Urbanization and Liberal Evangelicalism
No, it has nothing to do with Keith Urban. (Will the jokes be this bad all season?) It has to do with a seemingly irreversible trend in human history toward larger and larger social units. Data is spotty before 1950, but the evidence does seem to point toward some interesting
Fall Series 2014: The Future and Liberal Evangelicalism
Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth, reintroduced a generation of Evangelicals to apocalyptic and eschatological themes that had been present in Evangelical movements from the beginning. That book made a mark on the culture largely because it took current events, ripped them right off the front pages of the
A Separatist Peace?
A Timely Repost: Scotland Rejects Independence from the UK Liberals of all kinds are in a tough spot at the moment. This is what happens when our moral intuitions get crossed up and our ethical instincts conflict with one another. The situation I have in mind involves separatism, and wherever
Absurdity and the Poultry Party
Break is over and it’s back to the grind here in the frozen north. Classes are beginning, the ice remains, and the relative absurdity of so much of evangelical culture in the U.S of A. persists: especially when viewed from another country. I’m writing, of course, about the newest poultry
A Refreshing Conversation
The other night, when my parents were visiting from Kentucky, we all sat around the table doing as Evangelicals do: talking about the Bible. Now in our house this is rarely your run of the mill conversation since my wife is a biblical scholar, teaches Greek, Latin and Coptic and
Christmas for Cynics
I’ve never been entirely comfortable with Christmas theologically. It’s a bit saccharine for my tastes. I prefer the parables and the passion narratives for their twists and unexpected inversions. And I’ve always liked the Moses and David cycles in the Hebrew Bible for their frank depictions of human foibles and
Boom! We’re back: and please don’t say it.
No, I’m not the most technically savvy person in the world, and no I can’t explain to you what exactly happened to our site these last few months. Something happened with servers and data and lots of ones and zeros. They didn’t teach us much about those things in Divinity
Father’s Day Mountains and Church Molehills
OK, this isn’t easy to admit and it is of course not something I’m particularly proud of, but I suspect that it is not uncommon among my fellow fathers. I consistently lie about Father’s Day. I lie brazenly, because not only is the truth ugly, but it would hurt my
LE Info
LiberalEvangelical.org aims to empower Christians who see themselves as radical moderates and to offer resources to Christian congregations who intend to be both Christ-centered and creatively inclusive. These Christians and congregations have both liberal and evangelical instincts, they find polarized political and religious debates alienating, and they are inspired by
Reflections on the “Alien”
Last week I watched the new release Thor (2011), and this morning I awoke reflecting upon the “alien.” Over the years I have grown more and more frustrated with how, as a culture, we represent our engagement with “aliens.” And, now, I will finally put my ideas on electronic paper
A Christian Patriot
What does it mean to be a Christian in America? These last few weeks, with presidential campaigns in full gear, this has become an unavoidable question. This important ethical question is too often reduced to caricatures: withdrawal from politics on one side and assumption that the church is the fourth
COMING OUT – Liberal and Evangelical
Feeling Different In seminary, I knew I was different, but I didn’t have a name for what I was. I was the product of an unusual union of Christian traditions, and this left me feeling out of place. My early faith formation took place in small evangelical house churches where
When Narrative Identities Clash: Liberals versus Evangelicals
Culture Wars, Seminary Styles, Congregational Politics If there is one thing North American Christians at the beginning of the twenty-first century think they understand, it is the divide between liberal and evangelical in the church. Polarized ecclesiastical publications tell their stories from the left or from the right, constructing competing
The Parable of the Monkeys in the Vineyard
Just a quick report to all of my LE friends on some of my thoughts following this year’s American Academy of Religion meeting in Atlanta. I’ll share more in the coming weeks, but I want to call your attention to the work of one of the world’s leading primatologists. His
How can Liberals “MAKE” our kids go to church
I used to run into this question all the time as a youth minister. Put simply, bribing teenagers with pizza only works until they’re old enough to drive and buy their own pizza. Then parents have to “make them go to church.” This is one of those topics that opens