Taking lessons from history can be challenging. History is not static. It is not one thing, and historians are constantly revising and changing their interpretations and frameworks for thinking about the past. It may not be helpful to compare the…
Understanding the evangelical civil war
According to Peter Wehner, “the evangelical church is breaking apart.” The primary culprit, he says, is Donald Trump. In a feature-length piece in The Atlantic, Wehner acknowledges the historic tensions within the evangelical camp but argues that the advent of…
An interview with a Cameroonian pastor who fled persecution but has high hopes for his side to win the war at home
Cameroon is at war because God did not approve the union between the French and English-speaking people. — Taku-Ayuk Moses One of the world’s worst conflicts in recent years is the crisis in Cameroon, where separatist groups in the southern…
Despite cease-fire in Tigray, concerns persist about how to tackle the humanitarian problem in the region
With the cessation of hostilities in Tigray, Ethiopia, the attention of many observers now shifts to the humanitarian crisis created by the conflict within and outside the East African country. Eight months of fighting and violence in the multi-lingual and…
Listen more, speak less, dispel anger with love
Our country is politically torn apart. This is the reality that greets us every day in the national media, regardless of which network, website or newspaper we follow. Our states are labeled by their Republican or Democratic governors, eliciting opinions…
Bonhoeffer moment No. 2: ‘I am now praying quite simply for freedom’
In a letter to his close friend Eberhard Bethge, written from Tegel Prison and dated Nov. 18, 1943, Lutheran pastor/theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: I am finding (I expect you are, too) that the most difficult thing is getting up in…
On teaching history, the president has a point, but he goes too far
A few weeks ago, the President made headlines at the National Archives Museum when he denounced the teaching of American history classes as a “left-wing cultural revolution … designed to overthrow the American Revolution” and responsible for everything from tearing…
Don’t be left behind in this apocalyptic autumn
This will be an apocalyptic autumn. While the biblical concept of “apocalypse” has been historically appropriated in some fantastic ways, its meaning in the Greek — “to reveal” — is what leads me to make this claim. Many Americans will…
Juneteenth should remind us of all the things we don’t know
The more we learn about someone else’s story, the more understanding we gain about their perspectives.