Cults Again! This is to announce my forthcoming book Unsafe Sects: Understanding Religious Cults (Cascade Books [Wipf and Stock]). I will announce here when it is published and available to order. The book is the result of years and years of studying especially, but not only, American religious cults, sects, alternative religions. I taught a course on cults, sects, alternative religions at Rice University during my PhD studies there. I invited representatives from many American cults, sects and alternative religions... Read more

What I Think About the War in Ukraine No pun is intended when I say I know I am stepping into a mine field here. But, here goes anyway. I think Ukraine’s defense of itself as a sovereign nation is a just war. And I hope it/they win over Russia. However, I am not confident that our (the USA’s) involvement with Ukraine is based on pure motives. I support sending Ukraine necessary defensive military equipment, but I am absolutely opposed... Read more

What I Believe about America as a “Christian Nation” Is America a Christian nation? Was it ever one? What does the question even mean? A heated debate has swirled around this question (or these questions) for many years—especially since the Supreme Court’s ruling against organized  or teacher-led prayer in public schools. Is America even a theistic nation? If not, why is “In God We Trust” printed on our coins? (Don’t comment on the history of that; it’s just a fact... Read more

“Why?” Chapters 21: “Prayer and Argument” ”Why? On Suffering, Guilt and God” by Abram van de Beek (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1990) is the book some of us have been discussing here. I am now going to comment on Chapter 21 which, I believe, is one of the most crucial chapters. Chapter 21 is titled “Prayer and Argument.” Here vdB argues that “man” is not merely passive in the outworking of God’s plan. “The relationship between God and man is not... Read more

I am a Proud Christian Nationalist (Guest Post by Richard Cantrell, evangelical pastor of a rural Southern church) [ Dr. Olson’s July 4th post on the critical difference between patriotism and nationalism inspired me to submit a post that complements his thesis with an attempt to find common ground between American nationalism and Christian faith. ] I was no more than 12 years-old when (in a civics class) I was first formally instructed in the civic religion whose creed is... Read more

It’s Fun to Be Vindicated! A Feminist Calls for Help for Men For years I have been advocating for greater social attention to the needs of men and boys, most of who are struggling to find their place in the world. I have suffered ridicule and harsh push-back. Masculinity is now a dirty word. “Toxicmasculinity” is now one word. Boys and young men are falling far behind girls and young women in education. Males continue to die at a higher... Read more

This World Is Not My Home (I’m Just A-passin’ Through) The title of this blog essay is the first line of an old evangelical gospel song. “This world is not my home; I’m just a-passin’ through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue….” I grew up singing that in church. Or maybe I heard it sung in church as a “special number.” (That’s what we called it when a person or ensemble sang a song to the congregation.)... Read more

“Why?” Chapter 20: “The Spirit Has Time” This is a commentary on Chapter 20 of Abram van de Beek’s book “Why? Suffering, Guilt and God.” Some of my readers are reading the book with me and we are taking OUR time to discuss it chapter by chapter. The previous chapter, 19, was “Jesus Christ—God’s Choice” and brought us to a sort of climax of both answers and frustration about vdB’s view of God. We now know, for example, that for... Read more

The Way We Were: Part 2 Reading readers’ comments (hardly any questions) here bemuses me. I wrote about the way we American evangelical Christians were in the 1950s and 1960s. By-and-large I find today’s American evangelical Christianity so different as to be almost a different religion. Things that were major to us such as Bible memorization (to choose just one) are no longer emphasized (except by fundamentalists) and things that were anathema to us such as going to Las Vegas... Read more

“Why?” Chapter 19: Jesus Christ—God’s Choice ”God is a rough God, grim, and in our eyes even cruel. God does not have the refinement of a middle class European or American. … God is not one you can figure out.” (“Why? On Suffering, Guilt, and God,” p. 277) I am sticking to one chapter this time, in this installment of my ongoing series of commentaries on this book by Abram van de Beek. Some of you are reading along with... Read more