Peace with Graham
One of my pastors offered a humorous shorthand for dealing with the complexities of defining American evangelicalism when I was a teenager. He repeated the joke, popular at the time, that an evangelical was anyone …
Politics
Challenging the influence of Trump and Tuberville with the love of Christ
The First Epistle to Timothy cautions us about a particular trait of “the last days.” Specifically, the presence of “Seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a …
Exvangelical: Peeps just in time for Easter
In 1953, Russian immigrant Sam Born purchased the Rodda Candy Company and promptly replaced the handcrafted marshmallow chick line with the cold mechanization of mass production to make Peeps. What was once the work of …
Profundity and Absurdity
The two aging gladiators met on a makeshift wooden platform outside the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, TN. The most famous courtroom scene in American history did not even take place in a courtroom. The …
What might the Pentecostal/Charismatic future of Evangelicalism mean?
I got my first taste of Spirit-filled higher life theology from the long-serving recently deceased pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta, Charles Stanley. Stanley’s The Wonderful Spirit-Filled Life and its accompanying sermon series were released …
Exvangelical: Are we the good guys?
“I thought we were the good guys.” Samantha Laruso (Mary Mouser) shares her disillusionment with her dad, Daniel (Ralph Macchio) in the first episode of season three of the Netflix series Cobra Kai. Her hopes …
After the storm, opening our eyes
The sound of a train barreling over our bedroom woke us. “Do you hear that?” my wife and I asked each other simultaneously. Outside the window, the sky was illumined by lightning so frequent that …
You cannot save the world, but you can do your part
“The first step,” I said, “is accepting that you’re not going to save the world. You’re not.” My comments were directed to a young person in my industry who was facing a mix of professional …
A Republican no longer: Voting anti-Trump in 2024
Asa Hutchinson, Bill Clinton and questions In 2014, I was a pastor at a small nondenominational church in Jonesboro, Arkansas. One afternoon, I decided to get a quick haircut at a place called Sportsclips. I …
Whitewashing the Dangerous Sin of Racism Needs to Stop Immediately
There is a palatable tension in the air. Do you feel it? This is the feeling of Black people standing up to our Nation’s racist systems. Another unarmed Black man is shot. This time it’s …