Recently, watching an old movie about a trial in a small American town, I noted the wooden panel displaying the Ten Commandments placed on the back wall of the courtroom. Visible, just for the moment when the protagonist walked across…
How a Muslim beggar taught me about dignity
Perhaps I had grown too accustomed to seeing people dig through the garbage containers at the edge of the street in my residential neighborhood in Semarang, Indonesia. Then, one day I prepared a sermon for the small English-language congregation I…
History will judge both John Lewis and Donald Trump
The death of John Lewis has once again brought into sharp focus the stark differences between the congressman and the president. The future congressman was born as one of 10 children of Alabama sharecroppers Eddie and Willie Mae Carter Lewis….
What a bad horror movie taught me about reopening schools
For more than a decade, I taught a seminary course in religion and film. Occasionally, students would elect to take the course, assuming we would be viewing and discussing faith-based, Christian-message movies. Looking at the syllabus on the first class…
Lessons learned on a journey of interfaith friendship
Interfaith friendship is my passion. How did a lifelong Christian — born and reared in the family of a Southern Baptist pastor, who holds three degrees from a Baptist university and seminary, and is an ordained Baptist minister and 25-year…
How do we effectively present Jesus to the world? Two contrasting approaches.
For one Baptist mission organization in the U.S., evangelism is the goal and method considered superior to all other mission strategies. For another, the primary way of presenting Jesus to the world is through a benevolent response to human need.
Losing Logsdon Seminary: broken commitments and wounded spirits
While true that the university faces some financial challenges, to identify money as the primary factor that forced the seminary’s closing is a smokescreen that hides the real motive.
Trump’s impeachment: A trial of biblical proportions
No strategy has been more politically contrived than the adoption of biblical typologies to legitimate the Big Apple businessman and reality TV personality occupying the White House. This should concern all Americans who claim to revere the Bible and desire to live into its vision.
Companions of Jesus: partnering with followers of other faiths to pursue God’s vision of peace
An international gathering in Abu Dhabi was a hopeful sign of interfaith collaboration in peacemaking.