Roger Williams agreed with the Puritan overlords of Massachusetts Bay on most points of doctrine, but when his thinking diverged from accepted orthodoxy, he said so. Plainly and without apology. In The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, Peace and Truth are…
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…
Enslaved by freedom
He stood up to address the House of Burgesses, the legislative body in Virginia, meeting to determine how to respond to British military intervention in the colony. Relationships between the colonists and the British had deteriorated over the past two…
Let justice roll
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:24 NIV During our recent vacation Bible school I observed our students standing attentively as they belted out , “I pledge allegiance to the flag…”. We…
Is America a culture or an idea?
Is America an idea about “liberty and justice for all” that can be embraced by an endless assortment of people from a wild array of cultures; or is America a uniquely White Western cultural phenomenon that only works when White…
A zeal he does not own
There is a wonderful, thought-provoking text by the hymn writer Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863) titled “There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy. It speaks to this generation perhaps even more powerfully than to his own. It is not sung as often…