As I write this, Vice President Mike Pence is addressing the the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. Some Southern Baptists aren’t too happy about that. As John Fea reported, a Virginia pastor named Garrett Kell found the invitation to Pence so tone-deaf and divisive that he recommended replacing that speech with a time … More On Praying for Donald Trump
As you might have noticed yesterday, I enjoy fusing my interests in history and travel. Besides writing about Moravian Bethlehem, I’ve used this blog to share images and thoughts from trips to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the former Western Front, and a few of the many historic sites I’ve taken our kids over the years. (And to … More Looking for Some Historic Sites to Visit This Summer?
Over the weekend I took the long way from Washington, DC to New Haven, CT in order to spend an hour in an 18th century outpost of Pietism in America. In 1741 Moravian emigrants came to the North American colony of Pennsylvania. It had been almost twenty years since Moravian refugees had first settled on the … More Moravian Bethlehem
Here… • Greetings from the East Coast! While I’m out here doing research, I’ll also be preaching or teaching at several churches. • A visit to the U.S. Holocaust Museum (and reading his daughter’s memoir) made me wonder again about Charles Lindbergh’s views on Jewish people. …There and Everywhere • Being in DC also gave … More That Was The Week That Was
I’ve written before that “I’ve dreaded the day I’ll finally need to write a chapter or two on [Charles] Lindbergh’s response to the rise of Nazi Germany.” That concern came back to mind yesterday, when I visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and went through the temporary exhibit on “Americans and the Holocaust.” About halfway … More Was Charles Lindbergh Anti-Semitic?
Greetings from Virginia, where I’m commencing my summer travels on the East Coast! It’s my first big Lindbergh biography research trip: a few days this week at the Library of Congress, then several weeks in the main Lindbergh Papers at Yale University. But while I’m in a different part of the country working on my … More The Pietist Option Hits the Road
Here… • My favorite movie of the year is a documentary on teaching by one of my best friends. • Latest evidence that it’s hard to define “evangelical,” the wide range of evangelical responses to a wedding sermon. • The best version of the “Pietist option” is probably a multiethnic church. …There and Everywhere • … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s made by one of my best friends. It consists of nothing but interviews with professors at a small university, plus images from public domain films. I’m in it. For all these reasons, you won’t want to believe what I’m about to write. But it’s still true: Why We Teach is the most compelling documentary you’ll … More Why We Teach
My denomination has its share of problems, but two things about the Evangelical Covenant Church make me hopeful for its future. First, it has generally done better than any other American church body at living out the “Pietist option” that Covenant pastor Mark Pattie and I sketched last year, in a book by that name … More The Pietist Option for a Multiethnic Church
Did leading evangelicals pointedly ignore the sermon preached at Saturday’s royal wedding, by Episcopal Church presiding bishop Michael Curry? One religion reporter thought so, at least based on some quick social media research: I checked a dozen of the most influential evangelicals on Twitter. Not one mentioned Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon-heard-round-the-world. I’m not sure they … More What Did Evangelicals Think of Michael Curry’s Royal Wedding Sermon?
The Pietist Schoolman 