# Randall J. Greene
> Randall J. Greene writes about Christianity, deconstruction, and what makes us human. Based in Kansas City, MO.
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Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).

## Pages
- [About Me](https://randalljgreene.com/about-me.md) - I’m a writer, a creative, a website designer, and a digital marketing strategist. My life and work are at the intersections of Christianity, antiviolence, feminism, antiracism, and compassion. When I see the beauty of the people around me, it fills me with hope and optimism that we truly can be the…
- [Before Beside Becoming](https://randalljgreene.com/before-beside-becoming.md) - This collection of poetry and art, published in April 2026, explores the journeys we walk and the importance of examining the depths of our own personal faith alongside the paradoxical, enduring truth that we do not walk alone.

## Posts
- [The Start Is Me and the End Is Us](https://randalljgreene.com/the-start-is-me-and-the-end-is-us.md) - Walking together means listening more than speaking, confessing the truth of my own insecurity, and refusing to force my way upon the world.
- [How True a Poem Flies](https://randalljgreene.com/how-true-a-poem-flies.md) - Once I put a poem out into the world, once I let it out of the cocoon of my mind, it has a life of its own. It flies, it soars, it falls sometimes, but it always transforms, new upon each reader's reading. This is beauty; this is poetry.
- [Cycle of the Broken](https://randalljgreene.com/cycle-of-the-broken.md) - A poem reflecting on what it means to be broken in a world comprised of broken things.
- [Critique as Patriotism](https://randalljgreene.com/critique-as-patriotism.md) - We can't build something remarkable unless we're able to honestly confess and confront the areas that need improvement.
- [A World that Never Existed](https://randalljgreene.com/a-world-that-never-existed.md) - We cannot learn from the past if we fail to acknowledge it, and we cannot atone for our sins if we cannot confess them.
- [The Shape of Our Faces](https://randalljgreene.com/the-shape-of-our-faces.md) - As I remember that I am dust, I am reminded that community makes us more. We are dust together.
- [The Journey](https://randalljgreene.com/the-journey.md) - Our fate is not deterministic, and we are not alone – we are wanderers in a community of wanderers, all taking one step at a time, and the best life we can lead is to journey together.
- [The Judgment of the Nations](https://randalljgreene.com/the-judgment-of-the-nations.md) - Jesus didn't mince words about how he expected the world to behave, and those words still sting when we interpret them today.
- [Artificial Imagination (Empathy AI)](https://randalljgreene.com/artificial-imagination-empathy-ai.md) - An AI agent takes an empathy test in an attempt to achieve certification to create art.
- [The Art of Me](https://randalljgreene.com/the-art-of-me.md) - Sometimes I stop to consider who I would be without my spouse, and the truth is that I cannot imagine my life without her. Every corner of my life bears the fingerprints of her. This poem is about my love, the heart of me, Shannon.
- [The War, The Warrior, The Art, and Me](https://randalljgreene.com/the-war-the-warrior-the-art-and-me.md) - Why do so many of our men seek battle-thrill, spend their lives in the relentless pursuit of pain, delivered or received? Why do we choose to filter our vision from full-color to binary red, from embracing life to perceptual threat?
- [In a Parking Garage](https://randalljgreene.com/in-a-parking-garage.md) - A poem about death and loneliness and community.
- [Taylor Swift: Tortured Showgirl](https://randalljgreene.com/taylor-swift-tortured-showgirl.md) - Since Taylor Swift doesn't seem interested in creating the concept album I want to listen to (wild, right???), I created my own concept album by pulling the best tracks from "The Tortured Poets Department" and "The Life of a Showgirl."
- [Look to the Stars](https://randalljgreene.com/look-to-the-stars.md) - When you look to the stars, what do you see? Do you see satellites or do you see rockets?
- [Tell Me It's Okay](https://randalljgreene.com/tell-me-its-okay.md) - Grief follows no established template, behaves in no certain way, lasts for no set time.
- [Rapture](https://randalljgreene.com/rapture.md) - This poem began as a critique of rapture theology, which is, in many ways, a response to Christians' fear of a world they cannot change, cannot understand, cannot exist within. I run from worlds I can no longer exist within, too.
