I want to offer a few propositions for where our country is politically after this week’s round of primary voting, mainly in the South. President Donald Trump continues to destroy the careers of those Republican politicians who demonstrate independent judgment. The latest victims are Rep. Thomas Massie (Kentucky) and Sen Bill Cassidy (Louisiana). These exercises of […]
After Primary Day, Where Are We?
I want to consider some cautiously good news today. The good news is that certain cultural, political, international, and legal guardrails are holding against Donald Trump and his government right now. Democratic resilience is appearing from three directions at once: institutional resistance, civic mobilization, and international democratic solidarity. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new
The Guardrails Preserving Our Democracy
Boston marked my 4th national Post-Evangelical Collective (PEC) conference. In order, they have been Denver (2023), Raleigh (2024), Nashville (2025), and now Boston (2026). The Dallas 2027 meeting has already been announced. Here are some things that I noticed about this exciting, joyful conference. SPONSORS LIST GROWING The list of sponsors is growing, and it
A Report from the Post-Evangelical Collective National Meeting in Boston
There is much handwringing about the “state of the church” these days. I want to suggest that handwringing is a bit exaggerated. I know the statistics. There are certainly many US churches that are struggling and some that are closing. But I can tell you something from personal experience on many a Sunday of guest
Post-Evangelical Churches Are Succeeding
The recent, entirely predictable, online attack by Donald Trump on Pope Leo XIV has made an argument over values into a personal dispute. But the issue between the two men is not a personal dispute. It is instead a powerful illustration of the value of a moral tradition when brought to bear on transgressions against
Pope Leo, Donald Trump, and Moral Plumblines
I realized after fourteen months of dumbfounded mainly-silence that I had succumbed to hopelessness about the US, the country that I love and that it was time to snap out of it. There are three problems with hopelessness. One: it closes its eyes to reasons for hope; therefore, in the name of realism it misses
Helpless Hopelessness is Disempowering: And the difference between hope and optimism
Plenary Address to Festival of Homiletics, Atlanta, Georgia, May 14, 2025 Note: This is the formal text of my address to the wonderful Festival of Homiletics conference, which gathered over 1400 primarily mainline Protestant church leaders from around the world. I was very struck by the strong response to this message and to a workshop
Proclaiming the Moral Teaching of Jesus
Sermon, Commissioning Service, Mercer University School of Theology, May 9, 2025 Note to Readers: This message reflects the profound challenges that I believe face all ministers of the Gospel at this moment in this context, and the kind of character and faith with which we must meet those challenges. It was presented to the graduates
Convictional. Resistant. Steadfast.
A Sermon on Luke 4:16-30 and Isaiah 61 Note: I wrote this sermon and preached it with (this was a participatory congregation!) the lovely Edgewood Church, in Atlanta, on Sunday, 23 March, the 3rd Sunday of Lent. The Luke 4 text was selected by the pastors of the church. Luke 4:16-30 16 When he came
How Jesus Subverted Nationalist Religion and Almost Got Himself Killed
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain went to Munich on September 29, 1938 for a last-ditch peace conference with Adolf Hitler. The issue was Hitler’s demand for the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia as the price for Germany not invading. With the Czech government refused admittance to the conference room within which its survival was being debated, British
Winston Churchill on Appeasement: In Honor and in Defense of Ukraine