David Gushee

(ABP) — The national debate raging over health-care reform has become a maelstrom of competing claims and counterclaims. It has been deeply infected by political demagoguery and hysteria. The tenor of the debate raises the legitimate question as to whether…

Moderate Baptists have distinguished themselves from their more conservative and fundamentalist brothers and sisters for a generation through their elevation of freedom of conscience to a near-absolute good. While the conservatives who came to dominate the Southern Baptist Convention increasingly…

On Sept. 15, I published an article in USA Today that has bounced around the blogosphere evoking intense reaction ever since. The argument of the article was that Sarah Palin's nomination for vice president, and the warm conservative evangelical response…

One of the most vexing issues in Christian life is the question of accountability. At every level of Christian community, the question arises. We know that Christians are accountable to God for their lives and will one day actually give…

During the most recent Earth Day April 22, Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection ran high-profile TV ads in which Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi, and then Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson, sat together on couches telling the world of…

A few weeks ago, I was reminded in a news article that Judge Paul Pressler had actually said, at the beginning of the Southern Baptist controversy, that his side must “go for the jugular.” This is an image of slaying…

I'm one of the few leaders in Baptist life with the freedom to talk openly and honestly about the complex theological, moral, pastoral, and public policy issues raised by homosexuality without destroying myself professionally. Because I hold a tenured professorship…

Discussion of the concept of an emerging evangelical center (or some other label for an alternative to the Christian Right) has taken off in recent months — indeed, in recent weeks. Hardly a day goes by without some news article…

It is clear to me that the problem of torture is like a bone caught in our national throat. We can't swallow it, but we can't quite spit it out. And so we are choking on it. The sound of…

It was not until I got to Union Theological Seminary in New York as a doctoral student in Christian ethics that I received my first serious dose of race/class/sex talk. Sometimes it seemed like every course, even every class session,…

One of the enduring tendencies in human life is reaction. Unhappy with the prevailing tendencies of a person or group we oppose, especially in situations of sharp conflict, we swing sharply in the other direction. Oftentimes when we do so…

In moving this summer from Union University to Mercer University I transitioned from a school that moves in the orbit of the Southern Baptist Convention to an institution that moves in the orbit of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. And so…