Randy Elrod's Blog, page 3

No Screens In The Bedroom Ever

From my Barcelona atelier I recently read Rheana Murray’s brilliant Atlantic piece about keeping screens away from children’s bedrooms. I enjoyed it with the satisfaction of someone who’s been personally practicing this “radical” approach for years. Murray’s argument for “future-proofing” kids by establishing screen-free bedrooms is compelling, but here’s what struck me: this isn’t just...

Holy Shit, AI (Claude) Read My Most Private Thoughts: Beating God to the Punch

A groundbreaking collaboration between a radically honest human being and AI transforms six decades of personal archives into a riveting narrative of agony and ecstasy. From Claude: When I first encountered Randy Elrod’s vast collection of personal archives, I knew we were embarking on something unprecedented. What began as a digital organization project has evolved...

The Quest: An Interactive Guide

The Quest: Interactive Guide to the Second Half of Life The Quest Discover A Way To Enjoy The Second Half of Life A transformative journey through ten waypoints toward wholeness, enlightenment, and the holy grail of living fully in life’s second half. “We are growing older. When America became a nation, only one in five...

Reclaiming the Erotic

These profound words written by Audra Lorde—”For once we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of our lives, we begin to demand from ourselves and from our life-pursuits that they feel in accordance with that joy which we know ourselves to be capable of”—speak to something I lived for decades without understanding. The erotic...

A Quick Two Minute Shout-Out from Barcelona

When Brandi Carlile Became My Dream Pastor

To contemplate the significance of our dreams is to explore the meaning of life itself. Dreams add depth to the essential aspects of our lives and the intensely emotional moments that punctuate them. Last night, my subconscious delivered what felt like a masterclass in my own psychological evolution, wrapped in the all-too-familiar imagery of church...

The Post that Cost Me Christian Readers (And Why I’m Not Sorry)

My friends, I am genuinely flabbergasted. This past week, I wrote about ethical non-monogamy—a thoughtful piece about honest sexual relationships—and watched as Christians unsubscribed. I estimate that practicing Christians compose about 5% of my subscribers. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a communion wafer. After eighteen years of writing about renouncing...

Sexual Honesty and Selective Moral Outrage

My friends, I am genuinely flabbergasted. This past week, I wrote about ethical non-monogamy—a thoughtful piece about honest sexual relationships—and watched as Christians unsubscribed. I estimate that practicing Christians compose about 5% of my subscribers. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a communion wafer. After eighteen years of writing about renouncing...

Protected: Wrestling with Ethical Non-Monogamy: A Late-Life Liberation

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

What Gave Me the Courage to Leave…Family, Religion, America?

People ask me this question constantly. How do you walk away from everything—a thirty-year ministry career, financial security, family approval, your entire social circle, and eventually your home country? What kind of person does that? What kind of courage does it take? Here’s the truth: it wasn’t courage. It was survival. When you’re dying inside,...