David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee We have a beloved expression in our family: “stirrin’ up the pot.” This phrase emerged from the mouth of our mischievous son when he was about 11. It referred to his occasional forays…
Don’t celebrate just yet: Saying goodbye to Christian America, part II
By David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee In my last article, I suggested that realism demands that we “say goodbye to Christian America,” because it is passing. I intended to join neither those who wholly celebrate this fact nor…
Saying goodbye to Christian America
By David P. Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee One day in a doctoral seminar at Union Seminary, my ethics mentor Larry Rasmussen said words I will never forget: “There are advantages and disadvantages in every power position for the…
Where do we go from here: The ex-SBC, part III
By David Gushee Follow David on Twitter: @dpgushee My description and diagnosis of the lack of theological identity and clarity in the ex-SBC world seems to have struck a chord. I don’t hear any dissenting analysis, though perhaps it exists…
Blurry vision and how we got here: The ex-SBC, part II
By David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee Given the wide conversation sparked by my last column, about the lack of theological clarity and identity found in that slice of the U. S. Christian community that became ex-Southern Baptist, I…
What will ex-Southern Baptists be when they grow up?
By David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee It has been 35 years since the Southern Baptist Convention “conservative resurgence/fundamentalist takeover” began in earnest, 27 years since the Alliance of Baptists was formed by frustrated Baptist progressives, and 23 years since the…
Romans 13, Michael Dunn and gun-toting citizen vigilantes
David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee Once again a white civilian has used a gun to kill a black civilian in Florida. Once again a jury has failed to convict the white man of any crime against the now-dead…
Diplomacy, spying, and drones: The Obama Doctrine?
David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee In a little-discussed section of his sixth State of the Union address, President Barack Obama offered important clues to what might be called an “Obama Doctrine” for the foreign and military policy that he…
Sunrise, sunset: The Church in America today
By David Gushee Follow David on Twitter: @dpgushee Across the United States, many churches are fading, some churches are closing, and a handful of churches are surging with explosive growth. Sunrise, sunset; sunrise, sunset. One of the topics I want to address in…