“I don’t like organized religion; I think my faith is a private issue between me and God.” If you have spoken to more than five people about their faith, you have most likely heard some variation of this statement. If you have heard this statement, you may have been hoodwinked.

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I remember in 7th grade, I bought a product meant to detangle your hair. It had strange instructions on the back: “To detangle hair, start brushing from ends to roots.”

Now, like a normal human being, I always start at the root and brush down to the ends. But for a split second — because Herbal Essences suggested it — I brushed backwards. I ended up with an awful, painful, impossible tangle (if your hair is long, try it…you’ll understand what I mean).

I thought of that experience two weeks ago, when I attended an “ecumenical prayer service” in my hometown as an assignment for the religion section of the local newspaper I worked for. The “ecumenical movement” is the effort to try to bring different Christian denominations together in fellowship. [...]

My wife and I recently moved to accept a position at her home church in Cincinnati. In the process, I just bought my first bookcase. It was so much fun. I am a booklover, and for the past five years of my transient college life, my books have been confined to little cardboard prisons. Now, those days have passed. My books have been liberated onto the shelves lining my office walls. In the process of this liberation movement I was shocked to discover a secret that only my bookcase could tell me: I am not a theologian. [...]

By Grace Gibson, Read her other posts HERE.

With so much at stake these days I see more and more commercials that have to deal with protection from identity theft.  I have experienced identity theft more than once and much more was at stake than my social security number and bank account.  And the major problem was that the person stealing my identity was me.

A few years ago I cleaned houses with my best friend.  While we scrubbed down other people’s bathrooms and took out their trash, we often talked about what we really want to do with our lives.  I mean, we were college graduates with big fancy degrees and we were cleaning houses for a living.  I did not really mind cleaning houses, but I did tend to have a problem when people asked me the “all so regularly” asked and dreaded question…. “So, what do you do?”  What do I do?  Well, I clean houses.  But I always wanted to follow that answer with… “But I have a degree, and I would like to change the world, and I think I am going back to school, and don’t judge me because my job is a house cleaner.”  What was the problem here?  The problem was that I was using a false identity.  I was placing my identity in what I did for a living and not in something far more valuable. [...]

Probably many reading this blog have met college students who are unhappy with their lives.  It can often times be seen in the blank stare in their eyes which reveals an emptiness and pointlessness with which they view their lives.  They cover this unhappiness with a number of things: drinking, alcoholism, partying, drugs, premarital sex, countless hours of playing video games, or countless hours spent studying, etc.  Yet in spite of all of these things, their unhappiness still lingers. [...]

Physical attractiveness is one of the most common criteria a single person looks for in the individual he or she is considering marrying. For some, this criterion is just assumed and almost goes without saying. For them, physical attractiveness is the most important criterion, and one’s character and spirituality is not a significant variable in the equation. Others think that one should not have a great concern for physical appearance in their spouses. Instead, it is suggested that beauty is fleeting, that one’s character and relationship with Christ should be the most important criterion, and that one’s physical appearance is not important at all. Both of these two options take extreme positions. With disregard for the soul, the first group is guilty of functional pornography—being concerned with the physical and not the whole person—and situates beauty on its virtual altar of worship. The second group is guilty of the old Gnostic disdain for all things physical. As Christians, then, what should we be looking for in a spouse, and what are realistic expectations in terms of physical attractiveness?

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Not too long ago I saw a CNN Poll which assessed the public perception of the President. In it, persons were asked about the religious involvement of the President. They had good news for him: the majority thought the President was just the right amount of religious. Not too hot, not too cold, he is just right.

So it is obvious that Goldilocks would really love the religiosity of the President, but should we? I am not writing this to bash President Obama; on the contrary, I am writing this to bash a culture which labels a man as “just the right amount of religious”. What does that even mean? [...]

Ali is the Upper Elementary Director at The Bridge Community Church near Cincinnati, OH.  This is her first article at The Veritas Network.

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I don’t like hymns. I know what you’re thinking, how can she say that? Hymns are saturated with doctrinal truths, they proclaim the Word of God, and have spoken to the hearts of Christians everywhere for centuries! And you are right. I should rephrase my initial statement. Many times, I do not like singing hymns in church. Why? I don’t enjoy having to interpret the meaning of the cryptic Old English writing in order to understand what I’m singing to God. When singing from the hymnal, I can never remember which line to look at to make sure I’m singing the right verse. It seems that just when I become familiar with the hymn and begin singing out, I look at the wrong line and blurt out the wrong words. I find that it usually ends up being more of an exercise of the will to stick with the hymn to the end rather than genuine worship. [...]

Upon receiving a call from a known and respected foreigner–a man fluent in his language, familiar with his people’s culture, and a Christian as well–he had a decision to make: would he take the risk and offer his house to a young man with whom he had no previous contact and whose character remained unknown to him? Would he accept full responsibility for a person whose behavior and constitution would ultimately affect his own reputation? Was it a prudent decision to aid a man who has made no promise of financial compensation: to accept the request on appeal to a like faith? [...]

I recently had the opportunity to sit next to a high school student as she was trying to gently let her boyfriend know that he was getting the hatchet. It was quite interesting and I would love to share with you a skill that I realized I had forgotten from my years of high school and college-age dating. I want to share with you the art of being gracefully dumped.I do not mean to trivialize the experience of being dumped, because I have been there, and I know it can be difficult. I would just like to provide some context for all of the lonely, broken hearts out there. [...]