We need a moral and ethical witness based not on our social media feeds or biases but on an embedded, incarnational, long-term presence with those for whom we claim to have concern.
Mercy ministries are not enough; we can’t meet justice issues with mercy solutions
There’s nothing wrong with providing mercy ministries to those in our families and communities that need help now. But if Christians don’t also commit ourselves to justice, if we continue to meet justice problems with only mercy solutions, we will just get sucked dry and worn down, which may at times be exactly what the perpetrators of injustice want.
What it will take to reach the ‘lost coins’ in our culture
We can all probably think of friends, family members or coworkers who are lost sheep (who don’t know any better) and lost sons (those willfully and destructively rebelling). But do you know any lost coins? I do.
Is our white Christian majority straining out gnats and swallowing camels?
It seems like the “gnats” we strain out are things that irk white Christian majorities, but the “camels” we leave in place are large-scale injustices or suffering among minority races, religions and sexualities. Maybe we should leave the gnats alone, if that’s what it takes to get our eyes focused on the “weightier matters.”
3 myths about freedom that Christians should reject
From the very beginning, we’ve had trouble incorporating the “other” into our quests for freedom. We did not suddenly figure this out in my lifetime. It’s simply not true that minorities, the poor and women have experienced this country in the same way that I have.
Yes, the Bible teaches social justice
The words “justice” and “social justice” have long drawn the ire of segments of American Christianity, particularly white evangelical leaders. They have consistently said that it is unbiblical, un-Christian, and yes, un-American. Baptist News Global reported on May 18 that…
The dangerous demands of uncritical loyalty
It is worrying that valueless loyalty has achieved a stranglehold on much of the American psyche, having really ratcheted up in this current era of cable news. But even more concerning is that It has also firmly taken hold of evangelical Christianity and propelled it to unsightly levels of hypocrisy.
I don’t know how to love God and neighbor
Perhaps you know a way to love people while saying that it’s only the church’s job to care for them while others work against their interests. Perhaps you know a way to love someone in the here and now while only caring about the afterlife. Perhaps you know how to believe in mercy not universally applied, or compassion that keeps its distance. But I’m afraid I don’t.
Have some evangelicals embraced moral relativism?
By what ethical framework do we say that individuals and churches are supposed to take one stance towards the poor and dispossessed, but as a collective nation we should take a different — even opposite — stance? If something is right or good depending solely upon who carries it out, is that not a form of moral relativism?