Speaking on Christian Ethics

David Gushee

I love to get in front of people and talk about the issues and how we respond to them as followers of Jesus. That's what I call speaking on Christian ethics, and It’s been my life’s work. As individuals and groups, we experience new challenges every day, and as an ethicist, pastor, author, and advocate, I strive to help you meet those challenges with a principled approach that you can share with others.

I'm ready to inspire and inform your audiences for lectures, sermons, and interviews whether it’s a church, college, conference, podcast or other venue. See my issues page for a full list of topics I can speak to, and some of my most popular topics below. For updates on upcoming speaking, subscribe to my email list, or follow me on social media.

Current Speaking

August 10. Detroit. Open Table Collective. Meeting at Rochester Christian University. https://www.theopentablecollective.com/gatherings

August 17-18. Louisville. William M. Johnson Lectureship, Crescent Hill Baptist Church. https://chbcky.org/william-m-johnson-annual-lectures/

September 3. Stockholm, Sweden. International IDEA -- Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Closed event. There may be other events in Sweden, will update as I know more. https://www.idea.int/about-us

September 7-8. Lebanon, PA. St. Luke's Episcopal Church. https://stlukeslebanon.org/gushee/

September 14-16. Newton, Kansas. Bethel College Mennonite Church, Bethel College Bible and Religion Department, Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution. Multiple events. No publicity posted yet.

September 21. Kirkwood Baptist Church, St. Louis www.kirkwoodbaptist.org

September 28-29. Cambridge, MA. Reservoir Church. https://www.reservoirchurch.org/ No publicity yet.

October 5. I am also speaking locally in Atlanta on the theme of "Jesus and Justice," alongside the wonderful Jemar Tisby, at the following event hosted by Christians Seeking Justice: https://www.eventbrite.com/.../jesus-justice-ii-tickets...

October 23, Ashland, VA, Brown Memorial Lecture at Randolph-Macon College. No publicity yet.

Speaking Topics

01

Following Jesus After Evangelicalism

Finding our way in a post-evangelical world

Millions are getting lost in the evangelical maze: inerrancy, indifference to the environment, deterministic Calvinism, purity culture, racism, LGBTQ discrimination, male dominance, and Christian nationalism. They are now conscientious objectors, deconstructionists, perhaps even “none and done.”

As one of America’s leading academics speaking to the issues of religion today, David Gushee offers a clear assessment and a new way forward for disillusioned post-evangelicals.
Drawing on his book After Evangelicalism, Gushee analyzes what went wrong with U.S. white evangelicalism. Along the way, he proposes new ways of Christian believing and of listening to God and Jesus today. He helps post-evangelicals know how to belong and behave, going from where they are to a living relationship with Christ and an intellectually cogent and morally robust post-evangelical faith.

If you, too, are struggling, know that it’s possible to cut loose from evangelical Christianity and, more than that, it is necessary.

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02

Full Inclusion for LGTBQ Christians, Once and For All

The call for full LGBTQ inclusion in the church

Christian denominations and churches everywhere struggle with the issue of LGBTQ inclusion. With growing scientific evidence, our wider society has taken big steps, but too many religious families and communities have not kept up.

David Gushee offers a powerful, inspiring message of hope and healing by helping Christians to return to Bible study, prayer, and reflection in a way that creates a vision for a more inclusive church.

Relayed in his book Changing Our Mind, Gushee takes us along a conversational journey, marking out every single component of historic Christian sexual morality. He covers the relevant biblical passages and theological positions, including the key argument of creation. He walks us through a principled discussion that is respectful of traditionalists while calling for inclusion and the end of contempt.

Gushee offers a way forward for any individual or organization that wants to better contextualize traditional church teachings, which have been and must continue to change.

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03

Against Authoritarianism

It cannot be taken for granted that Christians will or even should support democratic government. The Bible offers many different paradigms for political rule, none of them democratic. The majority of church history took place in non-democratic eras and cultures. Liberal democracy, with rule-of-law, separation of powers, checks and balances, civil and human rights protections, and so on, is a relatively recent innovation in human history. I am among those who believe liberal democracy needs and deserves full Christian support; but in the US and around the world there is plenty of evidence of Christians being attracted to illiberal democracy or outright undemocratic governance. This talk reflects on this evidence and offers a Christian defense of democracy—using central Christian theological and moral convictions—for these perilous times.

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Other Topics

Repenting White Christian Supremacism; Why Following Jesus Is So Hard: Renewing Christian Commitment to Democracy; Christians as Reconcilers in a Polarized Land; The Meaning of Truth in an Age of Weaponized Lies; The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, Moral Leadership for a Divided Age; The Sacredness of Human Life; The Meaning of Forgiveness; Caring for God's Creation; Covenantal Sexual Ethics; The Kingdom of God as the Vision and Motivation for Christian Ethics

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