(OPINION) The Bible isn’t intended as a scientific textbook, and science doesn’t prove the Scriptures true. But there’s no doubt those ancient nomads, carpenters and fishermen had tapped into something way beyond themselves. They sensed truths they had no logical means of proving.
Read More(OPINION) As odd as all this might seem, spontaneous revivals in Christianity aren’t terribly unusual. On Feb. 3, 1970, a revival erupted at what was then Asbury College. That one, too, began at a morning chapel service. It lasted 185 hours nonstop. Intermittently, it continued for weeks. Ultimately it spread across the United States and to other countries.
Read More(OPINION) A New York Times piece was an example of what dialogue between church folks and the secular media can look like if people on both sides check their preconceptions, remain open and speak civilly. They might not form a merger, but they can come to know each other.
Read More(OPINION) In the first part of life, we’re controlled by the fear-based preoccupations of the lizard brain. This is natural. Then, at some point, something happens — usually a cataclysmic fall. Such a fall can destroy us if we let it. But it also can serve as an upward call.
Read More(OPINION) We learn the most valuable things we learn not so much by embarking on a purposeful pilgrimage or a defined course of study — although such pursuits have their place — but by flopping blindly through life bumping into things.
Read More(OPINION) God is so great none of us can comprehend all that he is. Ten of us — or 10 denominations, even — can’t grasp the full mystery. Thus we ought to approach other pilgrims with open minds and open hearts, looking for what we can impart to them and also what we can receive from them.
Read More(OPINION) We’d prefer saints come wrapped in pure polished gold (or at least carved from alabaster), ready for mounting on a church shelf or a plinth in a public square. Sadly for us — and for our religious and civic saints, too — nobody, not even the greatest among us, navigates life on Earth without amassing dings, tarnish and cracks.
Read More(OPINION) All of us have been through a lot the past few years: a pandemic, insane political upheavals, inflation, general economic uncertainty. The problems we face are real, no question about that. But it’s also easy for us to overblow them, to obsess over the negatives and fail to recognize the positives.
Read More(OPINION) The linchpin of N.T. Wright’s scholarship is his unusual theory about what Jesus was actually doing here 2,000 years ago. His radical view is that Jesus wasn’t primarily concerned about taking his followers to heaven. Instead, Jesus meant to bring heaven to Earth, to fulfill the Hebrew scriptures and Jewish traditions by uniting the two domains — heaven and Earth — into one kingdom.
Read More(OPINION) Nobody is ever just one thing. Nobody is just a Trump supporter and that’s all. Nobody is just a wackadoodle leftie and that’s all. That Trumpian or that granola cruncher is also a parent, a sibling, a son or daughter, an employee, a co-worker, a little league coach, a ballroom dancer, a store manager, a deacon, a teacher, a caregiver to an elderly parent — and/or 20 other things.
Read More(OPINION) The generations come and go, thrive and suffer and die out. Ultimately they’re forgotten, except for names on tombstones or signatures on ancient deeds and wills. Who they were, what they thought, who they loved, what they feared — it all vanishes into the ether. And nobody but God knows what it all means.
Read More(OPINION) It may sound contrived to say one song you listened to 35 years ago changed you. But hearing “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” I realized you could be from places such as Loretta and I were from and cherish them as gifts, not curse them as barriers. You didn’t have to fix the way you talked — it made you different, but not inferior.
Read More(OPINION) When evangelicals of all people fail to live up to the the New Testament’s commandments, our failure is far more glaring. It smacks of hypocrisy. Here, then, I offer six virtues the New Testament requires of all pilgrims who would be disciples of Jesus Christ:
Read More(OPINION) Prohibition, as you’ve probably heard it, was the age of insanity, when a bunch of sanctimonious busybodies briefly cast the country into chaos, thirst and violence by trying to ban liquor … and fun itself. But there’s a big problem with that trope: as Schrad establishes, hardly any of the conventional wisdom is true.
Read More(OPINION) The Scriptures are far more specific about biblical virtues than about biblical justice. The doing of justice — David French calls it the “what” of politics or the specific policies Christians support — can evolve differently in different countries at different times. But the “how” of politics doesn’t evolve at all. The how requires genuine kindness and humility in all places at all times.
Read More(OPINION) The cosmos is complex beyond our imagination. We can’t understand the wonders going on beneath our own skin, much less in the vast heavens. How complex, then, must be the God who created all that? As St. Augustine famously observed, if you can understand it, it’s not God.
Read More(OPINION) For the Rev. Duane Beachey, the central miracle of the early church was its willingness to abolish racial barriers. Too often, Beachey said, although Christians “claim to take the Bible quite literally from Genesis to Revelation, they don’t take the words of Jesus literally most of the time.”
Read More(OPINION) Jesus said God’s commandments were love God with all your heart, and love other people as much as yourself. That’s it. So why do Christians so routinely miss it? Why do nearly all of us fail to obey the gospel’s very foundation?
Read More(OPINION) Being old doesn’t feel much different from being middle-aged. I’d always expected something dramatic. A grand demarcation. Instead, I’m pretty much doing what I’ve done forever. But when you’re old, you may have 20 wonderful years left or 20 minutes. You wake up in the morning, cross yourself (even if you’re not Catholic) and pray for the best.
Read More(OPINION) The preacher as political powerbroker is much more rare than many might think. In fact, one political scientist argues that most ministers from the right, left and center intentionally dodge political topics. That’s not because they fear the Internal Revenue Service but because they’re concerned about their careers and congregants.
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