Tradition often gets a bad rap – especially in the church. But Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church insists that three virtues are eternal – they’re traditions that should characterize us all, for all time. How do faith, hope and love mark us as God’s people and shape how we live in the world?
Continue reading10 Dayton Gems I’ll Miss
Dayton, OH has been home to Amanda and me for the past 5 years. Here are the top 10 things we’re going to miss about the Gem City, Ohio’s crown jewel.
Continue readingThe Next Big Forasteros Adventure
Amanda and I are off on our next great adventure – we’re moving to Dallas, TX!
Continue reading5 Years, Full Steam Ahead
Amanda and I got married 5 years ago today… I take a moment to reflect on what that’s meant so far.
Continue readingQ2014: J. Kameron Carter and the Postracial Blues
Duke Professor J. Kameron Carter uses films Avatar and District 9 to investigate whether America is truly a postracial culture. Spoiler: no!
Continue readingQ2014: Brian Fikkert and First World Poverty
Economist Brian Fikkert examines the Western assumptions about what success looks like. He suggest that we’re actually impoverished, that our spiritual need blinds us to better ways to help the Global South.
Continue readingQ2014: Father Bruno Shah Defines Love
Father Bruno Shah, OP calls us to recover the Christian imagination of love. We learn to imitate Jesus (the ultimate lover) particularly through our worship.
Continue readingQ2014: Donna Frietas and the Hookup Culture
Don’t miss the StoryMen #QNashville Day 1 recap. Click here to listen!

Donna Freidas was teaching a course on sexuality and spirituality. All of her students talked about “hooking up”. After Spring Break, they were all debriefing when one student said,
I hookup all the time and I don’t know why. I don’t even like it.
The other students all agreed. Donna was shocked, so she began studying the collegiate hookup culture. She found that young adults believe they are supposed to be casual about sex in college.
Official Social Contract of the Hookup:
- Anything from kissing to sex
- Brief
- Feel zero emotional attachment so you don’t get attached. Communication is bad because it leads to attachment.
- Alcohol (This last aspect is technically unofficial, but alcohol is nearly always involved.)
Stats on attitudes about hookups
- 41% are profoundly unhappy
- 23% are ambivalent (“whateverist” — Donna’s term for those who are casual about… everything. They’re a growing population)
- 36% more or less “fine” (not great/good/fun/etc)
Hookups are Efficient
College Students are Missing Romance & Dating
- Both men and women yearn for romance
- Both men and women wish for old-fashioned dating.
Romance is very chaste. It’s talking (for like 5 hours). It’s no technology. Romance is communication. It’s connection. It’s knowing and being known. It’s a lavish amount of time.
Responding to Hookup Culture
- Teaching YAs to slow down. (In life)
- Pressing “pause” on participating in hookup culture (maybe even for a weekend). This is sneaky abstinance.
- Start talking about romance, love, dating intimacy, and overall relationship skills.
Christianity is bigger than its teaching against premarital sex. If that’s our only response, we teach kids that the only thing that matters when they’re young is to not have sex. That’s an impoverished view of Faith. — Donna Freitas
The Good Samaritan Approach (Creative Attention)
Creative Attention requires you to see them where they are, not where you want them to be.
Q2014: Unity with Christena Cleveland, Bill Haslam and Karl Dean
Three #QNashville speakers address the need for unity. Christena Cleveland speaks to dissolving the division between “us” and “them”. Then Republican governor of Tennessee Bill Haslam and Democrat mayor of Nashville Karl Dean discuss how they work together across party lines to get things done.
Continue readingQ2014: Andy Crouch & Religious Freedom
Andy Crouch unpacks the concept of Religious Freedom as a justice issue and measurement of how well a society promotes religious flourishing.
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