Category: Evangelicalism
Speech Without Accountability: Reckoning with Anonymous Christian Trolls
Our church invited Aimee Byrd to speak on Sunday morning several weeks ago. It wasn’t the first time. It won’t be the last time. While we only ordain men, we also allow non-ordained individuals to teach our congregation periodically—including women....
What Augustine Might Say to Someone Deconstructing
In my early twenties, I dove deep into questions and doubts about the Christian faith. After hundreds of Sundays, countless youth programs, and a few years at a Christian college, I began dismantling many things I had always assumed. Today...
What Two Gilded Age Christian Socialists Would Say to Evangelicals Today
The rehabilitation of socialism’s reputation among Millennials and Gen Z has grabbed the attention of political analysts in recent years: “Socialism as Popular as Capitalism Among Young Adults in U.S.” (Gallup). “Majority of Gen Z Americans Hold Negative Views of...
Seminary Anxiety
Everyone here bites their nails. I first noticed this last Fall and the realization was at once troubling and consoling. Troubling, because this is a child’s bad habit; consoling, because at least I’m not the only one who hasn’t used...
Karl Barth’s Warning for Evangelical Theology
“What is culture in itself except the attempt of man to be man and thus to hold the good gift of his humanity in honor and to put it to work?” —Karl Barth In 1957, Karl Barth delivered his lecture...
The Uselessness of “Christian Nationalism”
Over the past several years the topic of Christian nationalism has occupied the minds of Evangelical intellectuals and pastors. No less than half a dozen books have been written on the subject in the past year. Three of them have...
One Year Later: Reflecting on Evangelicalism’s Six-Way Fracturing
Skyler Flowers also contributed to this essay. Reflections on the Six Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism a Year Later Critical Race Theory. Afghanistan. Verdicts in Floyd and Arbery cases. Kyle Rittenhouse. Vaccine Mandates. Russia invades Ukraine. Roe v. Wade overturned. Uvalde...
Shame
Shame is, amongst other things, the problem of how to understand yourself and your relationship to neighbor in the aftermath of offending or hurting your neighbor. Given the fragmentation of our society, we shouldn’t be surprised that no one seems...
Hephzibah House: A Beacon of Hospitality in New York City
And thou shalt be called Hephzibah… For the Lord delighteth in thee. —Isaiah 62:4 It’s no secret that New York City can feel cold, confusing, and unwelcoming to newcomers. And that was true even before two years of COVID shutdowns...
Evangelization After the Secular Sabbath
For Christians of a certain age, I expect a certain kind of Christian testimony will sound familiar: You grow up in a home with both of your biological parents (who are married), you grow up in and around the church,...