A woman in Tehran, Iran, was detained by the so-called “morality police” on allegations she didn’t wear a head scarf in public. She died in police custody. Protests have ensued across Iran. Women have appeared in public with bare heads….
In Afghanistan, terror multiplies for LGBTQ persons, women and girls
Life has gone from bad to worse for LGBTQ persons in Afghanistan during the year since the Taliban took control of the nation, attorney and human rights activist Joseph Azam said. He spoke during an Aug. 24 webinar hosted by…
Have the fundamentalists won? And the future of liberal Christianity
One hundred years ago, May 21, 1922, Harry Emerson Fosdick preached his most famous sermon, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” He was at the time the preaching minister of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City. The Presbyterian denomination along…
Secular revolutions and religious counterrevolutions
In 2015, highly esteemed Princeton political philosopher Michael Walzer published The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions. The title itself immediately arrested me, as it crystallized a current intuition of mine. I believe the United States and several…
Connect the dots from Methodists to Baptists to Episcopalians to Presbyterians and national politics
Maybe this is simply stating the obvious, but here goes: There is a pattern to what is happening in the United Methodist Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church and other American churches. And that pattern…
January 6 truth or consequences
Seeking out the truth has seldom been more urgent for Americans than it is now. We possess more factual information than any generation in human history yet differ over the most basic propositions. The dichotomy threatens our future. Truth makes…
One of America’s favorite Christian authors finally tells his own story
If there was a look to being a New York Times best-selling author for the last several decades, Philip Yancey wouldn’t be it. Which is why even he is surprised at what his life has become looking back. Yancey, whose…
Putting the white in witness since the 1940s
Now is the time to bring our conversation about whiteness and world-viewing into the present tense. The language and concept of worldviews are somewhat clear in many corners of evangelicalism today, but how does whiteness figure into these concepts? And…
As a religious abuse survivor, this is my message to Baptist pastors
I shrank into the pew, wincing every time the preacher behind the pulpit raised his voice. I was just a child, terrified that I was evil and a sinner beyond redemption. At 7 years of age, I converted and believed…