Bearing Witness: A Journey to Unbelief Blog Post

In some ways, it felt like evangelicalism ruined religion for me, and I don’t think I’m the only former evangelical to feel that way. I say evangelicalism ruined religion for me because it felt like I could no longer relate to any religious practice in a healthy way. After you’ve experienced religious trauma, it’s hard to trust Christians, even the nice ones. I couldn’t read the Bible or participate in any sort of religious service without feeling triggered and icky by some part of it.

Are Mormons Christians? Blog Post

Recently I participated in a theological conference at Brigham Young University. It was called, “Salvation in Christ: Christian Perspectives.” Six Latter Day Saints (LDS) scholars participated as speakers, all of them impressive and serious faculty members in the Religious Studies department at Brigham Young University (BYU), and nine representatives from what I will call historic or mainstream Christianity. They included six Protestants, two Catholics, and one Greek Orthodox pastor. Evangelicalism was well represented.1 Although this was my second visit to…

Liturgy and Starbucks Blog Post

Recent reports have some in the post-baby-boomer generations returning to traditional expressions of Christianity, including Eastern Orthodoxy. At the same time, there abound “pundits” who have all but written off the so-called “Generation X” from the church, contending that they are too “lost” for any outreach. Meanwhile, both denominational officials and ecclesiastical entrepreneurs are hatching strategies to do what they can to get young adults back inside the church. My impression of the upshot of all this is that many…

The World After September 11: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism Blog Post

The events of September 11 have presented considerable spiritual challenges to contemporary culture. I would like to discuss one aspect of one of these challenges which, specifically, is how to engage persons of other faiths in a manner consistent with grace and truth. How do we honor their right to practice a religion different from our own, respect them as persons, love them as beings made in the image of God, and yet maintain the integrity of our own faith?…

Sport and War in a Television Culture Blog Post

We have a TV in our home. It rarely gets used. So I can’t claim to be an expert on television programming. However, when I have occasionally engaged in a 30 minute channel flipping exercise, I am shocked–shocked by the content, yes, somewhat, but more so by the lack of variety. All the imagery that greets me from the flickering screen is blandly uniform regardless of the channel I call home. I am beginning to think that the worst part…

Barbed Questions and Bread from Heaven Blog Post

Listen in on a conversation between Jesus and a crowd of persistent people gathered on the shores on the Sea of Galilee. It is the morning after the feeding of the thousands back on the other side of the lake. A conversation between Jesus and a crowd of people? Chances are, it was more like a high-stakes press conference, with questions being shouted from all corners of the crowd. There is a certain haphazard, disconnected, non-sequitur quality of this encounter…

What Kind of Harley-Davidson Would Jesus Ride? Blog Post

Five years ago my buddy, Duane Shrontz, and I rendezvoused at the Waukesha County Fairgrounds, 15 miles west of Milwaukee, for the 95th anniversary celebration of Harley-Davidson motorcycles (see “Gone to Hog Heaven,” Perspectives, October 1998). He rode his new Dyna-Wideglide straight through from Salt Lake City, Utah, not even stopping for the thunderstorm that tossed him about in its cross-winds on the eastern slopes of South Dakota. But that was Duane. Combine his love of motorcycles with his stubborn…

Like Jacob and Esau:The Historic Postures of the RCA and the CRC Blog Post

Throughout their long history, the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC) have been much like those famous biblical brothers, Jacob and Esau. Born from the same Dutch Reformed mother, they have often fought as only brothers can. A look at their professions, practices, and feuds reveals two different mentalities that were present from the start and have yet to disappear. The CRC seceded from the RCA in 1857 to preserve pure doctrine…

Is Denominational Diversity Scandalous? Blog Post

I am not bothered by the existence of multiple denominations as such. I am not moved by calls for Christian unity that presume that diverse denominational bodies are a regrettable reality that we should work to remedy.