I wish I had kept a list. I’ve had far too many conversations over the last few years with trained, experienced, and practicing biblical scholars, young, middle aged, and near retirement, working in Evangelical institutions, trying to follow Jesus and use their brains and training to help students navigate the challenging world of biblical interpretation. And they are dying inside. Just two weeks ago I had the latest in my list of long conversations with a well-known, published, respected biblical... Read more

Until sometime in the early 1960s nearly all Catholics in the United States would probably have agreed that it was the mission of the Church to convert the country to the true Faith, even if many would not have proclaimed it with the clarity and zeal of Archbishop John Hughes of New York, who had said in an 1850 sermon: “Everyone should know that we have for our mission to convert the world – including the inhabitants of the United... Read more

In recent decades, “big tent” conservatism has seemed on the brink of collapse, its poles buckling under competing constituencies with “values” voters in one corner pitted against fiscal conservatives in the other. Discussions among academics and media pundits suggest these are two distinct categories of Republicans—the former made up of mainly working-class white evangelicals and the latter historically comprised of higher-income whites. Republican politicians must seek the favor of both special interests, appealing not only to traditional social issues—gay marriage... Read more

One of the problems with the same sex marriage “debate” is that many who “know” what the Bible teaches on homosexuality have never heard a sustained argument against the “traditional interpretation of scripture” in regards to marriage equality. We thought we would share this Bible Study by Matthew Vines because it articulates the other side of this debate. Enjoy. Read more

Puritan “city on a hill” beckoned on the horizon of the New World, religious faith and belief have forged America’s ideals, molded its identity and shaped its sense of mission at home and abroad. For the first time on television, God in America explores the tumultuous 400-year history of the intersection of religion and public life in America, from the first European settlements to the 2008 presidential election. A co-production of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE and FRONTLINE, this six-hour series examines how religious... Read more

by Crystal LewisR3 ContributorFrom:Crystal St. Marie Lewis Blog There were only 30 short minutes left in my Biblical Interpretation class when James, my fellow seminarian, began his presentation. It was his turn to summarize an assigned reading for our class. We had all been writing short essays and developing informal presentations using excerpts from Preaching God’s Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary. James chose to develop a presentation based on the commentary designed for June 29– the day in Christian liturgy... Read more

from the Crunk Feminist Collective Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I walked out of church in the middle of service. I grew up in church; my stepfather of 15 years is a pastor; as recently as 2009, I led a ministry team at one of Atlanta’s Baptist megachurches. Thus, my choice to get up and walk out while the pastor was speaking defied every notion of decorum I have ever been taught. But when he stood to... Read more

by Andre E. JohnsonR3 Editor In response to a recent post I made on conservative evangelicals and Mormons, here is an example of the struggle that some conservative evangelicals are currently going through or what I call theological cognitive dissonance. The first clip is Pastor Robert Jeffries who at the Values Voter Summit this year declared the Mormonism is a cult. The second clip is Jeffries pledging his support for Mitt Romney. It is interesting to see how he rhetorical... Read more

Richard Mouw never intended to start a riot within the Evangelical community by saying his fellow believers had “sinned against Mormonism.” But that’s exactly what happened. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., had been meeting regularly with LDS scholars before he gave a seven-minute introduction of Ravi Zacharias, an Evangelical speaker who addressed a packed audience in the Mormon Tabernacle in November 2004. “We’ve often seriously misrepresented the beliefs and practices of members of the LDS faith,”... Read more

by Andre E. JohnsonEditor: Rhetoric Race and ReligionNow that Mitt Romney has secured the Republican Party nomination, one major constituency group within the GOP will find itself wrestling with party vs. faith. The party leaders have asked conservative evangelicals to vote for a Mormon. Now for me and other religious progressives who have been hard at work establishing and working within ecumenical groups and dialoguing with all faiths, this does not pose a problem. For us, religion is about a... Read more