Roger Williams agreed with the Puritan overlords of Massachusetts Bay on most points of doctrine, but when his thinking diverged from accepted orthodoxy, he said so. Plainly and without apology. In The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, Peace and Truth are…
Roger Williams, the father of American deconstruction
If Roger Williams is remembered at all, it’s as a champion of church-state separation. In addition, a steadily declining circle of progressive Baptists honor the founder of Rhode Island as the original American Baptist. Both perceptions are a bit off-target….
Roger Williams, John Cotton and the future of the American experiment
In the fourth chapter of Luke, the devil led Jesus to a high place and “showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.” Next came the pitch: “To you I will give all this authority and their glory,…
The European option: Why we need a third way on abortion
Since learning of Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, I have emersed myself in the resulting tidal wave of news reports, opinion pieces, blogs and podcasts. The New York Times podcast The Daily has been one of…
Remembering the struggle to integrate even ‘progressive’ Baptist churches in the 1960s
Writing from a Birmingham jail cell in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. expressed his profound disappointment with “white moderates” who “constantly advise the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’” We easily assume that, had we belonged to a…
Will the tragedy of Ukraine wake us up?
If you’re like me, you’ve spent the past month reading articles, listening to podcasts and devouring cable news in a desperate attempt to understand the horrors unfolding in Ukraine. My ignorance remains vast, but I’ve learned a lot about post-Soviet…
How Canadian hockey history explains white evangelicals in the age of Trump
I was making omelets in the kitchen when I heard the familiar voice of Foster Hewitt coming from the living room. I grew up listening to hockey games on the radio, and Hewitt’s “He shoots, HE SCORESS!!!” is imbedded in…
We are the coalition of the unwilling
Back in the 1970s, church growth experts fell in love with the “homogenous unit principle.” “People like to become Christians,” Donald McGavran noted, “without crossing racial, linguistic or class barriers.” The pushback was immediate. If the gospel is all about…
The Four Horsemen of the New Atheist apocalypse meet world history through the lens of three new books
I was working as a part-time activity director at a nursing home when Anna approached me, her face shrouded in bewilderment. “This morning,” she said in a shaky voice, “a man on the radio said there are people who don’t…