Recent Articles
Texas A&M Pays Coach $77 Million: How Should People of Faith Respond?
While I want to wait to pass judgment, a larger question looms within this conversation. Is American culture’s obsession with sports sinful?
Guns, Masks and Moral Injury in Pastors
These ministry tasks have become exponentially more challenging as people have leaned further into their own desires, aided by an economic policy that permeates nearly every aspect of American life and emphasizes doing for me and mine at any cost.
Old Barns and Dying Churches
Many churches face the same fate as the one that nurtured me. It can seem that the best way for a church to fill the pews is to preach the white, male MAGA “gospel” of American exceptionalism or to quietly uphold that worldview with a wink and a nod and an appeal to “unity” and “centrism.”
Confidence in Police Rises, but Feeling of Safety Doesn’t
Confidence in law enforcement grows but the world doesn’t feel any safer, according to Gallup’s latest Law and Order Report, published on October 31.
November 15, 2023
Jimmy Allen: The Fifth Freedom: Freedom From Hate; Pope Removes Tyler’s Bishop Joseph Strickland After Opposition to Church; John Blake: Here’s Another Christian Movement that’s Changing Our Politics. It Has Nothing to do With Whiteness or Nationalism. (and more)
Persecution Not What It’s Often Claimed to Be
Growing up in a majority culture can lead one to expect to have outsized influence over those who look, think or live differently. Any challenge to that familiar and controlling power is threatening — and too often misrepresented as persecution.
The Ethics of Turner’s Rebellion
Why is it that when colonizers fight for their so-called liberties, they are called freedom fighters and patriots, but when the colonized do the same, they are called terrorists?
November 14, 2023
Catholic Dioceses Spent at Least $1.7 Million in Ohio Against Allowing Women to Control Their Own Bodies. The Church Lost.; Nearly 80% of Italians Say They are Catholic. But Few Regularly go to Church.; Native Alaskan Healer Named North’s America’s First Female Saint in Orthodox Church (and more)
Preaching the Raceless Gospel
I proclaim the raceless gospel now, but initially, I didn’t even want to preach.
Wisdom Wherever You Find It | Feed Your Head
Education is not about imparting information. It is about developing the ability to think.
November 13, 2023
What Israelis Think of the War With Hamas; RNC Warns Candidates that Attending Iowa Christian Group’s Forum Will Disqualify Them from Debates; Why is Mike Johnson Flying a Christian Nationalist Flag Outside His Office? (and more)
Veterans Day Reflections from a Christ-Following Marine Veteran
The military does not defend God. Active-duty personnel and veterans need not carry that burden, nor should they harbor that pride, however exemplary their courage and noble their motivation might be.
New Lifeway Research Report Finds “Value” in Women’s Ministry
Ministry to women is valuable according to the State of Ministry to Women study, released by Lifeway Research last month.
Four More Years of Trump?
With this terrifying potential standing before us, concerned Americans must work together to forge a better way. Both conservatives and liberals deserve better than a Trumpian future.
A New Survey Finds Americans Believe Climate Change Is Impacting Their Lives Now
Most Americans think that climate change is impacting their lives now, according to a Pew Research Report released on October 25.
New Book, Take Me to the Water, Offers a Raceless Gospel to the Segregated Church
“‘Take Me to the Water’: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church” is the newest release from Nurturing Faith Books.
Dismantling the Benevolence Class
What would we do with our Christmas Angel trees if everyone in our community was guaranteed a living wage and universal basic income?
Finding Jesus in the Strip Club
My belief in “equal opportunity” suddenly felt misinformed and harmful while staring into the face of a single mom who had been trafficked by her own mother at 12 years old.
Rethinking Institutional Life
Rather than asking how best to be expressions of Jesus in a hurting world, many institutional leaders are asking what can or cannot be said to avoid losing the support that undergirds the organization.
New Survey Finds Americans Are “Concerned and Confused” About Data Privacy
Most adults are “concerned” about how companies (81%) and the government (71%) use the data they collect about them, according to a report published last month.
When All the People Are Gone
Who is keeping a tally of the dead bodies piled up in each corner during this Israel-Hamas war? While the number of Israeli deaths stop at around 1,400, the number of Palestinian deaths keeps going up, making me wonder if the killing will stop once all the people are gone.
Support for Political Violence on the Rise Among All Political and Religious Groups
The belief that political violence may be necessary is on the rise among all religious groups and those who are religiously unaffiliated.
Look Back | Two Ways that People of Faith View the Bible
Does the overall testimony of the Bible ask us to believe what it says or to see what it sees?
Grief Hunger
You don’t have to listen for long or look far to be overwhelmed by the grief in the world. There are so many losses everywhere, and the planet itself is wailing. It can become paralyzing if we allow it.
November 3, 2023
Former Israeli Ambassador to US: How the Israel-Hamas War Could Spiral into a Global Conflagration; Colony Ridge Reflects Texas Conservative Values. It Gets Bashed Anyway; Spain’s Catholic Church Apologizes for Sexual Abuse, Disputes Scale of Problem (Reuters)
Under Blasphemy Law, Indonesia Arrests TikTokker for Videos of ‘Jokes’ Mocking Christianity; (and more)
Justice or Revenge?
The barbaric acts of Hamas resulted in the world crying out for justice. The retaliatory actions of Israel answered those cries, but there must be a line between justice and revenge.
A Hard Lesson About an Easy Life
The current Israeli government does not reflect the desires of most Israeli citizens, any more than Hamas represents Palestinians, most of whom want peace. Bad leadership leads to bad outcomes, and others suffer for it.
November 2, 2023
Israel-Palestine War: A Quick History of Christianity in Gaza; Two Pastors Worry for Their Congregations Safety. Are More Guns the Answer or the Problem?; Missouri Church Confesses and Laments its Past Ties to Slavery (and more)
Don’t Pass By
Good Faith Media’s new senior editor reflects on lessons learned. “Before that moment, I had probably heard some version of this message hundreds of times from friends with far fewer layers of privilege than I possess. But for some reason, this time, it began to stick.”
Since We Are Surrounded
It’s an important spiritual practice, especially on this All Saints’ Day, to remember where we are from. What saints from the great “cloud of witnesses” have been part of our own stories? Who has cheered us onward in the lives God is calling us toward?