I was particularly impressed with the chapter on race and school choice by Robert Woodson.  There he addresses the most intractable challenge facing us—the predicament of low income blacks plagued by fatherless families.  He argues that such a deep quandary cannot be solved by “distant experts” or by the government.  Rather, those who have “first-hand experience” are the most likely problem solvers, and they are the ones who agitate for vouchers that poor people can use to access schools that... Read more

American culture is abuzz with Critical Race Theory.  President Trump denounces it and the Southern Baptist Convention says we can learn from it. What is it?  How does it affect the church?  What should Christians think about it? Veteran Anglican journalist David Virtue sat me down for this podcast, asking me these and other questions. Read more

In January 1862, Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became America’s greatest sociopolitical prophet of the nineteenth century, declared that America was facing Armageddon. “The fate of the greatest of all Modern Republics trembles in the balance.” God was in control of the nations, and America was particularly a subject of His providence. “We are taught as with the emphasis of an earthquake,” Douglass told his listeners at Philadelphia’s National Hall, “that nations, not less than individuals, are subjects of... Read more

Friends: Our new book Race and Covenant is now up at Amazon.  The publisher now has at its website a podcast with me that you can listen to.  In this podcast I answer questions about what the book means by national covenant, why religion is essential to our national conversation on race, and what this book contributes to that conversation.  I explain briefly what each of the book’s 15 contributors offers in his or her essay. Read more

John Piper is one of the most famous and controversial evangelical preachers in America. Last week he released an article that has gone viral because of its implicit denunciation of Christians who vote for President Donald Trump (never named but clearly implied) in next week’s election. Piper says he is “baffled” by Christians who say they overlook Trump’s crudity because of his policies, especially those that support the sanctity of human life. Piper argues that character is more important than policy, that abortion and... Read more

Tim Keller has been one of the most effective evangelical communicators of the last generation. His winsomely argued books on faith, marriage, and justice have convinced millions that orthodox Christianity is intellectually plausible. In the long summer of 2020 he released four articles on race and critical theory that provide helpful critiques of influential ethical theories: libertarians wrongly claim absolute rights over property and self; “liberal fairness” tells religious people to keep their claims out of the public square, while liberals smuggle in their own unproven... Read more

. . . before it sells out. Even if I were not its editor, I would say this is an incisive theological pushback against the new anti-racism that has become a cult promoting falsehood and racism. Take a look at its contents: Introduction: Our national dilemma (Gerald McDermott, Beeson Divinity School) Part I: The national covenant in Scripture and history Chapter 1: Covenant, Race, and the Nations in the Hebrew Bible (Joshua Berman, Bar-Ilan University) Chapter 2: Exile and return... Read more

It is hard not to fear for the future in these troubled times.  America as an idea is under attack. The Church seems weaker than it has been in a long time, with many departing and divisions running through every part of her. Pastors are not free from these fears, and perhaps are particularly vulnerable to them.  In a commencement address I gave in August at Beeson Divinity School, I drew on God’s charge to Joshua to discuss fear and... Read more

I recently retired from teaching at one of the finest evangelical seminaries in North America. When students asked me for counsel on politics, I cited St. Augustine’s City of God, written after the fall of Rome when pagans blamed the fall on Christians, and Arian Visigoths had raped Christian women and murdered Christian men and children. Augustine said no state can ever achieve true justice, but that the state is God’s gift for order in a fallen world. Christians are pilgrims in the... Read more

The Bible pays no attention to race. This will shock many, especially those who are now pointing to the heavenly church of Revelation 7:9 that supposedly highlights diverse races: After this I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands . . . It is true that this great multitude will... Read more