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Sometimes we get criticized by someone and we deflect it easily; at other times it penetrates and wounds and festers and seems to haunt our nights. The would pesters enough that in odd moments with random people we allude to it or name it explicitly. Is there a way forward, out of it, beyond it, or through it? What have you learned from your critics? That perhaps you have miscommunicated? That they might be right and you wrong? That they... Read more

In the rich bottom lands near the Chattahooche River in western Coweta County, Georgia, stretches miles of fine cotton fields. Stately plantation homes, while sparse, are built on the rare anomalies of elevated terrain and are shaded by massive red oak trees. You can’t miss the structures, white with majestic columned porches. Summers are stifling in west Coweta County. The relentless blazing sun generates temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The cotton is white and fluffy and ready for careful... Read more

The term “identity” is overused today and for conservative pundits “identity” is pejoratively used in “identity” politics while the progressives use it affirmatively as in “it’s about my and her and his identity.”  I’m concerned with neither the conservatives or progressives in this post, but instead with the claim of Larry Hurtado, in Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, that the earliest Christians formed a new religious identity as Christians that sustained them through suffering, formed... Read more

Nate Silver: In short, it appears as though educational levels are the critical factor in predicting shifts in the vote between 2012 and 2016. You can come to that conclusion with a relatively simple analysis, like the one I’ve conducted above, or by using fancier methods. In a regression analysis at the county level, for instance, lower-income counties were no more likely to shift to Trump once you control for education levels.11 And although there’s more work to be done,... Read more

One of the more interesting books that has ever come my way is Prophesies of Godlessness: Predictions of America’s Imminent Secularization, a book edited by C. Mathewes and C. McKnight Nichols (no relation). If the title doesn’t interest you, perhaps this line will: “In American history, prophesies of godlessness are as American as American godliness itself” (6). Paradoxically, alongside this worrisome fear that the country was about to fall into apocalyptic doom is the liberal vision that America was about... Read more

A book that has just come in the mail is by Cynthia Long Westfall and is called Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ, and I urge you to purchase and read this book — along with me for I will blog through it. For today, however, I want to clip a paragraph from her conclusion, and it’s (yes, yes, yes) provocative but true to my experience. Readers of this blog know that I have... Read more

The Rules for Leading from the 2nd Chair by Ben Pickett With the end of the year just around the corner, I’m all set for the New Year’s lists. You know, those compilation stories that give us a list of what’s best about the previous year – always in a particular order – that invites debate and additional clicks. The lists I really like to read are the those “10 Best” collections: like the ten best books of 2015, or... Read more

Crossing the Waters into Prison I am just back from prison, a maximum security prison in California. I spoke about forgiveness with two groups of women. One took place in a room no bigger than a closet. I cried with them. I prayed with them. We wiped our faces with a roll of toilet paper. We listened to each other. I broke the rules and hugged them as they left. I will go back as often as I can get... Read more