By David Gushee For both professional and personal reasons, I am returning this year to an engagement with the best Christian theological reflection that I can find. Professionally, I am attempting to seed the ground for the completion of a…
Loving God, Loveless Christians
By David Gushee It’s Christmastime, so it seems especially appropriate to begin with reminders of the amazing love of God to the world in Jesus Christ: “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will…
Lessons learned from the Iraq war
By David Gushee For President-elect Barack Obama, the agreement reached between the Bush Administration and the Iraqi government that sets a December 2011 exit date for American combat troops is a great Christmas gift. Indeed, the fact that this deal…
A doomed, reactionary church?
By David Gushee The act of reflecting this week, in class, on the development of Catholic social ethics resonated in an unexpected way with the situation facing Christians today. It became clearer than ever to me that when Christians become…
A changing religious and political landscape
By David Gushee Credit for most of the material in today’s column goes to Faith in Public Life, which Nov. 13 released the results of a nationwide telephone poll of almost 1,300 voters. Key findings of their poll are in…
Georgia Baptists isolate themselves
By David Gushee On Nov. 12, in a front-page story, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke the news that the Georgia Baptist Convention has approved a new policy giving GBC executives the freedom to refuse donations from churches it finds to be…
Evangelicals and the Obama era
By David Gushee I began this election year with The Future of Faith in American Politics, a book arguing that there is an emerging political center in the white evangelical community. This center breaks with the evangelical right in that…
Baptist leaders from Russia, Georgia seek reconciliation
KIEV, Ukraine (ABP) — Baptist leaders from Russia and Georgia met Oct. 30 in Kiev to pursue improved relations between Baptists in the two countries, marred by war earlier this year. Representatives of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia and…
Religion, values,and the 2008 election
By David Gushee It’s all over but the shouting. Millions have already voted, and the retrospectives on the 2008 presidential election are already beginning. Some of these will involve reflection on the way that faith played out in this election…
Dark fears endanger America
By David Gushee The last two weeks of a presidential-election campaign are not likely to mark a high point in rationality and love. But still, one cannot help but be deeply disturbed by the dark divisions that descend on this…
Remembering how to be Jesus’ people
By David Gushee This morning I was reading in 1 Peter 2, “Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk.” Think of every political ad you…
Toward a more mature Christian vote
By David Gushee The United States is in trouble. Even our presidential candidates, trained to project confidence and strength, now admit that we face profound challenges. Everyone agrees that we are in the worst financial crisis since the Depression. Our…