I am an old-school calendar guy. While I do use an Outlook calendar, my default calendar is a monthly planner. I use a color-coding system to write events on the calendar and tasks on the “Notes” column on the side….
Christ came to make us truly human: Social ethics and the image of Christ
This is the last in a three-part Advent series. Dietrich Bonhoeffer always brings me up short when he emphasizes the indicative rather than imperative voice in Paul’s thought and in Christian ethics more broadly. For example, in terms of Bonhoeffer’s…
Christ came to make us truly human: Remade in the image of Christ
This is the second in a three-week Advent series. In six places in the New Testament, five of them in the (probable) writings of Paul, the image of God is reinterpreted in light of Jesus Christ. The imago dei becomes…
Christ came to make us truly human: Human sinfulness and the image of God
Advent is upon us, and in my house, at least, we are already awash in Christmas decorations, music and movies. The peppermint bark candy is already on hand. The Christmas plates, cups and glasses are out. Our tree was up…
BNG column sparks Thanksgiving Twitter war of words between complementarians and two female scholars
When David Gushee wrote his article “The Deconstruction of American Evangelicalism” for Baptist News Global, he kicked off what would become the focus of the next stage in the debate between conservative evangelical complementarians and their egalitarian counterparts. That debate took…
A conservative resurgence in U.S. Catholicism?
Many readers of this column will know that in my religious practice I am by now something of a hybrid, attending both Catholic and Baptist churches every week when possible. This is time-consuming, for sure, but it does offer me…
Conservative Christianity as threat to democracy
Christians should support democracy. This should not be a shocking statement. It should not even need to be said. U.S. Baptists, at least, used to be fairly clear about it. But today, it is becoming increasingly clear from looking around…
The deconstruction of American evangelicalism
We are witnessing at this moment the intellectual deconstruction of a religious group that has been called “evangelicalism.” Illusions about this community are being destroyed left and right. Of course, those illusions first eroded in practice, through the contradictions and…
Why the U.S. is uniquely divided: Engaging a scholar from New Zealand
My last column for BNG, “Covid Wars,” offered a lament over our divided nation. It did not propose solutions, only sorrow and grief. Of course, we must do better than that. We must try to understand how we got here…
COVID wars: Lament over a broken, divided nation
I was talking with a senior Mercer University colleague yesterday about the divisions engulfing our nation over COVID vaccines and masks. Carl has served as a pastor, professor and politician. He’s a very wise man. I said: “Carl, two years…
On Afghanistan, there were no innocent choices available
There were no morally unambiguous options, no innocent choices, facing President Joe Biden when it came to deciding what to do about the 20-year U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan that has cost the lives of nearly 2,500 U.S. troops, 3,800…
On this anniversary of the atomic bomb, how shall Christians think about U.S. foreign policy?
I write this post on Aug. 6, the 76th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which destroyed that city and killed 70,000 to 80,000 people. Today, Aug. 9, is the anniversary of the day the U.S. bombed Nagasaki,…