This election season has been a hard spiritual journey, as well as a grimy political slog. Rancor ran rampant, spilling out of campaign rallies and whistlestops, bounding onto our screens. Candidates mongered fear, amplified animosity and spewed indignation. Now, we…
Why American democracy is threatened in Ukraine
American democracy is endangered in the most unlikely of places: Ukraine. Events swirling around the Russian invasion of Ukraine have implications for our own freedom. I have no interest in conjuring the apocalyptic visions of rapture believers, but I do…
It’s time to do something about the beast of corporate money in politics
In the spring of 1994, I enrolled in a course on deviance in the sociology department at the University of Texas at Austin. The course was taught by renowned sociologist Gideon Sjoberg, author of The Preindustrial City. The course wasn’t…
Remember, once there were multitudes of people who were willing to give themselves for something larger than themselves
“Never forget that the purpose for which we live is our improvement, so that we may go out of this world having, in a great sphere or a small one, done some little good for our fellow creatures and labored…
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…
Interviewer asks Robert Jones how far white Christians will go to control government
White Christians increasingly appear to support democracy only as long as they’re in charge of running it, author and researcher Robert P. Jones said in one of his most candid interviews to date. Jones, founder of Public Religion Research Institute…
Neither democracy nor religious freedom are biblical concepts, John MacArthur declares
The Bible favors neither democracy nor religious freedom, John MacArthur said in a pair of January sermons where he lamented the perceived persecution of his church by government. The highly influential pastor — who has been at war with Los…
How democracy dies: ‘Give us a king’
The fall of ancient Israel began almost before it rose — when the people demanded of Samuel, “Give us a king to lead us.” You can read the whole, sorry story in 1 Samuel 8. The aging prophet who had…
What does the SBC tell us about America’s future?
I hope the way the Southern Baptist Convention fell apart 40 years ago is not a picture of what will happen in America, but the parallels are scary. What was the SBC and what is the United States of America…