Search results for: evangelical right

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

Book Review of: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020, 356 pages WN: This is one of the few times I also posted a book review to this Blog. This is a highly disturbing–and informative–book. In an interview with Religion […]

What is “Evangelical” Theology?

November 4, 2019 by Scot McKnight WN: In my book review of Kristin Kobes du Mez’ outstanding Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, I write: In essence therefore, being “conservative evangelical” “is as much about culture as it is about theology.” (p. 9) And therein lies its […]

Mapping the Evangelical Mind

By Abbie Storch October 20, 2021 WN: The review of Reading Evangelicals: How Christian Fiction Shaped a Culture and a Faith below offers fascinating insights. Most troubling is this observation: Whether through their embrace of individualism or their diagnosis of pluralism as the death knell of Christianity, Silliman argues, these books shaped the imaginations of […]

Apocalypse Right Now

Opinion Maureen Dowd July 24, 2021 photo above: Fire consumed a home as the Sugar Fire tore through Doyle, Calif., this month.Credit…Noah Berger/Associated Press WN: As the author’s last line states: Après moi, le déluge –This is generally regarded as a nihilistic expression of indifference to whatever happens after one is gone,[2] though it may […]

The Christian Right Is in Decline, and It’s Taking America With It

Opinion Michelle Goldberg July 9, 2021 photo above: Mark Peterson/Redux WN: To the first part of the title: Amen!!!1 To the second part: Whenever Christianity “owns” a culture it becomes corrupt. British 19th-century Catholic historian Lord John Acton observed: Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, […]

The Price of White Evangelical Patriarchy

By Eric C. Miller | July 7, 2020 photo above: Donald Trump stands near a statue of John Wayne during a news conference at the John Wayne Museum in Winterset, Iowa. (AP/Jae C. Hong) WN: Though not declamatory, this interview with Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of just published Jesus and John Wayne: How White […]

Inside the Influential Evangelical Group Mobilizing to Reelect Trump

Lee Fang May 23 2020, 3:00 a.m. photo above: politifact.com WN: These Evangelicals are very dangerous and scary–like their conservative Catholic counterparts. As they have embraced increasingly the Alt-Right, they like a close relative, will be among the first to take up arms in defence of Trump.  They could not any more blatantly reject the Way […]

Many Evangelicals Excuse Anything Trump Does —

By Sasha Abramsky, Truthout Published November 30, 2019 WN: This kind of veneration is not only despicable, it is beyond heretical into a twilight zone of anti-religion: and profoundly anti-Christ. Please also see the daft: “‘An Idiotic False Equivalency’: GOP Rep. Loudermilk Implies Trump Impeachment Worse Than Trial of Jesus Christ“. excerpts: [su_dropcap size=”5″]E[/su_dropcap]nergy Secretary […]

Evangelicals, Let’s Talk About Violence Against Women

Evangelicals, Let’s Talk About Violence Against Women October 4, 2018 by Kristin Du Mez photo above: Kavanaugh Family at the The White House – courtesy Wikimedia Commons WN: When half of all white evangelicals think Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed even if Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault are true. (An NPR/PBS NewHour/Marist poll […]

Millennial Evangelicals Diverge from Their Parents’ Beliefs

The separation of families at the border, climate change, and various progressive causes have galvanized young Christians. By Eliza Griswold August 27, 2018 WN: I have a white Canadian Evangelical friend who expresses being fed up with white Evangelical-bashing — in particular towards white Evangelicals south of the border1. I argue on the contrary that […]

The Last Real Evangelical: Evangelist Billy Graham

Feb 23, 2018 photo above: Evangelist Billy Graham speaks in Dallas at the 1974 Southern Baptist Convention. (AP) by Mel White / MelWhite.org1 WN: On the day of Billy Graham’s death (February 21, 2018), I posted a critical commentary on Graham. Today I post a positive reflection by Mel White, who counted Graham as a […]

“Fox Evangelicals” Embrace Trump’s White Nationalism

Wednesday, 27 December 2017 07:36 BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT photo: Alan / Flickr [su_pullquote align=”right”]”But you will recognize them by their fruits.” – Jesus[/su_pullquote] WN: We know that the ultimate “fruit” is Love. From my Home page: Personal Mantra The Gospels indicate that the test case for love of God is love of […]

Katharine Hayhoe: A leading climate scientist, and an evangelical

by Lloyd Mackey • October 12, 2017 • 0 Comments chart above: How Fossil Fuel Money Made Climate Change Denial the Word of God WN: Sadly, faith and politics have been a toxic mix that has led to enormous denialism (like Holocaust deniers) in the Plymouth Brethren/evangelical communities Hayhoe was raised in. Her appeal to Christians to embrace what Catholics […]

