Whatever moral credibility American evangelicals once had, they have lost. They have chosen to die on the 45th hill, and it has been painful and despairing to watch. Our nation desperately needs strong faith communities that are able to articulate a clear moral voice, even if it convicts them, too.
Why ministers shouldn’t walk away from social media
Ministers may not like the present reality of how people communicate, but it is the present reality. If we opt out of social media, we remove our voices from the conversation and fail to be informed about what others are doing and saying.
Gov. Northam is not an outlier: American Christianity’s tolerance for white supremacy
Tragically, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam isn’t an outlier. He merely offers the latest, high-profile evidence of the deep and bitter truth about white Christianity’s toleration of, and complicity in, the sin of white supremacy.
Flight or invisibility: revisiting a classic theological question
In middle school we debated the great theological question: which superpower – flight or invisibility? I secretly preferred a third option: stopping time. But today what I need is the ability to be alive in this moment, in what Paul Tillich called the “eternal now.”
Letter to the Editor – Queen Did Not Discover Jesus
Queen Did Not Discover Jesus by Layne Wallace, Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina
Being ‘barely Christian’ as a way of being authentically Christian
My friend describes herself as “barely Christian.” It was what happened at church, as folk poured out judgment on persons she loved, that made her question what it meant to be a Christian.
Letters to the Editor for 02.01.19
Queen did not discover Jesus by Layne Wallace, Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina
Our disaster-relief success hasn’t moved the needle in addressing poverty. We need to ask why
Because churches and faith-based organizations do disaster relief so well, we assume what works for communities recovering from a fire will be what works for a family experiencing food insecurity or poverty. Most victims of poverty suffer because of systems designed to help some people thrive at the expense of others’ languishing.
Discovering the human Jesus opens new possibilities for becoming more like Jesus
Ironically, when I believed Jesus was God I didn’t take him seriously. But when I let him be an imperfect, but courageous and compassionate human being, I discovered a compelling interest in becoming like him.
A church for all who wander: the ministry of ‘bringing back’
Rather than spending time judging others so that we feel better about ourselves, we are called to go out and find those who have wandered from God’s dream for their life and bring them back to the life God intended for them.
In a culture of shouting, people of faith must address America’s listening deficit
How can Christians demonstrate how to listen deeply in a culture of shouting, especially when listening to shouting is so spiritually and emotionally draining? Only out of listening – and hitting a personal pause button on all the feigned and manufactured social outrage – do I actually have a voice.
Why CBF exists: to serve congregations and help them thrive
All the winds of our larger culture push us to respond to difference with isolation, condemnation and even anger. We must find a distinctly Christian way of responding to difference if CBF is to be a Baptist community committed to being a real and remarkable priesthood of all believers.