- [From Birth](https://randalljgreene.com/from-birth.md) - My journey from birth to shame to repression to rebirth to freedom to life to forgiveness.
- [A Christian View of Life, Freedom, and Patriotism](https://randalljgreene.com/a-christian-view-of-life-freedom-and-patriotism.md) - As we approach another Independence Day, I don't feel patriotic. The direction of our nation doesn't align its founding and it's at odds with what I, as a Christian, believe we ought to celebrate.
- [Love Both](https://randalljgreene.com/love-both.md) - You cannot love both God and war.
- [Creators & Destroyers](https://randalljgreene.com/creators-destroyers.md) - "More art, less arson," I thought to myself. "It's punchy, and it illustrates the difference between good people – those who make things – and bad people – those who only want to burn it all down. I should make that the title of my next blog post."
- [Crying at Dusk](https://randalljgreene.com/crying-at-dusk.md) - In the heat of a moment, it becomes difficult to remember that the person opposite us is as human as we are. But that pain we feel, or that exuberance, or that fury, that is what binds us to this other human opposite us.
- [Life, Ashen](https://randalljgreene.com/life-ashen.md) - By writing my life in pages, to some extent I am attempting to immortalize myself, to extend my impact long beyond the grave. Yet even those words have an expiry, and maybe my legacy is not found in them after all.
- [Celebrating Easter While the World is in Darkness](https://randalljgreene.com/celebrating-easter-while-the-world-is-in-darkness.md) - Easter Sunday has come, and with it I am supposed to celebrate the victory of the hope of Christ, but how can I celebrate the light when the world is full of so much darkness?
- [Love Without Empathy](https://randalljgreene.com/love-without-empathy.md) - Love without empathy, without feeling the hopes and dreams and disappointments of our neighbor, is not love at all. Empathy is not only important for Christian decision-making, it is necessary for it.
- [Flowers Instead](https://randalljgreene.com/flowers-instead.md) - When I grieve, there are times I deal with it by distancing myself from its reality. I go to a place inside myself where the darkness of pain does not exist, only color and joy and life.
- [A Beacon, A Call](https://randalljgreene.com/a-beacon-a-call.md) - This poem is written to be read during Christmas Eve services. It begins with the light we've found along the journey and asks what we are to do with it.
- [Snow, Delicate and Dangerous](https://randalljgreene.com/snow-delicate-and-dangerous.md) - In this poem I tell the story of a journey, thematically a reflection on the connection between obstacles as an external force and the perception of those obstacles as an internal one.
- [A Shift, A Turn](https://randalljgreene.com/a-shift-a-turn.md) - This poem is about the disorientation and loss of unexpected shifts in our world. It confuses the lines between past and future, between darkness and light.
- [Clutching Swine Before Pearls](https://randalljgreene.com/clutching-swine-before-pearls.md) - Divisions in the UMC over the inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons in the church highlight the different standards we use to decide where we belong.
- [The Tunnel](https://randalljgreene.com/the-tunnel.md) - Something chases him and he runs, desperate for safety, for peace, for the hope he sees on the horizon.
- [Joy and Love and Dust and Death](https://randalljgreene.com/joy-and-love-and-dust-and-death.md) - Today has been a day of juxtapositions. Of celebration and mourning. Of love and death. Of remembering the joy of life and being reminded of the violence within us. But there is hope. There is redemption.
- [I Was the Keeper of the Flame](https://randalljgreene.com/i-was-the-keeper-of-the-flame.md) - This is the story of how I became the Keeper of the Flame, and how the world became the Keeper of the Flame, and how the fire – inside me – changed me.
- [Storyteller](https://randalljgreene.com/storyteller.md) - I never saw myself as a storyteller. I saw myself as a listener, a reader, a lover of stories, not a teller of them.
- [Salvation, a Present Reality](https://randalljgreene.com/salvation-a-present-reality.md) - We often seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding that Scripture - Jesus and Paul and the prophets - are guiding us toward a particular destination, an afterlife. But the more I read and study Scripture, the more I think that's wrong.
