Seven years ago a few other evangelical pastors and I broke from tradition to create refuge for LGBTQ+ people in our churches. What happened? It was like a prison escape that helped the guards to reinforce security weak spots. My drama took place in Vineyard USA.
When Joe Manchin worry-tweeted that “Build Back Better” could turn us into an “the entitlement society,” he was employing an evangelical trope — one that many of his white, conservative, West Virginians well understand.
In white evangelicalism, everyone knows that those who depend on government handouts are likely to slip…
Simone Biles had a moment of inspiration this week. “Today it’s like, you know what, no,” she said, explaining her decision to withdraw from Olympic competition. Must have felt like a death — to the hope of Olympic gold, to the reward for untold hours of practice, of nursing various…
I was among a small cadre of evangelical pastors who refused to enforce hard-edged policies against LGBTQ members. Without exception we lost our jobs and all evangelical connections. Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered — we share strikingly similar tales that end with our unsightly remains quickly swept under the rug.
I wish I could tell you their real names, or their kids name, and all the details of their stories because that’s where the magic happens. We gather for dinner once a month (now via Zoom) to enjoy each other’s company, and to speak of our joys and sorrows. We…
I’m a former colleague of some highly educated Christians who also became Trump supporters. At first I thought it was owing to their radical anti-legal abortion stance. But no. They like Donald Trump. They didn’t hold their nose to vote for him. Many are inured to the rise of White…
Donald Trump would be a cultural side-show today without the support of white Christians, and not just evangelicals. (Fifty-seven percent of white mainline Protestants — from the so-called “liberal” sector of Christianity — voted for Trump in 2016.) These churches and their leaders, bear some responsibility for the harm unleashed…
To find out, let’s give the man a little truth serum and see what he says.
“What a I really mean is our people don’t have much skin in the politics game, because things are already stacked to work for us. …
Co-Author with Emily Swan of Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance, and co-pastor of Blue Ocean Faith, Ann Arbor, a progressive, inclusive church (a2blue.org).
