Had the holding of slaves been a moral evil, it cannot be supposed, that the inspired Apostles, who feared not the faces of men, and were ready to lay down their lives in the cause of their God, would have…
A tale of two Leos
In a recent Atlantic article, David Brooks writes: “Many of us thought that the world would get more democratic as it modernized, but for the past quarter century, we have seen a reversion to authoritarian strongmen. Donald Trump, acting like…
Marjorie Taylor Greene leads the way in repentance?
On Easter Sunday, former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote: Everyone in (Trump’s) administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the president and intervene in Trump’s…
Apocalypse? Now?
In November 1095, Pope Urban II addressed a gathering of clergy and laity at the Council of Clermont in France. According to the chronicler Fulcher of Chartres, Urban began: “Most beloved brethren: Urged by necessity, I, Urban, by the permission…
‘When are half your members going to be dead?’
In the concluding chapter of American Mainline Christianity: Its Changing Shape and Future, Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney predicted this: The churches of the Protestant establishment, long in a state of relative decline, will continue to lose ground both…
‘Your children will ask you’
“Your children will ask you what side you were on.” That’s what Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis, said at a news conference Jan. 24 after the shooting death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE “officers.” Pretti, a…
When injustice rolls down like waters
Events transpiring in Minneapolis last week sent me back to the book of Amos 5:24: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,” words worth staking one’s life on. But what happens when history takes…
Let’s jettison the term ‘Christian nation’
On Dec. 21, 2025, Vice President JD Vance, speaking at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, declared: “More than any time I can recount, people are talking about American identity and figuring out what it is that unites us. But I want…
Remembering Stephanie
On the third Sunday in Advent in 1991, as we returned home from Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., 16-year-old Stephanie Erin Leonard announced to us: “I think it’s time for me to be baptized.” It was the first…
Stephanie Erin Leonard: April 22, 1975 – November 26, 2025
After a critical decline in health, Stephanie Erin Leonard passed away peacefully at the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home in the early hours of Nov. 26. Her parents, Candyce and Bill Leonard, were at her bedside. Stephanie was born in…
Let justice roll down like sandwiches
“Jurors Say Baloney to Claim that Sandwich Hurler Tried to Harm Federal Agent” That’s how The New York Times introduced a report detailing the government case against Sean C. Dunn, age 37, a former paralegal in the Department of Justice…
Concerning heretics and those who burn them
Today marks the 508th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, marking the day in 1517 when Catholic priest and professor Martin Luther’s 95 Theses appeared on the Medieval scene in Wittenburg, Germany. The theses called the Roman Church to account for…