- [Every Creature Beautiful](https://randalljgreene.com/every-creature-beautiful.md) - The biblical story of the creation of the world is not one of defining binaries, but of recognizing the beauty inherent in each of us.
- [God’s Holiness, Justice, and Love](https://randalljgreene.com/gods-holiness-justice-and-love.md) - God's holiness and justness are products of God's love. They don't exist as independent characteristics, creating conflicts in God's character. Holiness and justice are outflows of God's nature, which is love.
- [Wounded for Fear](https://randalljgreene.com/wounded-for-fear.md) - A Good Friday meditation on why Jesus suffered the cross.
- [Why it’s been hard for me to feel my feelings](https://randalljgreene.com/why-its-been-hard-for-me-to-feel-my-feelings.md) - I exist at the intersection of three groups that are really bad at expressing their feelings. I’ve spent a lot of time in therapy working through this problem, and I want to share what that intersection has looked like in my life.
- [Why I Love Words and Paper](https://randalljgreene.com/why-i-love-words-and-paper.md) - Words, if you look at them, are a binary of black and white, ink on a page. But when we listen to them, when we see them for what they mean, they shine.
- [The Joy and Pain of My Storytelling](https://randalljgreene.com/the-joy-and-pain-of-my-storytelling.md) - Continually I find myself unable to capture the details in my imagination as words on a page. It's an awful cycle. I love it.
- [Grandfathers, Death, and the Character of Life](https://randalljgreene.com/grandfathers-death-and-the-character-of-life.md) - I was fortunate to have three grandpas in my life. It’s strange having all three of them gone. An entire generation of men in my lineage has passed. I feel the weight of it, as if a mantle has been passed to my father, and the mantle he wore has been passed to me.
- [God is Love, Not a Slave Lord](https://randalljgreene.com/god-is-love-not-a-slave-lord.md) - Despite what Paul says, I don’t think God desires us to be slaves of God.
- [A Found Poem About Friendship Based on a ChatGPT Poem About Socks](https://randalljgreene.com/a-found-poem-about-friendship-based-on-a-chatgpt-poem-about-socks.md) - When I asked ChatGPT to write a sonnet about socks, it did! And a surprisingly coherent one, too. But then I wanted to see if I could take what it created and turn it into something new.
- [Piracy](https://randalljgreene.com/piracy.md) - A very short story about a man longing to return to his past.
- [Self Portrait](https://randalljgreene.com/self-portrait.md) - A verse reflecting on myself and the things most important to me.
- [The One I Have to Tell](https://randalljgreene.com/the-one-i-have-to-tell.md) - I want to tell stories of majesty and grandeur, but it's far more important to me that my stories be honest, true, and those majestic stories aren't mine to share.
- [An Online Church, A Return to Embodied Faith](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-a-return-to-embodied-faith.md) - When people criticize the idea of online church, they often talk about how online worship services feel disembodied, disconnected from the physical experience of community. Is there another, better way for us to think about online church?
- [Online Church #9: Weaving the Church into the Physical and the Digital](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-9-weaving-the-church-into-the-physical-and-the-digital.md) - We, the body of Christ, cannot content ourselves to sit back and watch as these new media become the message without us; the world needs God’s story of hope and humanity to be woven into the fabric of its life, everywhere that life is found.
- [Online Church #8: Handling Conflict, Bodily Presence, and Gathering Together](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-8-handling-conflict-bodily-presence-and-gathering-together.md) - Part of the challenges to doing church online is in actively managing conflict, protecting privacy, encouraging participation in local communities, and gather together in-person as a church body for sacraments and celebrations.
- [Online Church #7: Developing Online Leaders and Worship Practices](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-7-developing-online-leaders-and-worship-practices.md) - People entering an online church for the first time will bring their assumptions about social media into this new context. How might we bring people into this posture of cruciformity and reconciliation, when that posture is so foreign to today’s online experiences?
- [Online Church #6: Harnessing the Potential of Online Church](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-6-harnessing-the-potential-of-online-church.md) - How can we translate Paul's concept of the church into an online context? How can we match his understanding of community, mission, and service with the technological tools and resources we have available to us today?
