Maybe you’ve seen the social media meme. Hundreds of old-timey cars are parked willy-nilly on the lawn of an old country church. The faithful are streaming into the sanctuary. “Back in the day,” the caption reads, “everyone went to church…
Beauty from ashes: How catastrophe shaped the Bible
On May 30, 1921, the worst expression of racial hatred in American history took place in Tulsa, Okla. My son-in-law, Norman Lee, is a public artist. He recently was commissioned to create an enormous mural in a Tulsa underpass highlighting…
What Trump (and evangelical pastors) learned from pro wrestling
Every Friday night, good collided with evil in Calgary, Alberta. It was a preacher’s kid who turned me on to Stampede Wrestling in the 1960s. I was riveted. Especially when Archie (The Stomper) Gouldie launched into one of his patented…
The roots of white evangelical desperation
The base of the Republican Party is controlled by white evangelical voters, people who punch above their weight because they have been reduced to utter despair. Animals are particularly dangerous when cornered or wounded, and American white evangelicals are both….
A call for immoderate mediators: David Gushee defends democracy from its Christian enemies
Like just about everybody these days, David Gushee is worried about the survival of democracy. His latest book, Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies, addresses the problem of democratic “backsliding” or “deconsolidation.” As his title suggests, he calls out Christians…
Theology Beer Camp?
Tell somebody you’re going to Theology Beer Camp and you will be met with either a delighted giggle or a wrinkled brow. In the churches of my youth, the words “theology” and “beer” never occupied the same sentence — “for…
Should Christians curse?
I’m sure you’ve noticed the proliferation of profanity on television. The ubiquity of the f-word on dramas like Succession is stunning. The queen of all cuss words crops up so frequently that I started counting. I shouldn’t have bothered, somebody…
The logic of love or the logic of perfection? It can’t be both
In 2018, Kaitlin Flanagan wrote an article for The Atlantic that referred to Donald Trump as “the porn president.” Flanagan featured Anderson Cooper’s interview with former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Cooper asked his guest about the time back in 2006…
What explains the abiding appeal of biblical inerrancy?
It was the fall of 1975, in my class in Old Testament at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Gentle and soft-spoken, Page Kelley was explaining the plight of the biblical translator. We have the Septuagint, a Greek translation…