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It’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer
I need the Daily Office. I need the daily confession. I need the daily reminder of the creed. In this time, it is even more vital. The Sermon on the Mountain is calling out to me again. I am writing with more purpose, deciding to write out my thoughts on the Sermon with as much fullness as possible. Honestly, I…
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We just like being comfortable as white Christians
Tish Harrison Warren sets the framework of how Christians SHOULD handle history… and then exposes the horrible way in which we try to stay comfortable: We’re struggling now as a society with how to tell the truth about how white supremacy has shaped our history and institutions. Several states have recently passed laws against teaching “critical race theory.” The imprecise…
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Thoughts on Deconstruction, Reconstruction, and Staying the Same
Let’s get the bad news out of the way. It’s been a year since the election and among evangelicals… little has changed. I know, big reveal! Thank you, Captain Obvious! But, here are the stats to back it up. And, of course, it was worse the second time around (from 2016 to 2020): Some evangelicals who objected to Trump during…
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When speaking up gets you called “elite”
David French is bold: Let me respond bluntly: If you’re not seeing how reactionary politics and intolerant “anti-woke” militancy are manifesting themselves on the right, then you’re not seeing how Christianity and large segments of the new right are opposed to each other. A godless and hateful movement is taking root in all too many American pews, often (and perversely)…
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“Evangelical” as a political label
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…
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The development of toxic leadership
Scot 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…
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Clinging to “gospel”
Philip 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.
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The exhaustion of white spaces in evangelicalism
Many 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.”
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We always need an enemy
As I work my way through Jesus and John Wayne I am struck by several things.
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The fluke
The 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…