Sometimes compliments are the worst insults. In early 2010, back when he was a Harvard phenom, I had the privilege of interviewing NBA basketballer Jeremy Lin. We were still building this crazy thing called Patheos, so I met Jeremy at his dorm and used a $150 HD camera. I presented the interview in text form (see Part One and Part Two) because Jeremy spoke in an immobile monotone. Even so, Question 1 of my homemade interview has gotten over 36,000 views. Suffice it to... Read more
Dear friends, I want to tell you about something very important to me — and implore you to help. It’s been wonderful over the months and years to write for you, and to get to know those who follow the blog and put up with my compulsive pontificating. I know that you are good and compassionate people, people who care for what is true and good and beautiful. What I’m about to tell you about is a nonprofit that serves... Read more
A friend asked me whether I cared to defend Mitt Romney today, given his (in the words of this friend) “‘I don’t care about the poor’ bit.” He linked to a blog post from another friend, Eric Teetsel, at AEI, entitled “Mitt Romney: You Do Care About the Poor.” The answer is basically: No, I don’t care to defend Romney in this case. Earlier today, in an interview about his victory in Florida and the way forward in the campaign,... Read more
The property battle between denominational bodies and the local churches that disaffiliate from them is heating up—and the list of congregations that suddenly find themselves homeless has grown longer. Less than two months after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of the denominational bodies in two church property cases in that state, a county circuit court in Virginia ruled that seven more congregations must leave their properties to the Episcopal Church (see “Court order,” Jan. 28). Two, Truro Church... Read more
Dear Mr Romney, We’ve only met once, but we have mutual friends — and in the strange and often surprising interconnectedness the internet provides, I write in the hope, however humble, that this letter will actually find its way into your hands. I’ve admired you ever since the SLC Olympics. I supported you throughout your governorship. I still desperately wish that you had won the nomination in 2008, and I’ve done what little I can do to support you through Evangelicals... Read more
We all know the outlines of the story. Alarmed by the increasing likelihood that Mitt Romney would top the GOP ticket for 2012, several conservative evangelical leaders — James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, Donald Wildmon, head of the American Family Association, and Gary Bauer, former president of the Family Research Council — hosted a meeting of the evangelical old guard at the home of Judge Paul Pressler in Texas. Before the meeting, invitees were asked by Wildmon... Read more
Is ending the Rick Perry campaign the smartest thing the Rick Perry campaign has done? I don’t want to kick someone when he’s down, but Perry’s decision to retire from the race for the presidency — if CNN is to be believed — seems like the first time his campaign made the right decision on a major call. Perry entered the race with a lot of favor and a lot of credibility, as a very successful governor of the nation’s... Read more
As we’ve reached the two-year anniversary of the Haitian earthquake, yesterday we published a reflection on the persistence of faith in suffering from Margarita Mooney at the Black, White and Gray blog, and today I wanted to speak with Kent Annan, who is actually engaged in the day-to-day work of rebuilding Haiti through his ministry, Haiti Partners. Kent’s the author of After Shock and of Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle. You can find more about his writing at www.KentAnnan.com,... Read more
As I mentioned in my last post, I interviewed Rick Santorum some time ago, but never published it since it was trapped on a damaged hard drive. Since I recently extracted information from the hard drive, and since Senator Santorum is now a top-tier candidate for the presidency, I thought it would be interesting to publish the interview. The full conversation will be published at Patheos shortly. But here are Senator Santorum’s comments on the Religious Right, whether it’s truly... Read more
Perhaps it was providential that my hard drive was damaged and I couldn’t extract the interview with Senator Santorum until recently. After all, now that Rick Santorum is a top-tier candidate for the GOP nomination, it’s much more interesting. When I interviewed former Senator Rick Santorum about faith and politics back in October of 2010, he confessed that he was “kicking the tires and having my tires kicked” about a possible run for the Presidency. That’s old news now. But... Read more
Philosophical Fragments
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