By Bob Allen A recent Wall Street Journal story profiling twin brothers who followed separate spiritual paths — one to become an Anglican bishop, the other a Catholic priest — represents failure by the Southern Baptist church in which they were raised,…
What I have said about torture since 2006
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee In Fall 2005, while I was teaching at Union University, and two years before I moved here to Mercer University, the editors of Christianity Today magazine asked me to write an analysis of the…
A new day in America
We are entering a new day in America. Do you feel excited yet? New things always bring with them a bit of trepidation, but there’s so much buzz about this particular new day that it can’t be bad, right? Well,…
Prayers for Eastern Christians become easier sell for evangelicals
By Jeff Brumley and Ken Camp It’s hardly unusual to hear evangelicals and other Protestants praying for persecuted Eastern Christians these days, especially those fleeing terrorists forces in Syria and Iraq. But that wasn’t always the case. and if there…
Poll: Americans feel good about evangelicals
By Jeff Brumley Jews, Catholics and evangelical Christians finished in that order in a “feeling thermometer” poll released recently by the Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project. Viewed with a cold, or more negative, attitude were atheists while Muslims…
Owning up to our flaws
By Mark Wingfield “The devil made me do it.” Years ago, the comedian Flip Wilson made a name for himself with a ’70s-era shtick in which this was his sassy answer to every misdeed his character committed. For folks of…
It’s not time
It must be nice to live in a black-and-white world in which people either embrace “evolution” (more on that in a minute) or are science deniers who are committed to a view of Scripture that is quaint but utterly foolish….
That pesky word ‘Evangelical’
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee Each week someone in the news uses the words “evangelical” or “evangelicalism” as a description, epithet or lament. Often the most visible uses of the term occur when someone who is “in” wants out,…
Osteen illustrates nondenominationalizing of U.S. religion, says church historian
By Ken Camp Megachurch Pastor Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church in Houston offer a high-profile case study in the “nondenominationalizing” of 21st century evangelical American religion, says church historian Bill Leonard. Osteen manages to be “modern and postmodern, traditional and…