For a lot of folks these days, that cross on your necklace might as well be a neon billboard declaring that the sermon being preached to everyone you meet is saying, “We don’t want people like you in the Church.”
Israel and Palestine: historic tensions exacerbated by poorly-informed Christian theology
A popularized theological perspective jumps right past what Jesus said and did and leaps right into the arms of a literalistic version of Revelation that views “end times” as a highly marketable concept for well-meaning Christians. What is being peddled creates broad theological confusion and ultimately wreaks geopolitical havoc.
I am part of the resistance inside the American church
The church is facing a test unlike any faced in the modern era. It’s not just that the church is bitterly divided over politics. The dilemma is that not nearly enough of the church’s leadership is working diligently from within to frustrate the church’s worst inclinations.
What it will take to reach the ‘lost coins’ in our culture
We can all probably think of friends, family members or coworkers who are lost sheep (who don’t know any better) and lost sons (those willfully and destructively rebelling). But do you know any lost coins? I do.
We’re prone to judgment, but mercy needs to ‘speak the first word’
This perhaps is the most confounding thing about God: why God chooses mercy over judgment. We want God to punish the bad – now – and put the world to rights. We want a clear signal that God is at least as moral as we are. Yet, God keeps giving people time to change, so that mercy may triumph.
A tattoo that says, ‘Your story is not over’
The struggle is to welcome life as it is now, which is certainly different than you thought it would be or should be. The struggle is to see injury and illness and despair as a semicolon and not a period.
‘Originalism’ at Kavanaugh hearings: echoes of SBC ‘inerrancy’ debate
The analogy between “inerrancy” as the foundation of biblical authority and judicial “originalism” as a basis for constitutional jurisprudence is noteworthy. Of more import is the sheer cynicism lying behind proponents of both inerrancy and originalism.
After the eulogies: Was John McCain one of our ‘better angels’?
John McCain was no saint, but he pointed us to the better angels of our nature and many of us loved him for it. He treated enemies like friends. And in a messy and divided world like ours, that may be as good as it gets.
Birthrights and Bibles: ‘evangelicals’ at the White House
President Trump’s dinner with “evangelical” ministers is a reminder that American Christians have every right to support the politicians and policies that their consciences may dictate. But none of us can claim to have it both ways – dictating moral constraints to the masses while excusing them in governmental officials for political purposes.
Judge Kavanaugh, the wall of separation is worth defending
Judge Kavanaugh, contrary to your disparagement of “the wall” of separation between church and state, this concept is certainly not “bad history,” nor is it useless in modern debates. This metaphor worked for Roger Williams and President Jefferson – and still works today. The wall does not keep people of faith from the public square but separates institutional control.
Another racist policy: are we paying attention?
If we preach on Sunday that being children of God is enough, yet ignore dangerous policies that tell persons of color — including children and their immigrant families — that they are not enough, we are complicit in this racism
What can we learn from being offended?
I’m not sure any of us really become so God-like and divested of ego that we don’t get offended. So the question is: What are we going to do about it?