Deep and terrible divisions wrack American society. Sober observers are concerned that the sporadic protests and counterprotests, the riots and gun-toting militias we have spotted this summer could give way to intensified nationwide civil strife this late fall if the…
Is a political realignment coming?
This awful year has offered few glimpses of hope. But one of them has been dawning since May. That is the possibility that Donald Trump and his decadent version of the Republican Party may go down to a substantial national…
In the United States, is it possible to be an honest and just person?
Any society, regardless of its character, teaches and encourages people to be honest and just. In Christianity, however, honesty and justice must be consciously practiced and cultivated; they are, at least theoretically, fundamental principles that should characterize those who have…
How to win the war between keeping the peace and telling the truth
Sometimes the conflict between keeping the peace and truthfully stating what we believe is agonizing. In February 2006, I became semi-famous for writing an article in Christianity Today arguing that torture is morally wrong and that no American Christian should…
Baptists under Nazism and Baptists amid America’s current political crisis: a call to ‘disruption’
What does the story of Baptists under the Third Reich reveal about how we respond to political crisis? I believe the church is meant to be a disruptive church. That means first “disrupting” a theology that prioritizes relevance over resistance.
Booing Trump felt good, momentarily: the hidden danger of giving undue attention to evil
The common exhortation of “Don’t look away” reminds us that a lack of vigilance can make us oblivious to the ways in which our political environment can change us for the worse. But an ironic danger lurks beneath the surface.
If a favorite preacher, pundit or politician speaks in stereotypes, it’s time you changed the channel
The tool of a lazy mind, the product of shallow thinking and the evidence of unsettled and angry spirits, the stereotypes that are ubiquitous in the religious and political discourse of our age are also evidence of a nation misguided, the immaturity of the body politic.