The basic idea of Race and Covenant is that, in the words of Frederick Douglass, “nations, not less than individuals, are subjects of the moral government of the universe, and that. . .persistent transgressions of the laws of this Divine government will certainly bring national sorrow, shame, suffering, and death.” Lincoln framed his calling of a national fast with the question of whether the devastations of war were “a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful... Read more

Jonathan Edwards wrote that when persecution of the Church abounds, God often raises up revival where no one is looking. This could be the case today.  We already know of the explosion of the Chinese Church since the Cultural Revolution (1965-75) when Chinese Communism killed millions of Chinese. Today the Church is reportedly booming in Iran.  And, according to this report, the mosques are empty. Another surprise: Iranian Christians love Israel. Read more

Many of us have concluded from news reports or evangelical commentary that the SBC Convention in Nashville–and the leaked letters and furor over them–revealed the denomination’s fundamentalism and racism.  Before we thank God that we are not “like those other men,” consider this report from an insider.  Mark Devine is a courageous Baptist theologian who argues that the real story is quite different from what the mainstream media and evangelical elites have told us. Read more

Friends, Joe Watkins is a minister and TV personality in Philadelphia who worked in the George HW Bush administration. He interviewed me about my history of stuttering and asked me about how this affected my faith in God. Here is the TV episode he filmed with me. Read more

The following account was written by the theologian Tricia Miller about our mutual friend Dexter Van Zile who endured anti-semitic hatred and was on the verge of being physically attacked for his support for Israel. Gerry   Last week on the streets of Boston, CAMERA’s Dexter Van Zile experienced intense, raw, in-his-face hatred and attempted intimidation similar to what Jews are subjected to frequently as vile antisemitism intensifies across the US. However, Dexter is not Jewish! BUT, he is a... Read more

Dru Johnson, the philosopher at The King’s College in New York City and author of Biblical Philosophy, interviewed me for his Onscript Podcast.  In this interview he asks me to explain the origins of the New Christian Zionism and other questions about the relation between Judaism and Christianity.  This appeared at Mosaic magazine. Read more

In 2018 when I was teaching at a seminary in Jos, Nigeria, I saw victims of Nigeria’s terrorism first-hand.  There I met Fr. Hassan John, a brave Anglican priest who is the foremost reporter to the world of the Nigerian massacres of Christians. Hassan has this new report at Newsweek. Read more

Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, interviewed me this week on our new book on Jewish Roots. Here is an excerpt. Tooley: Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity. So, Gerry, why is such a book needed right now? Why do Christianity’s Jewish roots matter? And please outline the basic themes of your book. McDermott: Well, it matters because so many Christians for much of the last 2,000 years have thought that the Jewish roots of Christianity don’t really matter. Evangelicals, particularly at the end of the... Read more

by John Stonestreet   Because everyone is made in the image and likeness of God, we have a responsibility to honor them as such. Even those we think are very, very wrong. In this cultural moment where everything from movies to sports to even the Church is politicized, it’s too easy to let our partisan team spirit shape whether or not we obey God and love our neighbors. But this part of the great commandment isn’t optional. We’ll never be... Read more

Our nation is roiled by a debate over whether it is systemically racist, and how to think about race. Christians wonder how the gospel applies to this confusing debate. How should we think about our nation’s racist history? Where does God fit in? How should we respond as Christians? I have been privileged to join IRD-hosted discussions with Jewish and Christian thinkers—mostly black—on this subject in the last few years. Based on these discussions and their writings, I propose five approaches to... Read more