Essential Worship
Perhaps we shouldn’t applaud being called “essential.” A government with the power to designate us as “essential” also has the power to designate us as not.
Death in the Middle of Death: On the Execution of Walter Barton
It’s been over two months (75 days to be exact) since we’ve had an execution. There are only two other times since the turn of the century the state has gone that long without executing someone. But last Tuesday (May 19), that pause came to
Learning to Color
A friend sent me a card in the mail. Tucked inside her note was a folded coloring sheet. She had already colored half of it and asked me to color the other half, then return to her. I was instantly smitten with the idea.
For White Churches, Race Should Not Be an ‘Over There’ Problem
Will your church say anything about Ahmaud Arbery this Sunday? Did your church say anything about Breonna Taylor last Sunday?
Pompeo Investigation Could Undo Religious Freedom Movement’s ‘Success’
The growing concern that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got his inspector general fired to remove the threat of an inquiry into a Saudi arms deal should worry advocates of international religious freedom.
St. Paul Would Say, ‘Don’t Be Like Mike’
Sports journalists often point to the careers of great athletes who didn’t win a championship and call their greatness into question by asking, “Where are the rings?” Christians, by contrast, must look at the careers of great athletes and ask, “Where is the love?”
Treating Costco Like My Church
Some people wanting to reopen their church amid coronavirus restrictions say churches should be treated like Costco. So, I decided to test this theory out. What if my church service could operate like a Costco?
How Americans’ ‘Tell It Like It Is’ Attitude Renders Us Vulnerable to Conspiracy Theories
The mythos of American self-making — that with the right amount of grit and cunning, the individual can determine his own truth and fate — lends itself to the view that civil bureaucracies and establishments, by contrast, are inherently sclerotic and corrupt: the information they
My Books, My Friends
More than 25 of my many years were spent in school. In those years I read, accumulated, and appreciated many books. I came to regard those books as friends. We became so familiar I could recognize them on the shelf while sitting at my desk
Faith for When We Don’t Know What’s Next
I must acknowledge that this year has not turned out the way that I had hoped or prayed. And unfortunately, we do not have any idea when life will begin to look like we thought it would. The only thing we can be certain of