Long ago, the songwriter Rich Mullins, ever the contemplative poet, sang about the Genesis narrative of Jacob’s epically dysfunctional family, “Well it’s right there in the Bible, so it must not be a sin,” not endorsing such a view, but modeling the confusion we often feel when we read the Old Testament and see the...
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I’ve been all but banned from watching political debates in our home. My inability to restrain myself when it comes to critiquing, loudly, whatever passes for logical argument today has made me a pariah in our library. No one talks about the State of the Union with me anymore… While I have plenty to say...
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In the United States, we have the privilege of living under a government elected by and accountable to its citizens. We also have a history of robust civic engagement in the political process. The last several years have witnessed a degree of polarization not seen for decades in American political life. This polarization has prompted...
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Part I of this article explored the current state in the United States of what is being called Christian Nationalism. While the alarmism is overblown, there is appropriate concern about excessively exuberant displays of nationalism by many Christians, and a small but vocal group of Christian writers seeks to use the attention on Christian Nationalism...
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As another national election cycle heats up, inevitably news stories will focus even more on “Christian Nationalism.” The term first emerged in broad circulation over the last several years as a critique by the political and religious left of several different developments: the overwhelming support of Evangelicals for President Trump; various incidents such as the...
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Last month Jacob Birch wrote a widely-viewed article at Christianity Today questioning the common use of Jeremiah 29 in the Western church. In short, Birch complains that the common refrain, “We live in a period of exile” in today’s Western church is an ill-advised framework to understand the church’s relationship to our broader culture. We...
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