Saint Thomas More wrote in his own tumultuous time, “The times are never so bad but that a good man can live in them.” We need to live in such confidence and hope: The times are never so bad but…
The sin of sloth takes a deadly turn
One of the seven deadly sins of Western Christianity is the sin of sloth. It often is characterized as “laziness,” which some aim at certain racial or economic groups using terms like “lazy” or “shiftless” to characterize their character. In…
How a tribal religion of a tribal god is in charge in America
I am in a state of theological outrage. It has to do with how Donald Trump’s narrow escape from an assassin’s bullet has been used to claim divine intervention to save his life, a claim that no doubt aided his…
America’s moral emergency
As our nation celebrates its 249th birthday, we find ourselves in a time of moral emergency. The seven deadly sins of Western Christianity are being paraded as virtues by our most powerful and wealthy, and the classical virtues of our…
Jesus, the Moral Stranger
Theologian Miroslav Volf writes, “I’ve come to believe … that the Christ of the Gospels has become a moral stranger to us.” He adds, “If you read the Gospels, the things that profoundly mattered to Christ, they marginally matter to…
Nazi ideology wrapped in an American flag
Sinclair Lewis is quoted as saying, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” He wrote his novels in the 1930s, the time of the first “America First” movement when our nation…
A warning: Not just two Americas, two American religions
John Edwards ran for president years ago talking of the “two Americas,” that of the rich and the poor. Now, through the machinations of our current president and his MAGA-oriented church, we are becoming a nation of two religions. One…
Fulfill your ministry
Elie Wiesel, who as a teenage prisoner in two Nazi concentration camps watched his family taken away to be killed, wrote out of that experience one of the most important books of the last century, Night. How he began has…
Truth on the scaffold: Bonhoeffer’s witness to American Christians today
Anyone watching the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency can see that truth itself is on the scaffold. Bonhoeffer’s life and thought gives us a lens to see our present dilemma as a nation and church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is among the…
Standing on the precipice
When you read this opinion piece, the presidential election of 2024 will be finished, if not finally decided. It seems to me the election will determine whether the Seven Deadly Sins or the Seven Classical Virtues will be ascendant in…
Traversing the American psychosis with Francis Collins
The National Institute of Mental Health defines psychosis as “a collection of symptoms that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality.” The psychotic symptoms can be episodic, or one can suffer a psychotic break…
The grace of joy — and the sneerers
One of the astonishing differences in the new Kamala Harris-led change in the political landscape today is the unmistakable note of joy in her campaign and in her followers and, in contra-distinction, the way her political opponents are sneering at…