Tag: Evangelicalism

MLK's April 1963 mugshot

Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Birmingham Revolution

January 18, 2016

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day… Here’s a series of three posts I wrote in the summer of 2014, inspired by Ed Gilbreath’s Birmingham Revolution, on King’s famous letter from a jail in that Alabama city. Gilbreath (author of Reconciliation Blues and executive director of communications for my denomination) provides enough biographical and historical context that I began to realize just how little … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Birmingham Revolution

Jonathan Blanchard

“Who’s an Evangelical?” Revisited (#DocHawk Version)

January 8, 2016

As much as the Larycia Hawkins case at Wheaton College connects to issues like Muslim-Christian relations and the place of academic freedom on Christian campuses, I think it should also take us back to another topic I blogged a lot about in late 2015: What does it mean to be an “evangelical” Christian? In addition to my usual … More “Who’s an Evangelical?” Revisited (#DocHawk Version)

Pentecostal women in Chicago in 1941

Are Men Leaving the Church Because It’s Insufficiently Intellectual?

January 5, 2016

I don’t normally comment on things a year after they’re published, but since a post I hadn’t noticed before was referred to me over the weekend by two different colleagues, let me offer a few thoughts on Luke Harrington’s January 2015 piece, “Baptizing ‘Masculinity’: The Real Reason Men Are Leaving the Church.” In short, Harrington suggests … More Are Men Leaving the Church Because It’s Insufficiently Intellectual?

Blanchard Hall at Wheaton College

Wheaton, Islam, and the Christ-Centered University

December 17, 2015

Someone who likes to blog about Christian higher education probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve only visited the “evangelical Harvard” once. Last fall I was invited to accompany our president and some of his cabinet to a meeting of the Christian College Consortium at Wheaton College, where I got to share ten minutes’ worth of reflections on how … More Wheaton, Islam, and the Christ-Centered University

Aerial view of Bluffton University

Another Mennonite School Leaves the CCCU Over Sexuality

December 8, 2015

Inside Higher Ed reports that Bluffton University has become the latest Christian college to allow for the hiring of gay and lesbian employees, after it added sexual orientation to its anti-bias policy. At the same time, Bluffton announced that it was leaving the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), which currently has a task force reviewing its membership categories after Goshen … More Another Mennonite School Leaves the CCCU Over Sexuality

Leith Anderson

Who’s an Evangelical?

November 20, 2015

So I was all ready to take up the questions that closed my last post — Who’s an evangelical? and What shapes their response to issues like the refugee crisis? — when the National Association of Evangelicals and LifeWay Research announced their own answer to the first question. As reported by Bob Smietana of Christianity Today: “Evangelicals are people … More Who’s an Evangelical?

Refugees in Budapest train station, Sept. 2015

What Do Evangelicals Actually Think about Refugees?

November 18, 2015

As the debate over refugees, terrorism, and Islam continued to swirl yesterday, some of you probably saw this story pop up on social media: Christian groups break with GOP over Syrian refugees https://t.co/irrUcDTv5v | AP Photo pic.twitter.com/cc2ZkYxRgw — POLITICO (@politico) November 18, 2015 “Christian groups break with GOP over Syrian refugees,” claimed the headline of … More What Do Evangelicals Actually Think about Refugees?