The 2024 presidential election is a head-scratcher. Donald Trump is intentionally violating every canon of American political etiquette. His interminable campaign speeches are aimed at no one outside the MAGA base. Outside of a few washed-up celebrities like Kid Rock…
A week at Chautauqua has me pondering the future of the Protestant Mainline
I was fussing over a jigsaw puzzle when somebody turned on the Biden-Trump debate. As the combatants droned on in the background, my attention remained firmly fixed on the task before me. It was all birds and foliage. A thousand…
What Ezekiel tells us about today’s climate crisis
Ezekiel was weird, but he wasn’t wrong. The Bible is a tough read because it was forged in hell. When the armies of Nebuchadnezzar stomped Jerusalem flat, the people of Judah lost everything in a single stroke. Thousands of innocent…
Why Greg Abbott pardoned a killer
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has once again injected himself into the headlines by pardoning a convicted murderer. A couple of months after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, spontaneous Black Lives Matter protests sprang up across the nation. Daniel Perry,…
Moral revolution or guilt-free religion?
In 586 BCE, the armies of Babylon breached the walls of Jerusalem and slaughtered thousands of people. Thousands more were dragged off to exile in far-off Babylon. Solomon’s glorious temple was ground to powder. King Zedekiah fled for his life…
Weeping with Daughter Zion
Maybe you’ve seen the social media meme. Hundreds of old-timey cars are parked willy-nilly on the lawn of an old country church. The faithful are streaming into the sanctuary. “Back in the day,” the caption reads, “everyone went to church…
Beauty from ashes: How catastrophe shaped the Bible
On May 30, 1921, the worst expression of racial hatred in American history took place in Tulsa, Okla. My son-in-law, Norman Lee, is a public artist. He recently was commissioned to create an enormous mural in a Tulsa underpass highlighting…
What Trump (and evangelical pastors) learned from pro wrestling
Every Friday night, good collided with evil in Calgary, Alberta. It was a preacher’s kid who turned me on to Stampede Wrestling in the 1960s. I was riveted. Especially when Archie (The Stomper) Gouldie launched into one of his patented…
The roots of white evangelical desperation
The base of the Republican Party is controlled by white evangelical voters, people who punch above their weight because they have been reduced to utter despair. Animals are particularly dangerous when cornered or wounded, and American white evangelicals are both….