- [Online Church #5: Worship, Sacrament, and Conflict in the Corinthian Church](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-5-worship-sacrament-and-conflict-in-the-corinthian-church.md) - Let us consider how Paul structured worship and leadership in the Corinthian church, as well as how he handled conflict within the church body to maintain growth and faithfulness.
- [Online Church #4: Paul and the Church in Corinth](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-4-paul-and-the-church-in-corinth.md) - Paul's leadership and communication with the church in Corinth in the first century provides a basic framework that we can use to explore the application of an online church today.
- [Online Church #3: Limitations and Dangers of Social Media](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-3-limitations-and-dangers-of-social-media.md) - Almost any social media user will tell you that the incredible potential of social media is not fully realized. In this post, we will examine some of the difficult realities of social media in our society today.
- [Online Church #2: The Promising Potential of Social Media](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-2-the-promising-potential-of-social-media.md) - The emerging technologies of online connection are powerful tools. But to what extent does social media provide incredible opportunities, and to what extent does it hurt our real life communities?
- [Online Church #1: Why We Should Think About Online Churches](https://randalljgreene.com/online-church-1-why-we-should-think-about-online-churches.md) - Since the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, many churches have begun streaming their worship services online. But what would it look like for us to actually engage our communities in online community? Is this even something we should be talking about?
- [#AllLivesMatter and Manifest Destiny](https://randalljgreene.com/alllivesmatter-and-manifest-destiny.md) - The words "Manifest Destiny" aren't just a couple of inspirational words put together by the White House to sound nice. It refers to a very specific ideology from our nation's history, and it's not one we should celebrate.
- [My Journey as an Antiracist](https://randalljgreene.com/my-journey-as-an-antiracist.md) - This blog post is a confession as much as it is a reflection. I've learned a lot about antiracism, and I have a lot left to learn.
- [Foster Parenting and Being In, Not of, Relationship](https://randalljgreene.com/foster-parenting-and-being-in-not-of-relationship.md) - Shortly after our foster daughter came to live with us, one of my friends asked, “How should I refer to her? As your daughter, or as your foster daughter?” I'm learning that the answer isn’t quite that straightforward.
- [Radicals, Centrists, and the Postures of the Kingdom of God](https://randalljgreene.com/radicals-centrists-and-the-postures-of-the-kingdom-of-god.md) - Centrists and moderates often have a bad reputation. They’re often accused of not really taking a position on today’s most important issues. I’m not here to defend centrists, but I wonder if this entire conversation might be missing the point.
- [Hoping for a Year of Positive Politics](https://randalljgreene.com/hoping-for-a-year-of-positive-politics.md) - We are now less than one year away from the next Presidential election day, and I suspect the coming months are going to be filled with polarizing politics. Yet I'm hopeful that we can have a season of positive politics – here are four things I think we need to do.
- [“Mind Over Matter”](https://randalljgreene.com/mind-over-matter.md) - I used to think I could conquer the limitations of my body by exercising my mind. I thought my body was working against me in my pursuit of God. But if God made my body and called it “good,” why would I treat it as corrupt?
- [One Thousand Words a Day](https://randalljgreene.com/one-thousand-words-a-day.md) - I made a goal for myself to write one thousand words a day, and sometimes, to meet my goal, I have to repeat myself.
- [Sabbath: Resisting the Weight of the World](https://randalljgreene.com/sabbath-resisting-the-weight-of-the-world.md) - The call to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy is a call to remember that God is the one in control. Others will serve while I rest, and the manifestation of God’s kingdom in the world is not entirely on my shoulders.
- [How My Mom Showed Me God](https://randalljgreene.com/how-my-mom-showed-me-god.md) - My mom came in, saw my tears, and sat next to me, asking what was wrong. Her words changed my life. I think about them often, and even when I’m not consciously thinking about them, they impact the way I hear God speaking to me.
- [Love Like Christ](https://randalljgreene.com/love-like-christ.md) - Loving a person is different than not hating them. In my own life, I find that my indifference – or my activism solely from behind a computer – keeps me from truly loving like Christ.
