Long after it seemed dead and buried with Mussolini and Hitler, the term “fascism” has been making a comeback — not as the self-description of authoritarian politicians and parties, but as an epithet applied by their enemies, or as an analytical category applied by scholars. It is not uncommon, for example, for leaders ranging from Vladimir […]
Is ‘Fascism’ the Right Name for the Trumpist Hard Right in America?
Tuesday afternoon, May 24: My focus was the Republican primaries in my home state of Georgia. Donald Trump, in his continued efforts to protest the lost 2020 election and make sure he can never lose another one, had put up two toadies — David Perdue and Jody Hice — to challenge Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and
On Another Classroom Full of Murdered Children
Having abandoned the denomination in which I was converted over forty years ago, I am not a part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), whose moral credibility has just been torn to shreds by the devastating Guidepost Solutions report on twenty years of SBC Executive Committee (EC) mishandling of sexual abuse allegations in SBC churches. But I
Southern Baptists, Sex Abuse, and Systemic Evil
In 2015, highly esteemed Princeton political philosopher Michael Walzer published The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions. The title itself immediately arrested me, as it crystallized a current intuition of mine. I believe the United States and several other countries are currently experiencing religious counterrevolutions to the cultural and moral (often labeled “secular”) revolutions that
Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions
I learned this week that sales of my 2014 book Changing Our Mind are just about to cross 25,000, apparently very rare in the book business. This becomes the occasion for my column this week. Long-time readers of Baptist News Global will remember that this book originated as a series of posts on this site beginning in the summer of 2014.
Changing Our Mind, 25,000 Sales Later
At one level, the Christian debate about the morality of war is ancient and timeless. Juxtaposed against the ubiquitous warfare of human history stands Jesus Christ, who taught enemy-love, nonretaliation and peacemaking, and went to his death on the Cross without defending himself. Anyone who takes the Gospel accounts of Jesus at all seriously must be
Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. … Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sighing
The Moral Dimension of the Ministerial Vocation
Ethicists without Borders is a Facebook group spearheaded by the distinguished Christian ethicist Tobias Winright of St. Louis University. This group has just released the statement below. I am a signatory. Note the following elements: This statement calls what is going on by its right name — not vague worries about “the conflict in Ukraine,”
Ethicists Without Borders Issues Statement on Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine
This is a column about crises and injustices in the health care system in America. I interpret these crises and injustices as an indictment on the character and the governance of this country. What follows is inspired by hard personal experience but relevant to all who have ears to hear. I make the following five claims:
Health Care Crises Reveal Our Nation’s Character Flaws
I ended my last post for Baptist News Global, one month ago, with this quote from the 16th century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross: It is better to be burdened and in company with the strong than to be unburdened and with the weak. When you are burdened, you are close to God, your strength, who
On the Spiritual Value — and Danger — of our trials