“And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” But do they? Well, it depends on who “they” are. With the hymn “They’ll Know We Are Christians by…
New Baptist Covenant shifts gears to convene, connect and communicate
A combination of COVID-19 and increased national conversations around race have prompted New Baptist Covenant to announce a change in strategy. Launched in 2007 with impetus from former President Jimmy Carter, New Baptist Covenant sought to create a movement that…
A letter to North Carolina’s governor
In response to the recent passage of House Bill 2 in North Carolina, I penned my first-ever letter to our state’s governor, and posted that letter on our church’s webpage. I have had near-unanimous affirmation for my words. Two weeks…
Duck Dynasty, free speech, and persecution
By now you have heard about controversy involving ‘Duck Dynasty’ A&E star Phil Robertson. Robertson, recently spoke to GQ about his personal beliefs: Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there… Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman…
Lessons about church conflict from the government shutdown
Now that the USA government shutdown is over–at least for a while–let’s reflect on the lessons churches can learn from the shutdown about conflict. Many of these are lessons of what not to do. These lessons are also politically neutral….
Wichita school’s five pillars incident shows confusion and prejudice
Minneha Core Knowledge Magnet Elementary School in Wichita, KS is the center of an uproar last week after a photo taken on the first day of school showing a large “5 Pillars of Islam” display was shared online. The Wichita…
Who decides if you are a Christian?
Recently I was a guest on HuffPost Live with Rev. Paul Raushenbush, HuffPost Senior Religion Editor and two other authors. (You can watch the segment here. I come in around 19:00) We discussed the coming out of NBA player Jason Collins and the conversation turned to…
The Church Draft
As millions of football fans will undoubtedly will be glued to their televisions and social media, they will hunger for the latest information about NFL draft picks. The NFL draft is part pageantry and part celebration for football teams and their…
My Boston take-aways
These posts are truly difficult to write; partly because if you want to be real then you have to confess some things and partly because events such as occurred last week are not easy to process. I am not sure…