In a gloomy prison about 1,820 years ago, a young nursing mother, desperately missing her baby, concludes the journal that she has been writing over the previous few weeks. Tomorrow she will die. She had never written anything like this journal before. But then, she had never faced a challenge like this one before either. Raised in a sheltered home before her marriage, her life seemed so ordinary, so unexceptional for her place and time. Until she met Jesus. Over... Read more
On the 10th of February, 1675/6, natives allied with the Wampanoag leader, King Philip (Metacom), attacked the village of Lancaster and besieged the home of the town minister, Joseph Rowlandson. This was one of a dozen raids that entirely razed whole British colonial townships during the terrifying King Philip’s War. Fundamentally, this war was an attempt, by a league of native tribes, to reclaim the wilderness from the British who had been domesticating and subduing it. The natives’ chief aim... Read more
It’s been just over a year since I found my beloved colleague of 20 years dead in his home. He hadn’t shown up for his Monday classes and didn’t answer his phone, so since we live near one another, I volunteered to stop by his house. His door was open and he was in his living room where he had apparently died of a cardiac event. It was his last semester of teaching before he had planned to retire in... Read more
The fact that the film Jesus Revolution was released at virtually the same time as the much publicized Asbury Revival looks like a very fortunate coincidence – although I am sure the film-makers would prefer the word “providential.” The film is an important and often moving study of revivalism in American history, but I will suggest that it does make some annoying mis-steps in how it presents the story. Jesus Revolution concerns the Christian revival that occurred among hippies and... Read more
At my church, Mosaic Waco, my co-pastor, Slim, and I are preaching through the book of Isaiah. The task is daunting, not merely because of the length of the book, but because the constant word of judgment can often be wearying for the people of God. Yet I am still constantly surprised by the material that I find in the Scriptures, even more so when it matches up so nicely with where my mind has been and will be all... Read more
Since 1987, March has been recognized as Women’s History Month in the United States. Tomorrow, March 8, is recognized as International Women’s Day. Most of us are probably familiar with this at least on some level– advertising campaigns, social media, and news stories highlight the accomplishments of past women leaders or trailblazers, emphasize current issues of inequality or discrimination, and mix celebrating the roles that women have played in our history with calling for a better future, in which women... Read more
We are back with another installment! Last month, I wrote about Eerdman’s Press’ new People Get Ready: Twelve Jesus-Haunted Misfits, Malcontents, and Dreamers in Pursuit of Justice, a collection of theological biographies of prominent figures in American life. We heard about people as varied as Bruce Klunder, Tom Skinner, Rachel Carson, Allan Tibbels, and Mary Paik Lee. This time we have some household names–Flannery O’Connor, Pete Seeger, Toni Morrison–and others–Sarah Patton Boyle, Jack Egan, and Ramon Dagoberto Quinones–virtually unknown. As... Read more
The First Peoples (Natives) viewed their geography as a space of spiritual interconnection between ecology and humanity facilitated by the force they called manitou (spirit). Natives approached their geography from the attitude of interdependence rather than dominance. They migrated seasonally to the resources they depended upon: men going on long hunts and women farming and raising children, while maintaining fisheries along the coast or major rivers. To the Natives, geography was not possessed or owned but sacred and shared by... Read more
The revival at Asbury University has been attracting intense excitement in the evangelical world, and a striking amount of attention in secular media. I myself have nothing new to add to that coverage, so I am delighted to include a personal account of this historic event by a participant and observer, in the guest post that follows. The author is Husezo Rhakho, who presented another guest post at this site last year. He does a terrific job of conveying the... Read more
Over Christmas break, I had the incredible privilege of visiting the Middle East for the first time. I spent a week and a half with family who live in Jordan. (We also spent three days visiting Bethlehem and Jerusalem, which will be the subject of a future post.) I had been abroad before, for decent amounts of time, in England, France, Japan, and Italy. But it had been more years than I am willing to admit publicly in this post.... Read more
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