Chris Broussard

I've been thinking a lot about friendship lately. As a rule, I'm a pretty lousy friend. Abusive betrayal as a child, and continued betrayal as an adult, has left me scarred and generally untrusting of others and, thus, unwilling to risk any additional trauma. Let me give you an example. A few years back, when my depression was heavier than it had ever been and I felt that I couldn't continue feeling the way I did, I became suicidal. All my thoughts were focused on ways to do the deed while minimizing the trauma to my family. During this period, a "friend" of mine from church (he was one of the pastors) found out about my situation and called me to see how I was doing. I was already at rock bottom, so I figured, "What the hell?" and opened up to him, explaining in as much detail as I could how and why I was feeling the way I was. He, being a card-carrying Christian and all, said he'd pray for me. But then came the kicker. He added that he was going t...

Normally I don't post long essays unless I wrote them, but this is so powerful, I had to post it in its entirety. It's from Bruderhof and their Daily Dig . Father George Zabelka, a Catholic chaplain with the U.S. Air Force, served as a priest for the airmen who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and gave them his blessing. Days later he counseled an airman who had flown a low-level reconnaissance flight over the city of Nagasaki shortly after the detonation of “Fat Man.” The man described how thousands of scorched, twisted bodies writhed on the ground in the final throes of death, while those still on their feet wandered aimlessly in shock—flesh seared, melted, and falling off. The crewman’s description raised a stifled cry from the depths of Zabelka’s soul: “My God, what have we done?” Over the next twenty years, he gradually came to believe that he had been terribly wrong, that he had denied the very foundations of his faith by lending moral a...

Continuing on the theme below, this picture comes from Real Live Preacher : As RLP points out: "First, you don't just chance upon a flag like that at Walmart. Someone at this church had to decide to get the really, REALLY big flag from wherever it is that people buy real big flags. So this was an intentional move, not some accident or some misunderstanding on the part of some committee. This is the message they want to send. Second, don't you wonder if there is a cross, or some stained glass, or some kind of sacred symbol behind that flag? Third, is it possible that no one in leadership at this congregation had any second thoughts about this? What if a Christian from another country, say Iraq, happened by and wanted to attend worship. Would they feel welcome in this place? Would they feel a kinship with their brothers and sisters in Christ? Finally, whatever happened to the first commandment - Thou shalt have no other gods before Me? Covering your church with a flag creat...

Lest you have any doubts that Christendom laid down with the whore of imperialism and came up with a bad case of crabs, I present the U.S. Christian Flag : If I need to detail the many ways this is wrong, then you're probably reading the wrong blog and nothing I can say will change your mind, but allow me to make a few comments. First, let me encourage you to go to their site , and make sure you let the page load, which will bring up a song, "American Christian", by one Michael Combs . Make no mistake, the song is horrible by all standards of songwriting, and is exceeded in audacity only by the amateur production quality. Regardless, it will no doubt find itself among the frontrunners for the new national anthem when all the lower-case-christians take over, waving their newly adopted flag. Dig further into the site, of course, and you can order your very own copy of the American Christian Flag, for only $50 (US currency only, please). Folks, lower-case-christians need to ...