We have been battling COVID-19 for a year. 2020 already stands unique in the annals of our memories. And 2021 seems to continue the trend. Hospitals, schools, universities, churches, stores, restaurants … no destination or gathering place has been immune…
Hope for a new year out of the historical disunity of our United States
It’s not about Donald Trump. Nor did our current dis-unity start with him. In his excellent book, American Nations, Colin Woodard shares helpful insights into what lies at the heart of much of our current public discontent: We began this…
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and necessary grace
No one should be surprised. These divisive times we currently endure remain strikingly similar to this nation’s very beginnings. Yes, the current administration continues to break norms and in now predictably unpredictable fashion. It provokes disdain, sows discord, stokes anger…
CBF church booted from Southern Baptist association for embracing LGBTQ members
First Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia — a flagship Cooperative Baptist Fellowship congregation kicked out of the Georgia Baptist Convention in 2009 for calling a woman as pastor – has been excommunicated by the Atlanta Metro Baptist Association because of homosexuality.
Survey: Evangelicals not so hot on Bill of Rights
Evangelical Christians generally take a dim view of the Bill of Rights and freedom of speech, a newly published survey has found. The Barna Group uncovered those attitudes in a July study titled “What Makes America Great.” The survey asked…
Crazy parallels: Reformations then and now
Five hundred years after the Reformation, our world again echoes with a plethora of similar tensions, prickly personalities and transformative technologies.
Kaepernick and Jefferson: Standing for the right to kneel
Jefferson said more than he meant. When he wrote those inspired words that rise boldly from our Declaration of Independence — “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” — he spoke words that have…
Confessions of a white preacher
Two stories. Two young men. One white. One black. It was a number of years ago now. I was a pastor in the suburbs of Washington, in a multi-ethnic congregation of people from the very poor to the quite wealthy….