- [Wild Goose Festival: An Uncomfortable, Sacred Space](https://randalljgreene.com/wild-goose-festival-an-uncomfortable-sacred-space.md) - As I type this, I am sitting in Asheville, North Carolina, processing the overwhelming experience of the Wild Goose Festival I just left. This experience will be churning in my head for months, maybe years.
- [I’m Not a Rockstar – I’m a Child of God](https://randalljgreene.com/im-not-a-rockstar-im-a-child-of-god.md) - When I see the incredible impact others have made for the kingdom of God, I feel insignificant. But Scripture reminds me that my worth doesn't come from my accomplishments, but from my status as a child of God.
- [Reclaiming Scripture from the Tangled Needs of Modernism](https://randalljgreene.com/reclaiming-scripture-from-the-tangled-needs-of-modernism.md) - Evangelicals have come to see the Bible in a way that reflects our insecurities and desires rather than understanding Scripture on its own terms. Let’s return to a holy book that allows us to ask questions, rather than one that recites our answers back to us.
- [Community in Communion](https://randalljgreene.com/community-in-communion.md) - Communion has recently become one of my favorite Christian practices, because I love the way it demonstrates (and calls us to) unity in the body of Christ.
- [Reconciliation is the Gospel](https://randalljgreene.com/reconciliation-is-the-gospel.md) - We live in a broken world filled with division. We know that; we feel it. We seem to be intent on dividing the people around us into an “us-versus-them” binary – every person we encounter must either be with us or against us. But as Christians, we are called to a better way.
- [2 (Non-)Resolutions for 2019](https://randalljgreene.com/2-non-resolutions-for-2019.md) - I usually hate New Year's resolutions, but I’ve been making some deliberate changes in my life over the past few months that I want you all to know about. Here are two that have been meaningful for me.
- [The Humiliation of Wisdom](https://randalljgreene.com/the-humiliation-of-wisdom.md) - By yielding to the cross, Jesus Christ embodied a narrative that Israel’s prophets had proclaimed centuries before—that God’s ways were not the ways of humanity, and that God had chosen the path of weakness to shame the strength of the world.
- [Learning Reconciliation](https://randalljgreene.com/learning-reconciliation.md) - Peace is costly—it is not made by ignoring pain or hurt or history. Peace comes with honestly and humility, a commitment to seeing and listening to one another.
- [Rejecting or Reforming Institutions of Abuse](https://randalljgreene.com/rejecting-or-reforming-institutions-of-abuse.md) - In recent months, nearly every week has given us a stark reminder of the immorality running through Hollywood. But are there other institutions we support that we should be challenging? Are there other industries that tolerate or glorify abuse that we should be speaking out against?
- [Exploring the God-Breathed Nature of Scripture](https://randalljgreene.com/exploring-the-god-breathed-nature-of-scripture.md) - In the book of Joshua, God commanded them to destroy the inhabitants of Canaan. If a nation did that today, we'd call it mass genocide, and if they said God had told them to do it, we'd call it religious terrorism. How do we reconcile such violence with the life of Jesus?
- [The Evolving Identity of Holiness](https://randalljgreene.com/the-evolving-identity-of-holiness.md) - How has our understanding of holiness evolved from the laws and regulations of the ancient Israelites? Do the life and teachings of Jesus Christ change our perspective on what it means to live a holy life?
- [What an Emo Band Taught Me About Reading the Bible](https://randalljgreene.com/what-an-emo-band-taught-me-about-reading-the-bible.md) - One of my favorite rock bands from high school recently released a new album. When I listened to it, I was not expecting to get a lesson on how to read the Bible, but that's exactly what happened. This post is all about assumptions and perspectives.
- [The Symbolism in my Tattoo](https://randalljgreene.com/symbolism-in-my-tattoo.md) - I recently finished a tattoo on my forearm. In total, I spent about 18 months working through the design and I get a lot of questions about what it means, so I thought I’d put together a quick blog post explaining some of the details.
