Sometimes, we publish articles that are really good but draw oddly insufficient readership. Usually, I chalk this up to the whims of Facebook and Google algorithms. But as an editor and writer who is a campaigner for justice at heart,…
I’ve been following the wrong Jesus
Imagine looking for Jesus in the Antebellum South of America. Both the slave master and the slave proclaimed allegiance to Jesus. The slave master, because he believed all his wealth, wisdom and power over people he considered sub-human was a…
These contemporary icons show the saints among us in a new light
Martin Luther King Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Maya Angelou and Mister Rogers are crowned with halos in the iconography of Kelly Latimore, a Missouri-based artist whose popular works adorn a growing number of homes and sanctuaries. Depicting these and other inspirational…
The volatile concoction of social justice and sports
Mix sports fans, professional athletes, coaches, politics, race and social justice and you have a volatile concoction. Several years ago, ESPN’s The Undefeated reported on a poll exploring the “racial divide” in the NFL. The poll measured attitudes of fans…
A conservative case for why the church should lead the way in being ‘woke’
I’ve always been perplexed by my fellow conservative Christians’ overall rejection of “wokeness.” After all, the gospel is all about repentance from our harmful behaviors and a renewing of the mind. Who amongst us that has walked with the Lord…
We know the truth, and it is not setting us free
At the annual gathering of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship last week, I heard at least one speaker repeat the words of John 8:32: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” In fact, as I recall,…
Conservative or liberal? Jesus widens our political landscape
It is commonly assumed that a conservative interpretation of Scripture will produce conservative political views. I believe this to be false. Using popular definitions, a conservative interpretation is based on the literal, face-value or plain meaning of the text. It…
Once more, a knock at midnight
A Knock at Midnight is the title of a sermon Martin Luther King Jr. preached in 1967 on Jesus’ parable of a man who knocks on his neighbor’s door at midnight asking for bread to serve guests in their home…
Why I’m among the unchurched today
In his Nov. 9 analysis, “The Church Is Losing Its Way,” Rob Sellers outlines the numerous ways in which the church is failing. In addition to Sellers’ list (irrelevance, unchallenging, unaccepting, and, most interestingly, unChristlike), I would like to add…