All month my family is joining others in our congregation and denomination in reading through a version of the New Testament that has no chapter or verse markings and has been resequenced in roughly chronological order. In part, that’s to get you to notice things you’d otherwise miss. For example, I’d never noticed that Luke occasionally switches to the first … More A Ministry of Encouragement
Here… • One thing that everyone in this terribly divided country should be able to agree on: my dad is a terrific guy. • Very high on the list of things I never thought I’d blog about: alleged “demonic activity” at a presidential rally. • It’s getting harder and harder to buy the argument that white … More That Was The Week That Was
If you’ve been reading this blog at all closely for the past year or so, you know that I’m no great fan of our current president. But even I was taken aback at this description of a recent Trump rally near Orlando, by a local Nazarene pastor named Joel Tooley: Call it what you will, but … More Is “Demonic Activity is Palpable” in American Politics?
“Historians aren’t supposed to write hagiography,” I wrote one Father’s Day, “but what can I say: [my] Dad is the most brilliant, hard-working man that I know, utterly committed to serving others with his gifts, time, energy, and ample vision.” Midway through a career in which he had started a pediatric intensive care unit, won teaching awards … More Yet Another Reason My Dad Is a Great Guy
Tomorrow night I’ll be in Chicago making the case that Pietism might help renew evangelicalism. That assumes, of course, that evangelicalism can be renewed. Or that we have any idea who “evangelicals” are. I’m going to proceed as planned with the talk, but a new report from the Pew Research Center has me a bit more skeptical … More The Strength of White Evangelical Support for Trump
How should we rank America’s presidents? C-SPAN asked ninety-one “professional observers of the presidency,” including historians Douglas Brinkley, Edward Crapol, Robert Dallek, Annette Gordon-Reed, Allen Guelzo, David Kennedy, and Walter McDougall. Each participant ranked our previous chief executives in ten equally weighted categories. You can find the full results here, but a few highlights: • The top four remained … More Ranking America’s Presidents
After a flurry of posts in late January and early February, I scaled back my own blogging this week in order to work on my North Park talk next Tuesday. Just two posts: one on the silencing of conservative Christian critics of Donald Trump by their own organizations, and the other on what it means that … More That Was The Week That Was
I’m afraid I’m the kind of Christian who thinks about the Bible more often than I actually read it. So I’m excited to be taking part in a new initiative from my denomination called the Community Bible Experience. Starting this week and continuing up to Palm Sunday, dozens of people in our congregation are re-reading the entire New Testament … More The Bible as “An Altar Where We Meet the Living God”
If you work in a church or Christian non-profit, or care about how those organizations function in the midst of such polarizing times, then you need to take a few minutes and read religion reporter Emma Green’s latest piece for The Atlantic: Donald Trump has divided conservative Christian communities. Most white Christians support Trump, or at … More The Silencing of Conservative Christians Opposed to Trump
Here… • Spring semester is barely started and I’m already thinking about a new course for the fall. • Just how economically diverse are the student populations at Christian and church-related colleges? • While David Swartz is on hiatus, I’ve been extending his Anxious Bench series on “Unexpected Sites of Christian Pacifism.” …There and Everywhere • On the … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 