- [Condemn the Bigotry, Not the Bigot](https://randalljgreene.com/condemn-the-bigotry-not-the-bigot.md) - Bigotry is unequivocally wrong. But as we work to achieve justice for all, let's be careful that we don't fall into the same snares of prejudice that we condemn.
- [Beauty Grace Illusion Lie](https://randalljgreene.com/beauty-grace-illusion-lie.md) - Life is complicated, messy, hard to understand. And that's exactly what makes it beautiful.
- [Diversity Is How We Let God Shine Through Our Cultures](https://randalljgreene.com/diversity-is-how-we-let-god-shine-through-our-cultures.md) - What is culture, and how does it impact our faith? How do we measure the positives and negatives of a particular point of view? It's important for us to understand our culture AND the cultures of others as we examine our lives.
- [What the Nashville Statement Actually Says](https://randalljgreene.com/what-the-nashville-statement-actually-says.md) - An evangelical group trying to revive destructive patriarchal norms in our society recently released a statement on “biblical sexuality” called the Nashville Statement. Here is a line-by-line interpretation based on my personal history in evangelical Christianity.
- [What Israel Teaches Us About the Idolatry of Security](https://randalljgreene.com/what-israel-teaches-us-about-the-idolatry-of-security.md) - Christian in the United States today grapples with a desire to control and preserve its own future, but the question we should be asking is where our hope comes from. Do we rely on God for our security?
- [Still Crusading](https://randalljgreene.com/still-crusading.md) - The Crusades echo in Christianity today. Calls for (metaphorical?) Christian warfare are gaining traction in American culture today. But the life of Jesus Christ shows us a different way to live.
- [Losing Christ Within the Empire](https://randalljgreene.com/losing-christ-within-the-empire.md) - Today is the eve of Independence Day, the peak of the American Christian's tendency to conflate the worship of God and celebration of our nation.
- [Questions About the Masculine God](https://randalljgreene.com/questions-about-the-masculine-god.md) - Are masculine terms for God the best, most helpful words for us to use today? Scripture often refers to God as "Father" and other male depictions, so is there a reason to do anything different when we talk about God?
- [God’s Chosen: Wrestling with God and Humanity](https://randalljgreene.com/gods-chosen-wrestling-with-god-and-humanity.md) - Why is it that those who wrestle against God are so often the bearers of God's promise? Leah and Rachel were far from what we would consider "good Christians," yet they became the mothers of the twelve tribes of Israel.
- [Scripture to Me](https://randalljgreene.com/scripture-to-me.md) - I was asked to describe my view of Scripture, so I wrote this short reflection as a depiction of how the Bible has come alive to me in recent years. Scripture is no longer a reflection of myself, but is a summons to know the world of life.
- [An Evangelical Crossroads](https://randalljgreene.com/an-evangelical-crossroads.md) - Jesus would be kicked out of most evangelical churches today. He didn’t teach us to vote based on our own sense of relativistic morality.
- [Emerging into a Community of Believers](https://randalljgreene.com/emerging-into-a-community-of-believers.md) - This post is about as close a thing as I've ever written to my personal testimony and Christian calling, from the fundamentalism of my youth to the deconstruction and reconstruction of my faith upon Jesus Christ, the revelation of God.
- [Skittles and Sheep](https://randalljgreene.com/skittles-and-sheep.md) - "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem." That message, posted by Donald Trump Jr., is deeply concerning for Christians. The call of the gospel is to protect the abused, the broken, the exiles.
- [Falling on the Sword](https://randalljgreene.com/falling-on-the-sword.md) - Men prepare for battle against the forces of darkness. At the command of their Divine, they ride their warhorses against their foes and, with the power of their Divine, they win what they think is a miraculous victory.
- [Winds of Change in the Church of the Nazarene](https://randalljgreene.com/winds-of-change-in-the-church-of-the-nazarene.md) - I have been attending Nazarene churches for about seven years. In that time, I’ve seen a lot of tension between the right wing and the left wing of the denomination – tension that seems to be approaching a boiling point.
