Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey (Or How I Survived Spiritual Abuse but Still Bear the Scars) Part Four (Final) Having now told my story of spiritual abuse at the hands of trusted spiritual mentors, I will reflect on it theologically and practically. That is, I will offer some thoughts about God’s role in what happened to me—to help others think about how best to consider God’s plan, purpose and involvement in... Read more

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey (Or How I Survived Spiritual Abuse but Still Bear the Scars) Part Three Again…some readers may wonder why I am telling this story here and now? One reason is that nothing communicates truth better than stories. That’s why Jesus told parables and much of the Bible consists of stories—some of them not very pleasant, “inspiring,” “uplifting.” If I simply wrote about spiritual abuse, cultic behavior, in... Read more

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey (Or How I Survived Spiritual Abuse but Still Bear the Scars) Part Two So why am I telling this story of my spiritual journey, including being part of what I now look back on as a cult, here and now? Over the years, especially as I have taught courses in three Christian universities and series in literally hundreds of churches about “cults and new religions” (“unsafe... Read more

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey (Or How I Survived Spiritual Abuse but Still Bear the Scars) One of the subjects I touch on here frequently (and one of my reasons for having this blog) is “cults.” We don’t hear as much about the issue as some years ago—especially from the late 1970s through the 1990s. That was the era when “cults” became a favorite topic in the media due to mass... Read more

Announcing My Newest Book: Counterfeit Christianity: The Persistence of Errors in the Church A couple years ago I was approached by a requisitions editor at Abingdon Press (the United Methodist Publishing House) to write a book about heresies. I never knew the publisher’s exact motive, but I suspect it is part of a general concern among many (including some bishops I know) in the United Methodist Church to turn around the denomination’s “theological pluralism” and renew at least a general... Read more

A Major Problem I See with American Culture Today We (America) claim to be a pluralistic society; we celebrate “otherness.” Of course there are individuals and subcultures that strongly oppose pluralism and want to impose their worldview, form of life, on everyone. In fact, that is exactly the problem I see and here decry. We pretend to be pluralistic when, in fact, we are not. Sure, in the grassroots, pluralism abounds. In public spaces, however, the two values that are... Read more

Reconsidering My Statement about Pope Francis When the cardinals of the Catholic Church elected a pope to replace retiring Benedict XVI I said here that I was uninterested and didn’t care. The reason was simple: Not that I have anything in particular against Catholics or the Catholic Church but that, as a Baptist, the pope does not speak for me. Some Protestants, including a few Baptists, have begun in the last few years (since they became enamored with John Paul... Read more

Stretching the Evangelical Tent Right and Not Left I’ve long advocated a “big tent” view of “evangelical Christianity”—here and in my published writings. My tendency has long been to accept as authentically evangelical any Christian who claims to be evangelical and who fits the basic profile generally accepted by evangelical historians of the movement: George Marsden, Donald W. Dayton, Mark Noll, David Bebbington, Randall Balmer, et al. Some people naturally want to know why it matters. Who cares who’s authentically... Read more

I rarely repeat posts here, but I think this old one (2011) is worth posting again. I’ve become increasingly concerned that many American Christians (and perhaps especially evangelicals) confuse patriotism with nationalism to the extent that idolatry lurks close by. Patriotism is love for one’s country without blinders about its flaws and defects.  Patriotism seeks to actualize the highest and best ideals of one’s country which can sometimes look like disloyalty to nationalists.  Nationalists tend to confuse “country” with “government”... Read more

Must Gays Be Offended? One reader of this blog, whose opinions expressed here I usually find constructive and helpful (even when I don’t agree) suggested in her comment that refusing to refer to civil unions as marriages is offensive to gay persons. I understand this challenge, but, at the same time, think that persons should not be offended if others, driven by conscience and/or religious conviction, call their unions “civil unions” rather than marriages. Gays need to recognize that conservative... Read more