Tag: Racism

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

Aerial view of the Oklahoma Wesleyan University campus

This is Not Leadership: A Response to Everett Piper’s “Day Care” Post

December 3, 2015

When it was first posted last month, I had little desire to respond to a blog post in which Oklahoma Wesleyan University president Everett Piper railed against “victimization” culture on American college campuses. To an anonymous OKWU student who was apparently upset that a recent chapel talk about love (1 Cor 13) “made him feel bad for not … More This is Not Leadership: A Response to Everett Piper’s “Day Care” Post

Branscombe, "The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth"

That Was The Week That Was

November 28, 2015

Here… • It wasn’t quite the total vacation from blogging that I’d expected, but only two posts this week: a critique of Christian History Magazine‘s attempt to rank the top 25 Christian writings of all time, and a reflection on my favorite Thanksgiving hymn. …There (Gobble, Gobble)… • Meanwhile, Tracy McKenzie concluded his Thanksgiving countdown with a … More That Was The Week That Was

Silliman College

Is College a “Home”?

November 9, 2015

I don’t think I have any wisdom to offer on the controversy brewing at Yale University, where some students are outraged at what they perceive to be the lack of institutional response to racism on campus. But I think it raises some important questions about the nature of college education, particularly at schools that advertise themselves … More Is College a “Home”?

Burtchaell, Dying of the Light

The Secularization(s) of Christian Higher Education

October 27, 2015

On the eve of the decision of Goshen College and Eastern Mennonite University to withdraw from the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), historian William Ringenberg told WORLD Magazine that the debate over those schools’ decision to hire LGBT faculty was “traumatic” for Christian higher ed. In his judgment, only one other crisis had been more significant: … More The Secularization(s) of Christian Higher Education

Michael Emerson

Michael Emerson on the Role of the Christian University

August 21, 2015

As a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church, I was thrilled to see our denomination’s university, North Park, hire sociologist Michael Emerson as its new provost. Most recently on faculty at Rice University, he taught at Bethel in the mid-to-late Nineties. Probably best known for writing Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America with … More Michael Emerson on the Role of the Christian University