I Knew the Answer Before I Knew There Was a Question
I knew Israel became a nation in 1948 before I was ten years old. I knew because I was taught that it mattered to biblical prophecy.
Decades later, the story of a Palestinian olive farmer has me reconsidering not Israel’s right to exist, but the theology that taught me whose suffering I was supposed to see and whose cruelty I was supposed to excuse.
You Can’t Claim Scripture and Cherry-Pick It Too
When Paul is wielded to demand lifelong celibacy from LGBTQ people but quietly shelved when his teachings about singleness become personally inconvenient, something important gets revealed — not about scripture, but about how it’s being used.
This post is about the pattern I keep seeing in evangelical spaces: the moment you name the inconsistency, you stop being a truth-seeker and start being a threat.
That’s not discernment. It’s deflection. And it’s one of my deepest tensions with American Christianity today.
Are the Gates of Hell Prevailing?
When Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against his ekklesia, was he guaranteeing the survival of religious institutions—or something far more enduring?
A reflection on faith, power, institutional Christianity, and the difference between preserving a movement and preserving an organization.
“Y’all Just Don’t Hate the Media Enough”
When a longtime friend shares a post saying “y’all just don’t hate the media enough,” a journalist’s dad reflects on family, faith, and why media‑bashing hits so close to home.
One Hundred Posts Later: Apparently, I Had More to Say
Celebrating 100 randomly rudimentary blog posts and reflecting on the long and winding road to authentic writing.
Faith, Hope, and the Things We Cannot Fully Know
What if faith was never meant to eliminate uncertainty? A Sunday reflection on hope, humility, doubt, and why faith may be less about certainty and more about learning to live honestly with the things we cannot fully know.
The Hidden Stories of the Movies I Never Saw
Looking back at the movies that defined the year I was born, I realized how many of them I never really knew at all. What began as a simple trip through film history became a deeper reflection on growing up in a conservative Christian culture where entertainment was expected to reinforce a carefully curated moral world—and how the stories we avoid can shape us just as much as the stories we embrace.
What Do We Do With Them Afterward?
A viral image of pastors praying around a golden Trump statue initially seemed laughably absurd. But beneath the irony lies a harder question: what happens when a political movement built on idolatry, fear, and spiritual compromise finally collapses?
Why I’m Calling It ‘Life’ Now
Fourteen years ago, I named this blog Randomly Rudimentary Faith Stuff.
The writing—and the writer—have changed.
I’m calling it Life now, not because faith matters less, but because I’ve come to see faith and life as inseparable.
Randomly Rudimentary Life Stuff 
Still Baptized in Baptists: If It Quacks Like Misogyny…
A former Baptist unpacks Dan McClellan’s SBC rebuttal, the Bible vs. ‘biblical’ spin, and why the Southern Baptist stance on women pastors looks like misogyny.