decided to sit down and have an in depth discussion about our past as it relates to our present—of how we came to → Read More
Twenty Won’t Be Teens (Remembering Newtown)
This week, as I was watching my 8th grade class take a quiz, I had an article pop up on my screen about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. As a teacher, that day is one of the most gut-wrenching memories of my career. I couldn't believe it when it happened and I still can't get my mind → Read More
Social Media and the 24-Hour News Cycle is Depressing a Generation
Although it feels like it's been around forever, social media is a very new thing, relatively speaking. Facebook has only been around for about 15 years and it's pretty much the grand daddy. Students in school right now are the first generation to grow up with exposure to social media for their entire lives. This, → Read More
Conservative Christian, Please Provide us with a Handy Flow Chart of Sins
I've just come from a debate thread on my last article about Pete Buttigieg. In that article, I point out a lot of qualities and qualifications possessed by this new and rising star on the Democratic roster of candidates for President. Among them were that Buttigieg is a Christian and he is gay. The first comment out → Read More
Pete Buttigieg puts Conservative Christianity on Damascus Road
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told → Read More
Confessions of a 21st Century Teacher
When I started writing as a part of my living a few years ago, I learned quickly that, if you want your words to have an impact on people, you must tell your truth--sometimes that means being brutally honest--sometimes that means being vulnerable enough to reveal parts of your soul that you'd just as soon keep → Read More
Looking for Empathy at the Intersection of Faith and Politics
I wrote an article earlier this week called The First Stone. In that introspective piece, I admitted that, at times, I can be guilty of being too aggressive in my writing when I call out Trump supporters--particularly Christian ones. My justification for calling them out, I believe, is sound. When I see Christians → Read More
The First Stone
In the past month, I’ve written a couple of articles that were very widely read. They also stirred up a lot of debate in comment sections, so much so that I couldn’t possibly keep up with it to read all of them. But I read enough to get the gist of the kinds of things being said. Many people agreed with my take, → Read More
People who do despicable acts of hate keep praising Donald Trump and so do far right Christians
There is a pattern here, a disgusting and wretched pattern. People who commit horrendous acts of violence and hate keep citing Donald Trump as an inspiration. That's bad enough, but far right Christians still sing Trump's praises, too. The New Zealand Mosque white supremacist terrorist's manifesto praised Trump as “a → Read More
The Trump Cult’s Sin of Nationalism
It's becoming clearer by the day that the Trump's biggest remaining support base--right wing, fundamentalist Christians--is blind to their own sins. Oh, they don't mind pointing out the sins of others, but they are missing a big one of their own, it's one of the 10 Commandments, after all. In fact, it's the very → Read More
The Fox
The Fox He gets by on his cunning deceit Truth would only slow him down He has to be fast on his feet To strike quick and escape in a bound Most know he’s the ultimate trickster To trust him would be a fool’s errand But fools are not rare in this mixture So his victims are strewn ‘cross the land He gets → Read More
It’s a Wonderful Life: Social Justice Warrior Version
Most everyone is familiar with the classic Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life. In that story, the main character comes to feel like a failure and is contemplating suicide. A guardian angel comes down to show him how different things would be if he didn't exist. I want to borrow that theme and apply it to the → Read More
What if We Were a Red Letter Church?
Some of the pieces I write get considerable attention and stimulate a lot of debate in the comments readers leave. Sometimes, between the comments posted directly to my articles or in some of the big social media pages on which they get shared, they'll add up to many hundreds or even into the thousands. When that → Read More
6 Random Thoughts on the Cohen Hearing
I was at work during the Michael Cohen testimony, so I didn't get to watch it. However, I did spend my lunch listening to live coverage on NPR. I listened to about an hour and got enough of a feel for things to come away with a few observations. 1. Sometimes it takes a sleazy creep to take down a sleazy creep → Read More
What America Needs is A la Carte Democracy
This is my fantasy: For 24 hours, I've been given supreme power to make any change to the American political machine that I want. I submit to you that my plan would liberate us from this confounded divided cesspool in which we are hopelessly mired. Here is what I would do. Step 1: Outlaw Political Parties Poof! They → Read More
The “Sin” of Liberalism
Look at that guy sitting in the pew over there. Who does he think he’s fooling? Don’t you know that he is one of those bleeding heart liberals? Doesn’t he realize we are on to him? He doesn’t belong here, he’s not one of us. I heard he shows up at all kinds of protests against our president. He doesn’t believe → Read More
If It’s Not Careful, the Far Left Will Eat Its Own
Lately, there has been a topic frequently churning around in my head. I've written several articles on it in the last few weeks. The topic is the self-destructive nature of the Democratic Party, particularly the far left portion of it. I have documented my own political journey often in my writing. I was born into a → Read More