This week I interviewed the host of a new podcast on animal rights, and recorded a new episode of our podcast on sports history. Elsewhere: • Every revelation about church sexual abuse is disturbing. But this morning’s was especially hard to read, as it involved the founder of L’Arche, Jean Vanier. • The executive committee … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I considered a recent survey showing that more and more non-evangelicals are embracing the language of being “born again.” Elsewhere: • I’m excited that Bethel will host John Inazu next month. Hopefully he’ll revisit some of the themes from his most recent piece for Christianity Today, on the need for white evangelicals to … More That Was The Week That Was
I didn’t watch more than highlights of the impeachment hearings, but I did listen (twice) to the speech Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) made yesterday. The first senator in history to vote for the conviction of a president from his own party, Romney offered a measured but powerful statement that was as principled and courageous as … More Romney’s Speech — and the Meanings of Silence
When I wasn’t researching the history of a much-loved children’s hymn, I was reading the following posts and articles: • Last week I mentioned the local Methodist church that received national attention for its supposed plan to expel older worshippers. That story inspired Emily McFarlan Miller to report on the larger challenge of “restarting” declining … More That Was The Week That Was
Apart from recording the first episode of my favorite podcast since January 2019, I focused my time this week on teaching and (book) writing. Elsewhere: • I’m grateful to Joey Cochran for giving me a week off from The Anxious Bench, with a guest post on the history of how Christians have used the word “heretic.” • … More That Was The Week That Was
When I wasn’t giving advice to Christian parents whose children are considering Christian colleges, this week I read lots of other good posts and articles around the web, including… • Philip Jenkins continued to look back over the key religious events of the 2010s. • To Dale Coulter, the impending split of the United Methodist … More That Was The Week That Was
Is evangelical opposition to Donald Trump simply evidence of elitism? That was the argument of Matthew Schmitz, who didn’t so much counter Christianity Today editor-in-chief Mark Galli’s critique of Trump as dismiss Galli and his CT colleagues as elite evangelicals — and therefore, by Schmitz’s definition, not really evangelical at all: …evangelical leaders who have come … More The Problems and Possibilities of Evangelical Populism
I considered whether I was an evangelical, responded to an astonishing editorial by evangelicalism’s flagship publication, and considered how religion factors into two British institutions: the monarchy (kind of) and the Premier League. Elsewhere: • A handful of the many other responses to that Christianity Today editorial calling for Donald Trump to be removed from office: Michael Wear … More That Was The Week That Was
One consequence of living in a time of political polarization, echo chambers, and epistemic closure is that it’s rare to be genuinely surprised by any political statement. For example, I struggle to think of any response to the impeachment of Donald Trump that wasn’t predictable — on either side of that debate. Any response, that … More On Christianity Today Calling for Trump’s Removal from Office
Over the weekend, it seemed like virtually every Christian college professor in my social media feed was reading “The Evangelical Mind,” an essay by theologian Adam Kotsko, who was raised in a conservative evangelical home, by parents who were in many ways at the vanguard of the movement. The more I have reflected on my … More Am I an Evangelical?
The Pietist Schoolman 