- [Three Reasons I Broke Up with the (Southern) Baptist Church](https://randalljgreene.com/three-reasons-i-broke-up-with-the-southern-baptist-church.md) - In the first 21 years of my life, I regularly attended somewhere around 10 or 11 different churches. They all bore the name “Baptist,” but they varied in their doctrine. There were three main issues that I found irreconcilable with the way I understood my faith and my life.
- [To Love Them Both](https://randalljgreene.com/to-love-them-both.md) - A reflection on Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other." (NLT)
- [Lunatic's Ark](https://randalljgreene.com/lunatics-ark.md) - What if Noah really had been the madman everyone thought he was?
- [The Problem with "Biblical" Opposition to John Piper's Pacifism](https://randalljgreene.com/the-problem-with-biblical-opposition-to-john-pipers-pacifism.md) - I rarely find myself on the same theological page as Piper, but as I read his article called “Should Christians Be Encouraged to Arm Themselves?”, I found that he expressed many of the same ideas I have come to believe.
- [Discerning Fear with the Help of Faith](https://randalljgreene.com/discerning-fear-with-the-help-of-faith.md) - The idea that we don’t have to fear anything because we have God the Mighty Warrior on our side sounds great on paper, but it doesn’t feel real when we are face-to-face with the dark sides of life.
- [A Life After Christ](https://randalljgreene.com/a-life-after-christ.md) - Christ is the one I emulate – that’s why, despite the fact that the term “Christian” has become associated with judgmentalism and discrimination, I still call myself by that name.
- [No more pooping inside.](https://randalljgreene.com/no-more-pooping-inside.md) - No matter how many times I break the rules, God is always loving and, after I’ve endured the consequences of my sin, is there to hug me and love me – not to excuse my behavior, but to show me grace and affection.
- [scream.](https://randalljgreene.com/scream.md) - When everyone is screaming, no one can be heard.
- [A Nation After Christ](https://randalljgreene.com/a-nation-after-christ.md) - Was the United States founded as a Christian nation? Regardless, the majority of Americans now say the United States of today is not Christian. Should we strive to establish it as a Christian nation for tomorrow?
- [In Light of Love](https://randalljgreene.com/in-light-of-love.md) - Even greater than truth is the command to love our neighbors, but how do we show love to the people around us?
- [In Defense of Truth](https://randalljgreene.com/in-defense-of-truth.md) - In an age when reality is gray, seeing the world in black-and-white is taboo. American society has become a place where we are almost unable to believe anything at all with conviction, but the gospel of Christ teaches us that we can — and should — rest in truth.
- [The Joy of Pride](https://randalljgreene.com/the-joy-of-pride.md) - When we truly understand how God cares for us, we can’t help but value ourselves and the work God is doing in and through us.
- [A Call for Conservative Voices](https://randalljgreene.com/a-call-for-conservative-voices.md) - Conservative Christians, I believe in you. I love you. I admire your faith, your witness, your dedication to Scripture. I value your voice - let no one silence you! But my heart is breaking for you.
- [Those Who Most Need It Will Never Read It.](https://randalljgreene.com/those-who-most-need-it-will-never-read-it.md) - We love to be told that we’re right, especially when that validation is coming from a source that we respect. If we want a kinder, more loving society, we have to start by listening to one another.
- [A Whisper, Stronger than the Storm](https://randalljgreene.com/a-whisper-stronger-than-the-storm.md) - instead of conversing like adults, many of us are making assumptions and shouting with vitriolic disdain. Everyone, including myself, wants to be heard over everyone else.
- [The War is Coming!](https://randalljgreene.com/the-war-is-coming.md) - Sometimes, in our preparation for war, we are the ones creating the fight.
- [A Longing, An Inspiration](https://randalljgreene.com/a-longing-an-inspiration.md) - The greatest inspiration often comes through pain.
- [The Slippery Slope of Denying Inerrancy](https://randalljgreene.com/the-slippery-slope-of-denying-inerrancy.md) - The logic goes like this: If one piece of the Bible is false, then where does it end? If we accept any errors in the Bible, then the entire Bible is in doubt. If the Bible is wrong, that would make God a liar - since he is most definitely not a liar, the Bible must be inerrant.
