White Christian nationalism is back in full force. White Christians will need to do everything in their power to stop it — even those of us who avoid politics. When interviewed about Donald Trump’s success last week on NPR, former Republican presidential candidate and adviser to three presidents Pat Buchanan argued for a white, homogenous America, claiming that diversity of language and culture undermines our nation.
White nationalism is idolatry, plain and simple. As Christians our allegiance is to God, not to the American flag. “God’s country” is not the U.S.A but the whole human race, which is created in the image of God — no matter the race, no matter the religion. Our biblical alarm bells should go off when we hear candidates or neighbors say the U.S. is more special to God than other countries, particularly if it's that our whiteness is what makes us great. This is heresy.
George Zimmerman, acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012, now claims he will auction the gun that took Trayvon Martin’s life.
Former neighborhood watch volunteer Zimmerman listed the weapon at gunbroker.com, promoting the sale as "your opportunity to own a piece of American history."
In an opening with historic import, Pope Francis has said he wants to study the possibility of ordaining women as deacons, a step that could for the first time open the ranks of the Catholic Church’s all-male clergy to women.
Justice work is good work. It is a high calling. It deserves great effort and exertion. But in today’s world, if our work in the realms of social justice mimics the exhausting routine of the fiercely competitive struggle for wealth and power, we would do well to take a moment to consider the biblical rhythm of Sabbath.
The esteemed rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote in The Sabbath that the holy day serves as a “sanctuary in time.” The invitation of the Sabbath is a summons to dwell in the eternality of time, he wrote, to turn from “the results of creation to the mystery of creation, from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”
“A Muslim mosque cannot be subjected to a different land-use approval process than a Christian church simply because local protesters oppose the mosque,” reads the brief from almost 20 religious and civil rights groups.
The root causes of Islamophobia are intolerance and misinformation, causes that come in all sorts of ugly packages like anti-Semitism, religious bigotry, sexism, and even racism. Islamophobia is just one way that our own insecurities, fueled by bigotry and a lack of information, come back to haunt us in a very real way.
Tracing God’s indomitable shalom throughout Scripture, The Very Good Gospel celebrates the blessed web of creation where the flourishing of one is the flourishing of all. Devoting nearly 20 pages to shalom between the genders, Lisa Sharon Harper considers her own experiences in Christian ministry where too often God’s gifts to women are shamed and marginalized. Harper challenges the theological distortions that rob men and women of that blessed partnership beaming throughout the pages of Scripture.
If I were to share my understanding of the gospel to my ancestors who walked the Cherokee Trail of Tears (according to family oral tradition) and slaved in South Carolina and Virginia (according to Census Slave Schedules), would they receive my simple understanding of Jesus’ “good news” as good news? Would they jump for joy to find out “God has a wonderful plan for their lives, but they are sinful and therefore separated from God, but Jesus died for their sin, so if they pray a simple prayer they get to go to heaven?”
If this news would not lead my oppressed ancestors to shout with joy, then maybe it’s not good news at all — or at least it’s not good enough.
The Association of Baptists for World Evangelism has released a 280-page report revealing how its leaders failed to stop a leading missionary surgeon from sexually abusing 22 women and girls.
It’s a story as familiar to small, neighborhood churches as it is to large megachurches, though those are the ones that grab headlines.