Antisemitism, one of the world’s earliest and most enduring conspiracy theories, is again rearing its ugly head. With origins in ancient Greece, antisemitism became a hallmark of Christian-Jewish relations across the centuries. It is with us yet. Writing in the…
‘As it was in the days of Noah’: Questions for Christians, 2022
“As it was in the days of Noah,” Jesus said, “so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the…
New book gathers essays by women called to ministry across the generations
A new collection of essays by women in ministry illustrates the passion and determination women have mustered in overcoming the barriers they faced in answering their callings. “We wanted to hear the honest stories of a woman’s call to ministry,…
Henry Mugabe and son reportedly killed in crash in Zimbabwe
A key figure in resisting the spillover of the Southern Baptist Convention’s “conservative resurgence” into global missions outposts has been killed in an automobile tragedy in Zimbabwe, according to friends in America. Henry Mugabe along with his son, Munyaradzi Johannes Mugabe,…
The inconsistencies of our ethical declarations: Samford’s dilemma
Editor’s note: Bill Leonard served as professor of church history and chair of the Religion Department at Samford University from January 1992 to June 1996. In his 1995 book, The Stem of Jesse: The Costs of Community at a 1960s…
Was Abe Lincoln a ‘none’? Is there a lesson in that?
During his 1846 Illinois campaign for the U.S. Congress, Abraham Lincoln, candidate for the Whigs, soon to become the Republican Party, was charged by his Democrat opponent, the Methodist circuit rider Peter Cartwright, with being “an open scoffer of Christianity”…
‘Reverend, they ain’t ever coming back’: Confronting churchly realities 2022
Early on in the COVID crisis, I had a long conversation with a close pastor friend about changes in American church life occurring before our eyes. We talked about what I call “the changing sociology of Sunday,” a demographic-cultural reality…
Frederick Buechner, Maya Angelou and Helen Lewis: Telling the truth
But to preach the gospel is not just to tell the truth but to tell the truth in love and to tell the truth in love means to tell it with concern not only for the truth that is being…
Looking for hope in a time of abandonment
Surely I am not the only person in the land of the free and the home of the classified documents who keeps wishing, even hoping, that the innumerable issues, actions and ideas that divide us as a people have finally…