By Nora O. Lozano Some Sundays ago I went to pick my son up from his church youth meeting. I was not paying much attention to the time, and until I opened the building door, I realized that I had…
How pastors should act during election season
Recently a certain candidate for the office of president announced her campaign and plans to attain our nation’s highest office. Immediately after her announcement via social media there was a flurry of responses and reactions. Naturally, being a minister, I…
Critical understandings about collaboration for Christian ministries
Building on a previous article entitled Compete or Collaborate: The Dilemma for Christian Ministries, I want to delve into the direction and diversity of collaboration among Christian ministries. But to do this I must first lay out some critical understandings…
What ‘religious freedom’ used to mean
By Corey Fields At the turn of the 17th century, an English lawyer named Thomas Helwys had become part of a separatist congregation in Lincolnshire (it is to this congregation that many Baptists trace their roots). They were dissenters from…
Savoring the ‘sacrament of the present moment,’ with a little help from The Decemberists
Christian thinking about the world we live in and God’s goals for it wrestles with a tension. What God envisions for the world is already being made manifest in the Easter reality of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and in…
Searching for Sunday: A review
When I was fifteen, I was called into ministry. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God wanted me to be a minister. There was only one problem. I was a Southern Baptist who happened to also be…
Civility and tolerance when absolutes clash
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee My column this week is anchored by the wise insights of Professor Alan Brownstein, a constitutional law and church-state expert from the University of California at Davis. Professor Brownstein spoke at Mercer University the…
Letting go – moving on (The metaphorical meaning of an Easter story)
In the story world of John’s Gospel Jesus tells the disciples that he is going away, but he would not leave them without his presence. How could that be? Most spiritual truth is paradoxical in nature. The Father, says Jesus,…
Bapticostals and Episcojewbus: Hybridity, unity and faith
By Jason Coker Identity is a tricky thing! Religious identity in particular can be a hard one to figure out. I grew up in the Mississippi Delta, which actually has quite a bit of racial, ethnic and religious diversity, but…