One of the most notable differences since leaving conservative evangelicalism has been my body’s reaction to justice-themed events on the calendar. If the day or month had something to do with LGBTQ people, my immediate reaction would be one of…
Questions to ask while pondering if Asbury is hosting a ‘true revival’
Surprise! It’s a revival! So said Thomas H. McCall, a theology professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, located adjacent to the ongoing spiritual event at Asbury University in Wilmore, Ky. “Sometimes God does what Johnathan Edwards called ‘surprising work’ and what John…
What an experiment with psychedelics 60 years ago might teach us about faith today
Sixty years ago, on Good Friday 1962, Civil Rights leader and minister Howard Thurman preached in Marsh Chapel on Boston University’s campus. Full of striking verbal imagery about Jesus’ suffering and God’s glory, his 85-minute sermon shook the otherwise silent…
America’s conscience: Moral bankruptcy and communal decay
For if the disinherited get such a new center as patriotism, for instance — liberty within the framework of a sense of country or nation, then the aim of not being killed is swallowed up by a larger and more…
The new abortion law reminds me why I have a love-hate relationship with Texas
I have had a love-hate relationship with Texas the entire 18 years I have lived here. I love the diversity of people in my neighborhood outside Houston. I loathe nationalistic white supremacy wrapped up in God-talk on bumper stickers, yard…
What if we cared about Black History Month as much as Lent?
Growing up in the ’80s and ’90s as an independent Baptist in an all-white church, the first 20 Februarys of my life came and went without any awareness of either Lent or Black History Month. Liturgy was considered something the…
An invitation to the SBC seminary presidents — and all white Christians — to enter the moral struggle as articulated by Howard Thurman
At the dawn of 1955, civil rights leader and Black theologian Howard Thurman preached on the Apostle Paul’s moral struggle in the Letter to the Romans. Mid-letter, Paul confesses he desires to do right, but there is a war within…
Four radical implications of knowing you are God’s child
We are children of God. This statement is incredibly simple. And incredibly radical. In Genesis, God creates humanity out of God’s image. Humans are made into God’s image and grow into God’s likeness. We are like God; we bear God’s…
Christian citizenship means somebody’s calling my name
What does it mean to be a Christian citizen? The question should challenge every breath in our bodies in the way George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many other Black Christian citizens died daring to breathe. There is no dodging…