This piece was originally published at The Christian Post on June 25, 2012. The Washington Post opinion piece “‘Fortnight for Freedom’ distorts true religious liberty” by Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, distorts matters when it compares the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on its agencies not providing adoption services to gay couples with segregationist practices in the past. I am not a Roman Catholic, but a Protestant. Still, there is something at stake for all of us,... Read more

This piece was originally published at The Christian Post on June 22, 2012. The late Rodney King’s famous five words will stick with us for a long time: “Can we all get along?” He uttered these words in a public statement during the LA Riots, riots which were sparked by his savage beating by Los Angeles police officers captured on video. From an obituary in The New York Times, I found that Mr. King did not welcome the celebrity spotlight and did not see himself... Read more

This piece was originally posted at The Christian Post on June 18, 2012. A tax exempt gospel does not mean we are offering the gospel free of charge. I have heard Christians speak about the possibility of churches losing their tax exempt status if they do not comply with this or that social policy put in place by the U. S. federal government. I spoke recently about this concern with several friends who are Christian leaders. Their responses gave me... Read more

This piece was originally published at The Christian Post on June 14, 2012. Jason Pitzl-Waters’ recent post at the Pagan blog The Wild Hunt on Beliefnet’s apology for an intensely and inappropriately critical post of Paganism speaks to the issue of how important apologies are in Christian apologetics today. We are not living in the middle of the first century, where Christianity was largely unknown in many circles in the Roman world. Whether individual Christians are known to people or... Read more

This piece was originally published at The Christian Post on June 11, 2012. By Paul Louis Metzger and John W. Morehead A recent Associated Press article stated, “An Egyptian court sentenced 12 Christians to life in prison and acquitted eight Muslims on Monday in a case set off by religious tensions in the country’s south.” The article spoke of complaints of gross injustices committed against Christians by the legal and law enforcement system in Egypt. This kind of news also... Read more

This piece was originally published at The Christian Post on June 4, 2012. You may have heard of people wearing bracelets that signify their opposition to Arizona’s laws on illegal immigration. I don’t know how many of the people wearing those bracelets are Christians. But I do know many Christians wear bracelets that ask, “What would Jesus do?” Some people may oppose asking this question in the context of discussing illegal immigrants, but what context or border crossing is off-limits... Read more

This piece was originally published at The Christian Post on June 1, 2012. I was reminded recently of how important listening is as a form of love. Listening has pertinence to how we raise our kids, interact with our spouses and friends, relate to our neighbors, and engage those of other faith perspectives and ways of life. I touched briefly upon this subject the other day in the course of reflecting upon the topic of “bait and switch” in Christian... Read more

I am a passive racist, or perhaps better, a passive racialist. When one speaks of being a racist, one often has in mind matters of intentionality. I am not intentionally attacking people of diverse ethnicities. I am not targeting or profiling them in any active sense. I have friendships with many people of diverse ethnic backgrounds. I want to cultivate healthy relationships with them. Thus, I wouldn’t say I am a racist. But am I doing enough to change the... Read more

This piece was originally published at The Wild Hunt: A Modern Pagan Perspective on May 3, 2012. By Paul Louis Metzger and John W. Morehead Rob Kerby, Senior Editor at beliefnet, wrote a recent article titled “What can the Third World teach us about witchcraft?.” This has resulted in the concern of and critique by Pagans, but it should also interest those in other religious communities. We are practicing Evangelical Christians, and we are very interested in what Christians and... Read more