Uncategorized

In the law, there is a concept of interpretation where an individual law can be used either as a sword or as a shield. A law is used as a sword when it is weaponized, used to hurt people or denigrate the law itself. Law is used as a shield when it is employed to help people, protect them or fortify the integrity of the law in general. We choose […]

The accreditation agency for over 2,700 evangelical nonprofits wants to raise its standards to address “one of the greatest financial risks” posed to churches and ministries today: moral failures by leadership.For decades, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) has established guidelines around financial transparency, stewardship, and governance. This year, the organization announced plans to add a new requirement to address the integrity and character of a ministry’s leaders.It’d be […]

Something has happened in the last 25 years in American evangelicalism—what I believe to be a massive generational shift. I’d like to sketch a picture of the change I see and ask if you see it too.First, though, let me set the scene. I have in mind low-church Protestant traditions in the United States: churches centered on the Bible, evangelism, and personal faith in Jesus; often but not necessarily nondenominational, […]

More than 15 years after Nepal officially became a secular democracy, the former Hindu monarchy may have a religious extremism problem, incited and aggravated by its closest neighbor.In an “alarming” development, Indian Hindutva ideology and politics have begun to spread throughout the country, as local experts and journalists report. This proliferation has resulted in a recent spate of attacks and restrictions on Christians reported within the country of 30 million.According […]

I’m tired of Christianity’s bad image.I’m tired of Trump and the blindness of MAGA Christians who connect faith with Making America Great.I’m tired of evangelical Christian Nationalists for their insistence that the US will be “blessed” for supporting Israel, even amid Palestinian genocide. (Note that support for Israel as a nation and Netanyahu is different from supporting Jewish people and Jewish faith.)Let’s calmly agree: America is not a Christian nation. […]

|“I just feel politically homeless these days.”Within the past six hours, just as I was writing this, I heard something along those lines from two very different people: an elected official who’s a conservative Republican and a progressive activist who happens to be Jewish. Whether due to the polarizing figure of Donald Trump in the first case or the rise of antisemitism since the October 7 attacks on Israel in […]

AdvertisementSupported byFar from the shouting, Christian therapists, writers, parents and their trans children are trying to create a space within conservative circles to acknowledge differences in how people experience gender.By Ruth GrahamRuth Graham writes about religion and belief. She spent several months speaking with conservative Christians, transgender people and their families in Colorado, New York and Texas.Andrew and Debbie James are evangelical Christians. Born in England, the couple moved to […]

If you want this website to work, you must enable javascript.Some years ago I wrote a piece for First Things entitled “The Calvary Option.” It took its cue from the 2014 movie Calvary, which followed the last seven days in the life of a priest who knew that someone was planning to kill him. The killer wanted to do so as revenge for sexual abuse he had suffered as a child […]

In spring of last year, many of us saw a photo of the late Timothy Keller sitting on a park bench. The photo was used on the cover of Collin Hansen’s biography of Keller, and it circulated around the internet in May when he passed away—on social media, blogs, and even Keller’s personal website.What most of us didn’t see, however, was the banana peel lying on the bench only a […]