Tag: Prophecy

Drawing of Billy Sunday preaching (1915)

“Tell It Like It Is”: How Pastors Can Respond to Election Day

November 12, 2016

Let me talk to pastors for a moment. (Though their congregants might want to listen in.) Sisters and brothers – Now that candidate Trump has become president-elect Trump, I know that many of you are struggling with how you’re going to preach tomorrow morning. Unsettled yourselves, you know that you’ll soon look out at the expectant faces of people feeling … More “Tell It Like It Is”: How Pastors Can Respond to Election Day

Donald Trump at a campaign rally in December 2015

“Tell It Like It Is”: How the Church Should Respond to Trump

June 1, 2016

During our travels over the holiday weekend, we visited a church and witnessed an odd, telling moment. Looking for a negative sermon illustration at one point, the pastor spontaneously mentioned “the presidential candidate who says he doesn’t need God’s forgiveness.” As best I can recall, the pastor didn’t even say Donald Trump’s name, but he clearly thought he had crossed … More “Tell It Like It Is”: How the Church Should Respond to Trump

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

Dr. Cornel West

Is Cornel West (or Michael Eric Dyson) a Prophet?

April 21, 2015

When the editorial staff of The New Republic resigned last year in a clash with new ownership, I pretty much resolved never to read the venerable magazine again. But I’ve found myself clicking those links again, most often when they address a topic that was never exactly a strength of the old TNR: religion. Most of this is thanks to … More Is Cornel West (or Michael Eric Dyson) a Prophet?

American Sniper poster

That Was The Month That Was: Christianity

January 31, 2015

One last month-long set of links covers posts and articles on Christianity. That Was The Week That Was will return next Saturday. • Why kick off a list of links on Christianity with Miles Mullin’s Anxious Bench post on American Sniper? Because Clint Eastwood’s Iraq War film “raises questions about the thinness of American Civil religion, a religion in which the … More That Was The Month That Was: Christianity

MLK's April 1963 mugshot

Birmingham Revolution: Not Everyone’s a Prophet

August 15, 2014

Among the many people to whom I recommended Ed Gilbreath’s new book this summer were colleagues and students in Bethel University’s Christianity and Western Culture (CWC) course. While that course effectively ends its narrative around 1800 (I go as far as the British parliament abolishing the slave trade in 1807) and we barely touch on U.S. history, the … More Birmingham Revolution: Not Everyone’s a Prophet

John the Baptist - Russian icon

Not a Prophet, Not an Apostle: Blogging after World Vision

April 14, 2014

I’m not a member of the Organization of American Historians and so wasn’t in Atlanta last week for its annual meeting. Fortunately, John Fea was, and not only lit up Twitter but shared some reflections on panels he attended or participated in. I was especially interested in his reports on two sessions: “Is Blogging Scholarship?” and … More Not a Prophet, Not an Apostle: Blogging after World Vision