It has become perhaps the best word to describe how this cultural moment has affected my life.

What I believe and how I live has not changed much over the past years. But the world has. Nothing seems to be working the same way it once did, as if the meaning of words, traditional institutions, and social rules are all up for grabs. I can’t assume that people read the same news sources any more, operate by the same set of assumptions, and believe that same basic truths about life…

We often assume that the Psalms are prayers addressed to God, which is true enough, but only partly so. They are actually more like conversations that include a variety of parties. The Psalmist does speak to God, of course, as God speaks to him. But he also speaks to friends, fellow Israelites, enemies, and even himself. Sometimes he gives hints about the circumstances that prompted him to write, too. Once we understand the constant shift in audiences and the larger context (when it is possible to discover it), the Psalms begin to take on more meaning…

A careful and caring reader raised a question about my last blog post, “The Limits of Freedom.” She gave me permission to identify her by her initials and to respond to her comments and criticism. Her point was well taken. It deserves a response…

This is what makes both Christianity and Christians peculiar. Christians live everywhere. They hold to the same faith, follow the same practices, live the same lifestyle, but adapt to different circumstances. They learn how to fit in, but they refuse to be taken in and to buy in. They maintain just enough distance to see things from a kingdom point of view.

God often disappoints.

I don’t know of a person who has not been disappointed by God at some point in their lives. It is a universal experience. We pray—desperately so—for some need or desire that seems right and good. But God remains silent. We cry out to God to help us kick some habit that has been eating away at us for years. But we keep failing. We appeal to God to defeat our enemies, assuming they must be God’s enemies, too. But God ignores us…

“The church in America is failing because it has aligned itself too closely with political leader and party.  This applies equally to both parties.  Such alignment might achieve short term gains but it will lead to long term losses, for the very reason de Tocqueville cited almost 200 years ago.  Associating its fortunes too closely with leader and party, its influence and relevance might rise for a season but in the end will surely fall.  In the meantime, it will fail to fulfill what Jesus has commanded Christians to do, which is to make disciples.  That is no small task.  If the church obeys this radical command, its influence will only grow, without the need for compromise….”

I live in Spokane, WA. Located on the east side of the state, our city is far more conservative than Seattle. It is also surprisingly secular.

Over the past few elections I have noticed signs all over the city that state, “We Believe, We Vote.” I know a few of the people who serve as leaders of the organization. Their goal is to provide Christian guidelines for voting, measuring candidates according to a standard that in their minds reflects Christian principles…

Last year my Resilient Faith: How the Early Christian “Third Way” Changed the World was published (Brazos Press), which I have mentioned before (and will no doubt mention again!)…

How should we, as Christians living in America, read the Bible with the nation in mind? This question looms large in our minds as we consider what it means to be a “Christian nation” in the current political climate…

America has always carried the image of being a “Christian nation,” and in a way that separates it from the Christian nations of Europe, where Christendom reigned for centuries. America has an odd identity as a Christian nation because, unlike most nations in Europe, the Framers of the Constitution made it clear that they did not want America to be officially Christian—Christian according to Christendom—but unofficially so—Christian according to influence.

They designed a system of government that was both secular and Christian, the two held together in a paradoxical and symbiotic relationship…

The Framers were not uniform in their religious beliefs, ranging from evangelical to Deist. Still, all believed in two principles that were necessary for the success of the new nation. First, there could be no official establishment of religion; second, there had to be robust religious influence, by which they meant, at least for the most part, Christian influence. The result was the peculiar symbiotic relationship between secularity and Christianity that we find in the Constitution and Bill of Rights…

During my many years at Whitworth I taught a research seminar addressing the topic of religion in American public life. The course content often caught students by surprise. Conservative students discovered that America’s Christian identity was more complex than they had assumed. Progressive and secular students discovered that America was more deeply Christian than they had thought. As it turns out, neither group had learned the whole story…

Years ago I attended an art exhibit that carried the unusual title, “Doubletake.” The curator arranged the exhibit by grouping together paintings and photographs that didn’t at first seem to belong together. His goal was to challenge visitors to view art from a fresh angle of vision, to do a “doubletake.”

In fall 2019 I received an email from a representative of Scripture Union. Much to my surprise, the email informed me that I had been invited to travel to Korea under the sponsorship of Scripture Union for a speaking tour. This tour would culminate, the email explained, in a special lecture I would deliver to commemorate the official publication of the Korean translation of my book, Resilient Faith…

Movements rely on slogans. They express an essence, stating in one phrase a core conviction. In the 1930s, for example, many church leaders coined the phrase, “Never Again!” to voice their resistance to entering another global war. Eventually they changed their minds, though their support of the war effort was far more cautious…

One of the major problems that white male Christians like me face in the west is our inclination to embrace identities that become more important to us than our identity as followers of Jesus.

In Paul’s day the culture was severely stratified. In the case of Roman culture, the biggest and deepest division was between rich, elite Romans, which comprised less than 5% of the population, and everyone else, though that “everyone else” was further divided into the artisan class, freemen, foreigners, women, slaves, and more.

A student—now graduated, married with family, and gainfully employed in tech—told me this story a few years ago. You will see shortly just how relevant it is.

He played basketball for a private school. Naturally talented, he won a starting position as a sophomore. The team made it to the state finals. It was, he told me, a very close game…

The Covid 19 crisis has thrown the church into confusion. At first we thought Sunday worship before a live congregation would be postponed for several weeks at the least and several months at the most. Church leaders assumed that they could use technology—Facebook, YouTube, Live Stream, Zoom—as a substitute for the short term. Such a solution was “good enough” until the curve flattened, the crisis abated, and life—including the church’s life—would return to normal.

We all know of defining moments in American history. The death of George Floyd could be one of them, though it is too early to predict with certainty. The long-term results depend, of course, on what will follow after the protests have faded and the country returns to some semblance of normality.