- [Redefining Masculinity](https://randalljgreene.com/redefining-masculinity.md) - Christians have bought into a caricature of masculinity, as if the closer we get it, the closer we get to God.
- [Adults, We Don’t Have to Agree.](https://randalljgreene.com/adults-we-dont-have-to-agree.md) - We all grow up with ideas about how life works. As we grow, we learn that some of them are right, some are wrong, and some are simply matters of opinion. Part of being a mature adult is having the ability to challenge - and find answers for - those assumptions.
- [We Need to Have a Healthy Conversation](https://randalljgreene.com/we-need-to-have-a-healthy-conversation.md) - In the last few weeks, I have become acutely aware of the fact that we evangelicals are horrible participants in discussions, particularly on social media.
- [7 Things the Church Is Doing Right](https://randalljgreene.com/7-things-the-church-is-doing-right.md) - I need to join the #PositivePosts party. Obviously, I can’t speak for every individual local church in the world, but from what I can see of Christ’s followers today, we are doing some incredible things.
- [In Light of the MNU + Randy Beckum Situation](https://randalljgreene.com/in-light-of-the-mnu-randy-beckum-situation.md) - MidAmerica Nazarene University recently relieved Randy Beckum of his role as Vice President. The discussion of this demotion has overwhelmed my Facebook feed and many of my friends seem to be scrambling for more information, so I want to share as many relevant resources as I have been able to find.
- [Santa's Not Real](https://randalljgreene.com/santas-not-real.md) - Sometimes stories, whether they are "factually accurate" or not, carry more truth in their bones than a journalistic account ever could. It's like Santa Claus.
- [If They're Right](https://randalljgreene.com/if-theyre-right.md) - What if the accusations against us are right? What if we're the monsters they say we are? We don't think they are, but could that be part of the problem?
- [Coffee, Creation, and Theistic Evolution](https://randalljgreene.com/coffee-creation-and-theistic-evolution.md) - One of the big sticking points in evangelicalism these days is the debate between young earth creationism and theistic evolution.
- [Freedom in Biblical Inerrancy](https://randalljgreene.com/freedom-in-biblical-inerrancy.md) - But how do we really define this doctrine of inerrancy? Are we simply saying that the NLT (or whatever translation you prefer) that we hold in our hands has no typos? What about translation errors or discrepancies with other translations?
- [Empty Night](https://randalljgreene.com/empty-night.md) - Each day, no matter how bright, passes inevitably into the darkness of night.
- [Behind Closed Eyes.](https://randalljgreene.com/behind-closed-eyes.md) - Even the best of us often see what we want to see... and miss what we don't want to see.
- [Imitation Masculinity](https://randalljgreene.com/imitation-masculinity.md) - When I read "Wild at Heart," I was left confused. I wasn't drawn to any of the "masculine" things the author described as being inherent to manhood. Was I broken?
- [Love is Beautiful.](https://randalljgreene.com/love-is-beautiful.md) - I met my spouse when I was 12 years old, and I started dating her when I was 17 years old. Shannon is the only girl that I've ever dated – the only girl I've ever even kissed.
- [A Day Passes](https://randalljgreene.com/a-day-passes.md) - I wake up each morning hoping and praying you'll still be here.
- [It's My Right. (Part 2)](https://randalljgreene.com/its-my-right-part-2.md) - God's Word is very clear about how we Christians should live our lives, but we, as a culture, have become adept at setting these rules aside by either conveniently ignoring them or writing them off as metaphors or altruistic ideals.
- [It's My Right. (Part 1)](https://randalljgreene.com/its-my-right-part-1.md) - I know my rights. It is my right as an American to say whatever I want to say. I have freedom of speech, and I have the right to exercise it.
- [A Calm Heart](https://randalljgreene.com/a-calm-heart.md) - In the midst of the storm of brokenness, peace comes from the tender heartbeat of God.
- [Holding Hands, in the Garden](https://randalljgreene.com/holding-hands-in-the-garden.md) - There's a garden in Kansas City that is a special place for my wife and me, a haven that became a sort of sacred ground for us. This story is a quick, bright sketch of our time there and the reason it brought us so much joy.

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