Note: This is the formal text of my address to the wonderful Festival of Homiletics conference in May 2025, which gathered over 1400 primarily mainline Protestant church leaders from around the world. I am re-releasing for my many new readers since then. INTRODUCTION: PROBLEMATIZING THE QUESTION The theme of this conference, as you know, is […]
Proclaiming the Moral Teaching of Jesus
Note: On Friday, May 22, I enjoyed the distinct honor of being awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity at Franklin College in Indiana. I also gave this baccalaureate address. It foreshadows themes that will appear in my future book with Bloomsbury on Christian humanism. I. GREETINGS President Prather, distinguished faculty, proud families and friends, and
Toward a New Religious Humanism
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?
André Trocmé, Le Chambon, and the refusal to surrender moral judgment There are basically three kinds of people who know what happened in the small French village of Le Chambon during World War II. The first group is Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, and their descendants, who remember with gratitude and awe the fact that
“I Was Simply Trying to Be a Good Christian”
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
My Devotional and Prayer in Atlanta, March 9, 2026 Today, I had the rare privilege of serving as Chaplain of the Day for the Georgia House of Representatives, an invitation initiated by Rep. Sam Park, who introduced me very kindly. It was truly an honor to serve in this role, and an eye-opening experience to
A Word to the Georgia House of Representatives
Note: This statement was released today in the US. I was one of the 300+ original signatories. Check it out at: https://acalltochristians.org/ A Call to Christians in a Crisis of Faith and Democracy. Why We Write There are moments that call for repentance and resistance, courage and conviction, faith and fortitude. This is one of
A Clarion Call to US Christians
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
Note: I have been giving versions of my talk on democracy since 2022. Call this one version 5.0. It was presented on October 6 at the gorgeous Sacred Heart Cultural Arts Center in Augusta, Georgia. My host was the Progressive Religious Coalition of Augusta, a fine group of public-minded folks in that grand old city. The
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.