I am reminding myself of this fact: it is a discussion about white evangelical voters. Here is the comment from David French:
The bottom line is that the percentage of white Americans identifying as Evangelical grew from 25 to 29 percent between 2016 and 2020, powered mainly by the fact that 16 percent of Trump supporters who didn’t identify as Evangelical in 2016 started considering themselves Evangelical by 2020.
Read moreScot McKnight, author A Church Called Tov, has a regular column he writes through substack, so this may be behind a paywall. His concern these days revolves around toxic leadership, how churches are blind to it and actually develop it, and how to change church culture to move away from that model when looking for the next leader of their church.
Read morePhilip Yancey had an interview in Publisher’s Weekly reflecting on his upbringing. I wish I had been a bit quicker to my own realizations like Yancey, or Eugene Peterson. I’m a slow learner.
Read moreMany Black pastors have said, “Thank you so much for writing this book.” Or young Black people who find themselves in evangelical spaces coming out of the Black church said, “There’s finally a book that helps me explain where I come from.”
Read moreAs I work my way through Jesus and John Wayne I am struck by several things.
Read moreThe title grabbed me. “Is Jemar Tisby’s best selling book about racism a fluke?”
Jemar Tisby’s first book is called The Color of Compromise and it is hard hitting. He gives an unvarnished look at the American church and its complicity all through history when it has come to slavery and racism. When George Floyd’s murder happened, his book flew off the shelves. It hit The New York Times bestseller list.
Is this a breakthrough moment or a “one off”?
Read moreThe Church is a very human institution and this week is a very human week in the American conservative (white) church. I am thankful for voices like Tish Harrison Warren and her encouraging words of hope.
It may look tough or bleak:
Read moreIt will take another 25 years or so to honestly do a decent job on the post mortem, but there are the roots of this fall that are being talked about now. We are entering a time of Babylonian captivity as the white conservative church. The question of our awareness and willingness is another matter altogether.
Read moreHowever, to an unusual degree, evangelicals have remained oblivious to how their own stories map onto larger histories. It’s not that evangelicals disregard history entirely, but they tend to prefer their own versions of events. At a popular level, pseudo-historians have played fast and loose with historical evidence to spin fanciful tales of America’s Christian origins. Within academic circles, some evangelical historians have produced narratives that tend to downplay the darker sides of their religious tradition.
Read moreIn another time I would have sat and read Peterson’s biography front to back with enthusiasm… and then be finished. At this point in life, I am somehow given to more reflection and this book gives me opportunity for evaluation and examination.
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