Last Sunday morning when my phone reminded me it was October 22, I felt moved to say something about it. The result, completed late afternoon of the same day, was this widely shared essay. I was astonished at how many of you resonated with my feeling that the church we grew up in used fear and […]
I spent a significant portion of my childhood and teens intensely jealous of the spiritually certain. Those who spoke of ‘blessed assurance’; who claimed, ‘I haven’t a doubt in my mind that….’; or believed that ‘God has made it unmistakably clear that….’ How could they be so unwavering in their faith, I wondered? What did […]
When I was an undergraduate, I didn’t understand how much representation mattered. I’d heard people argue about it, but I thought the discussion was superfluous. I heard it discussed in church, but assumed it was just bickering. Sure, it would be nice if there were more women in positions of influence, but that shouldn’t affect […]
Some years ago I was the pastor of a venerable congregation in Ohio with a name you would recognize, mostly because of the vegetarian meat analogs that were manufactured there. The congregation had outgrown their old church, and we were building a new one. As we were planning the new church, I remember asking one […]
Some time ago, Adventist Today was forwarded a video clip from an independent ministry that made what immediately seemed to us some rather preposterous assertions. I needn’t tell you who it came from or what the claims were; if you’ve not seen the one we saw, you’ve seen many very much like it. Without even looking […]