In my little town in Oregon, I saw a car with two Confederate flags and a bumper sticker that said, “Powered by Haters.” My shock at the blatant declaration did not translate into any direct action, and I wondered what,…
Who wants the crown Jesus refused in the wilderness?
In a widely circulating op-ed in the New York Times, Elizabeth Dias describes a speech then presidential candidate Donald Trump gave at a small evangelical college, Dordt University in Center City, Iowa. The most famous, or infamous, remark in his…
Too many pastors are falling on their own swords
“Well, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ve been imagining killing myself,” the pastor said. I was on a Zoom call recently with 10 pastors across three denominations, when one of the participants shared a struggle with…
Is a political realignment coming?
This awful year has offered few glimpses of hope. But one of them has been dawning since May. That is the possibility that Donald Trump and his decadent version of the Republican Party may go down to a substantial national…
In this election year, we need a ‘come to Moses’ meeting
We are in for an ugly ride on our way to Nov. 3, 2020. All the talking heads agree: this election season may be the nastiest in American history. Weighting its nastiness will be the God-factor. Both parties, speaking from different…
Assessing the ‘responsibility pie’ of George Floyd’s murder
I’m a chaplain, but I work with mental health professionals and have for the last 10 years. Along the way, I picked up the simple therapeutic tool of the “responsibility pie,” which might offer a new way of looking at…
50 years later, abortion remains a political smokescreen
Abortion has been at the forefront of the Religious Right for almost 50 years — since the landmark Supreme Court decision in 1973 that recognized a woman’s freedom to abort a fetus based on the constitutional right to privacy. That…
Why a photo taken at Walmart terrified me
Today a friend posted a photo of a church that went to worship in an open Walmart since church buildings were closed in their town due to the pandemic. In the photo, worshipers were seen standing rather close together and…
In a contentious election year, wisdom seeks a third way
Visit a Christian church in the United States today, and you might spot two flags on the chancel: an American flag and a Christian flag. Nothing could better symbolize the reality that as Christians and Americans, we are citizens of…
How the ‘Suburban Lifestyle Dream’ and suburban church created Suburban Jesus
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson visited Charlotte, N.C., in January 2020 to announce changes to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rules. AFFH was an Obama-era initiative that targeted ongoing racial segregation through exclusionary practices in the construction of affordable…
Beware: We can march and pray for good, yet still do harm
During the days between Sept. 11, 2001, and the beginning of the Gulf Wars, my 7-year-old son and I participated in peace demonstrations with friends. Our clever anti-war signs got honks and waves from most folks driving and walking by….
What Abe Lincoln tells us about Trump, Biden, guns, God and Falwell Jr.
In the land of the free and the home of the I-don’t-have-to-wear-a-mask-if-I-don’t-want-to-even-to-save-lives, we’re less than three months from the presidential election, and it’s getting nastier by the day. On the way to Nov. 3, apparently even God will not be…