By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee In 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10, Paul (in the second case, probably a pseudonymous “Paul”) deploys two “vice lists” — a common enough rhetorical strategy in the Greco-Roman world — to communicate…
Stop making sense
By Michael Ruffin When I was a child, little made sense to me. I did not understand the purpose of life. I did not understand the meaning of my life. I did not understand the power and fragility of intimacy….
Crisis or opportunity?
In 1883, Emma Lazarus penned the words to the poem, THE NEW COLOSSUS, to be used commemoration of and as a fund raising initiative for the pedestal on which would stand the Statue of Liberty. Some of the words toward…
Here’s to God!
By Brett Younger During the second Skype interview with the church in Chile I’m now serving as interim pastor while on sabbatical, a lovely woman from Holland said, “We don’t know many Baptists, so we need to ask three Baptist…
The Ebola crisis: watch your language
By Elizabeth Evans Hagan Early in August, I traveled with a Feed the Children delegation to Kenya to visit school feeding programs and a Nairobi orphanage, as I now do about twice a year. Part of my morning routine while there…
the next right thing.
Quite often, over the course of numerous conversations unfolding inside the circled wagons of wounded American Evangelicalism, there develops this almost liturgically repetitious refrain amongst the faithful: our best years are behind us. Whether it’s wistfully recounting the size of…
Wedding toast
Julie and Tom come from parents and families that have been good examples to them for almost three decades. I am grateful that their success in marriage does not depend on one of us giving a brilliant toast on this…
Fearing the ‘other’
By Molly T. Marshall My responsibilities as a seminary president require that I spend an inordinate amount of time in airports and on planes. These venues offer a stimulating opportunity to view humanity in all its richly hued diversity. I…
Shallow congregations only take off their shoes and socks
By George Bullard Since they only plan to wade into the shallow end of the pool or a few feet into the river, lake or ocean, the typical congregational participant only needs to remove shoes and socks. And we are…
Two odd little words: The LGBT issue, part 11
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee Several weeks ago I wrote a letter to my ethics survey class here at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology. One line read: “Thanks for the name-hugs.” Imagine a scholar studying the writings of…
Blowin’ in the wind
By Colleen Swingle-Titus Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. He knows us far better than we know ourselves. … We can be so sure that every detail in our…
Al Mohler decries “Gungor” controversy
By Alan Bean Al Mohler has adapted nicely to our twenty-first century media revolution. He even doespodcasts. Al isn’t hip. Not even a little bit. But he talks about hip people, albeit with disapproval. I can’t imagine the venerable Roy…