Protestants aren’t very good at dealing with difficult social/ethical issues. Roman Catholics, while they have their own problems, are much better at this. Why? They have an extensive body of theological and ethical teaching produced for the church and adopted by the church. In my own Methodist world, we have nothing really like this. We…
The recent Roman Catholic sexual abuse scandal brings to mind a question I have heard many people ask over the years: If Christians believe what they claim to believe, why do all of these scandals keep taking place? The Church and Moral Failings To be perfectly clear, Roman Catholics certainly aren’t the only Christians who…
A recent CNN headline proclaims: This televangelist is asking his followers to buy him a $54 million private jet The televangelist in question is Jesse Duplantis, leader of Jesse Duplantis Ministries out of Louisiana. He apparently owns three other jets as well. (It’s hard to get by with just one, after all.) In response, my…
If you’d like to read the first two installments of this series, you can click here for part one and here for part two. The church has always faced ongoing pressure to adapt itself to the preferences, morals, and worldview of the broader cultures within which it has existed. I’ve said before that reading Resident Aliens:…
You’ve probably seen the much-ballyhooed PRRI survey, a segment of which indicates that white evangelical Christians feel that Christians are more discriminated against than Muslims in the United States. (If you haven’t, you have to scroll down for a while to get to this table.) Other groups interviewed for the survey disagree. I was intrigued by…
There are certain words in intra-Christian discourse that get (over)used to the point that they lose all real significance. The term “prophetic” is quickly becoming such a word. Standing up for a particular iteration of social justice does not make one a prophet, though many are quick to claim that mantle. Being a prophet means…
There are some professions in which notoriety is simply unavoidable. If you are a pastor, you may stand up in front of a congregation each week and proclaim the Christian gospel. If you are a professor, you have formal engagement with students to whom you impart knowledge and teach the skills of critical thinking. If…
A plan has recently emerged to preserve the unity of the UMC. I encourage you to read it carefully and prayerfully. The proposal begins by diagnosing a very serious problem in our denomination: we have reached an impasse on matters related to “self-avowed, practicing homosexual” people. The proposal then offers a potential solution which I…
Leo Durocher once wrote, “Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.” I would add that baseball, like church, involves a community that you have to be a part of in order to gain understanding. To appreciate the beauty of the game of baseball, you have to learn to sit with it. You have to…