So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average…
Wheaton and the future of Christian education
It isn’t easy being in Christian education these days. The case of Dr. Larycia Hawkins and Wheaton College is showing us why. You’ve read it in multiple places and from various sources: Things aren’t what they once were.
Why I will protest a school I love
I am a pastor who loves Jesus. Yet I’m also realizing I’m a pastor who loves comfort, ease, a good reputation, and money almost just as much. These idols cause me to fear writing the words you’re now reading.
Unarmed truth and unconditional love
The year 1964 was a difficult one for the United States. The nation had suffered the assassination of a beloved President in November of the year before. The war in Vietnam was heating up in 1964: the Gulf of Tonkin…
Religious voices respond to State of the Union
(RNS) In his last State of the Union address, President Obama made an impassioned case against religious bigotry and cast other key issues in moral terms. He rejected “any politics that targets people because of race or religion.” “This is…
unprofessional christianity IV: promising
In a world enslaved to anxiety and fear and scarcity and wealth and power, a world willing to sacrifice anyone on the altar of it’s security, the most dangerously necessary people are those radically okay with who they are, where…
Dr. King didn’t do everything
We miss the significance of the Civil Rights Movement if we attribute everything to Dr. King. In fact, if one studies the record carefully, it is amazing to note that most of the major Civil Rights Movement campaigns were actually…
A second Bill of Rights
Three years later, on January 11, 1944, FDR gave his 11th (!) State of the Union talk. He had just recently come back from an overseas trip during which he had conferred with British Prime Minister Churchill in Cairo and…
A lesson from the dying garden for the church
When I was a child, my dad worked for IBM. This meant that my formative years were spent in the well-groomed suburbs of Dallas, Miami and Atlanta. Such suburbs are filled with wonderful neighborhoods and plenty of new construction for…
Unprofessional Christianity, part 3: Dreaming
I still believe folks should encourage us to dream God-sized dreams for our lives, except of course when “God-sized” is simply code for “upper middle class sized,” as I’m not entirely sure it is the divine who has bountifully blessed…
Fighting for the four freedoms
It is has been called the best State of the Union address of all time. That was President Roosevelt’s speech seventy-five years ago, on January 6, 1941. It is the one popularly known as the Four Freedoms address.
Unprofessional Christianity, part 2: Dying
The stories of Zaevion Dobson, Freddie Grey, Tamir Rice, and the birth of Jesus decenter everything we think we know about the meaning of life and Christmas. This season has nothing to do with where you go after you die,…