Glory, Violence, and the Gospel of Peace

Last updated on: May 12, 2025 at 2:18 pm By Brad Vaughn

Today’s guest post by Werner Mischke is an excerpt from his new book One New Humanity: Glory, Violence, and the Gospel of Peace (WCP, 2025), 206–08. It’s available at MissionBooks.org, Amazon.com, and other major retailers. Check out the book website, which includes short videos for each chapter. Note: In Appendix 1, I contributed an exegetical article, “Reconciling Atonement in Ephesians 2: An exegetical approach.” This 10,000-word theological article examines the often-overlooked text of Ephesians 2:11-22 relative to the doctrine of... Read more

Praise Is Not a Proxy for God’s Acceptance

Last updated on: March 12, 2025 at 10:19 am By Brad Vaughn

0 Comments

We live in an age of relentless self-promotion. Whether on social media or in ministry circles, people feel pressure to showcase their accomplishments—platforms built, books written, churches planted, degrees earned. Christians are not immune to this temptation. Without realizing it, many of us construct “spiritual resumes,” hoping to gain respect from others—and perhaps even to reassure ourselves of God’s approval. We subtly assume that people’s praise is a proxy for God’s acceptance. But the gospel calls us to something radically... Read more

How Dostoevsky Uses Honor and Shame in Crime and Punishment

Last updated on: January 11, 2025 at 12:02 pm By Brad Vaughn

0 Comments

While rereading Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment recently, I'm stuck by its enduring relevance for us today. In the book, honor and shame are woven throughout the story, driving the characters’ moral and spiritual journeys and anchoring the plot. Read more

Why Egalitarians Can Stay in a Complementarian Church

Last updated on: April 23, 2025 at 10:24 am By Brad Vaughn

0 Comments

If you’re convinced the Bible affirms women preaching and leading, what do you do when your church disagrees? Read more

Rediscovering Adults’ Role in Honor and Protection

Last updated on: January 11, 2025 at 12:07 pm By Brad Vaughn

0 Comments

Check out Freya India’s “The Need for Adults” if you want to read a powerful critique of modern parenting and much of the West’s adult culture. Her central argument is that modern adults have largely abandoned their roles as moral authorities. This claim raises fundamental questions about responsibility, identity, and cultural values. Accordingly, this post takes a close look at key parts of India’s argument. In the process, I’ll explore themes of honor, shame, and the moral vacuum that sucks... Read more

The War on the Western Church

Last updated on: April 1, 2025 at 7:06 am By Brad Vaughn

0 Comments

A troubling trend is to reduce the West to a collection of its worst sins. This same dynamic is playing out with the Western church. Read more

Weaponized Shame in Western Cultures

Last updated on: January 11, 2025 at 12:08 pm By Brad Vaughn

0 Comments

In Western culture today, shame has become a potent tool, often used in ways that deeply impact how people see themselves, behave, and relate to others. While shame can certainly play a constructive role by encouraging accountability or reinforcing social ties, its weaponization often has the opposite effect, damaging personal growth, relationships, and public discourse. Social Media, Cancel Culture, and Online Shaming Today, we see this weaponization of shame in all kinds of settings. A few obvious ones include social... Read more

Pride Economy: When Passion Becomes Workplace Exploitation

Last updated on: March 6, 2025 at 9:14 am By Brad Vaughn

0 Comments

What is a Pride Economy? In Stolen Pride, Arlie Hochschild shares how powerful dynamics of honor and shame shape America’s social and political fabric. She does so by describing what she dubs a “pride economy”? What is that? Well, I’m glad you asked. The Economics of Pride A “pride economy” refers to a social and economic system where pride functions as a form of currency, often in place of adequate financial compensation or social status. Workers find meaning in their... Read more

How to be a tribal church

Last updated on: October 11, 2024 at 12:38 pm By Brad Vaughn

0 Comments

Michael Morris’s Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together offers penetrating insights into the forces that shape human communities. His book resonates well in today’s society, revealing how our underlying instincts can both fracture and unite us. What about the church though? By examining these instincts—reframed here as prevalence, prestige, and precedence—we see that Morris is fundamentally exploring honor-shame dynamics. (See my first post for an overview of the book.) These concepts provide a... Read more

Tribal is a book worth reading!

Last updated on: February 3, 2025 at 5:00 pm By Brad Vaughn

0 Comments

In Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together, Michael Morris takes us on a fascinating journey into the heart of what divides and unites humanity. At its core, Tribal is about the instincts that shape human behavior and how they can be both the sources of deep divisions and the keys to forming cohesive, thriving societies. This post looks at Morris’s argument, incorporating simplified language for clarity through alliteration—specifically by referring to the three... Read more