The Religious Right: A Eulogy

By ROD DREHER • October 24, 2016, 11:44 PM photo above: That was then, this is now (kwest/Shutterstock) This is about a powerful talk from within North American Evangelicalism that, as suggested by the author above, if heeded by its leaders, could be a game-changer. Imagine!: a North American Evangelicalism that actually heeds the Gospel; […]

Re-issuing: How Fossil Fuel Money Made Climate Change Denial the Word of God

by Brendan O’Connor August 8, 2017 WN: I decided to republish this article of seven years ago. The supreme haughty superiority of Christians who just know all the massive, irrefutable science about human-caused climate change — as the massive scientific support for the Darwinian theory of evolution — are all a big hoax, “because the […]

How Israel Spies on US Citizens

A never-shown Al Jazeera documentary on the pro-Israel lobby in the United States reveals possibly illegal Israeli spying on American citizens, and the lobby’s fear of a changing political mood. By Alain Gresh August 31, 2018 photo above: Kids play next to an Israeli flag near the Israel-Syria border at the occupied Golan Heights in […]

Reconciliation–WN Contribution to:

illustration above: The rescue by (Anabaptist) Dirk Willems. Engraving by Jan Luiken in Martyrs Mirror, v. 2, p. 387 of Dutch edition. Scan provided by Mennonite Library and Archives WN: Reconciliation is a key term in the New Testament. The article excerpted below was written in 1989 at the invitation of The Mennonite Encyclopedia (Volume […]

Rwanda Dispatches May 18 to July 12, 2018

At 30 years on to this day, April 7, 2024, the Rwanda Genocide broke out, that saw more than 1 million Rwandans murdered. CBC did the interview you see below. 30 years after Rwandan genocide, Roméo Dallaire feels ‘rage’ amid global crises | Watch (msn.com) Roméo Dallaire led the UN’s peacekeeping mission when more than […]

Easter Song and Reflections on the Resurrection

***NOTE: Please check out the footnotes for additional, more detailed commentary. Also, there are poetry and songs in the final footnote; and four additional songs below that.*** Please also see two great sermons, one on Good Friday, the other on Easter Sunday, by my colleague Randy Klassen: both in the context of criminal/restorative justice. Easter […]

Comments On: Amazing Disgrace

By Sarah Posner Illustration above by Brian Reedy. Think of the illustration in conjunction with this hugely ironic quote, one that said far more about Christian Nationalist sentiment than the good reverend knew: “We put God right at the center of the White House.” —Paula White, speaking at an Evangelicals for Trump event at Solid […]

Extensive Commentary On: What white Christian support for Trump reveals about systemic racism

By Robert P. Jones | November 12, 2020 WN: Beyond tragic the pullquote to the right, this means four-fifths of American white evangelical Christians subscribe to “heresy” (an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth—Merriam-Webster). And this not limited to America! And many religious white non-evangelicals (Catholics, mainline Protestants, other faith members, etc.) also are […]

Why I Oppose the Death Penalty

WN: I was invited to dialogue with Dr. Richard Land of (later) “The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission” of the Southern Baptist Convention. The dialogue was organized by the Presbyterian Church in Alaska because debate was heating up in a state with no death penalty on the books. (Since the death penalty’s abolition in 1957, […]

The Impact of Christ on Female/Male Relationships

This study still has pertinence today. There are two versions, which titles below explain. The second was presented on the University of British Columbia campus to a secular/Christian audience. An excerpt from the first: Introduction A few years ago, a man phoned me and asked if I had some time for a talk. I replied […]

Is Violence Master of Us All?: Fight, Flight or Just Peacemaking

WN: The host was the affable lawyer Gerry Palmer, quite well-known in Abbotsford for his work with numerous non-profit organizations, and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business at the University of the Fraser Valley. Is Violence Master of Us All?: Fight, Flight or Just Peacemaking Philosopher’s Café: Legal Grounds Coffee House, Abbotsford, April […]

Commentary on: “Gomez, painting Catholics as victims, goes after his woke oppressors”

Nov 10, 2021 by Thomas Reese, Religion News Service Opinion Politics photo above: Wikipedia WN: I felt gobsmacked by the Archbishop’s earlier speech. More: I felt embarrassed to identify as a Christian alongside such seeming anti-Christ sentiments (though I’m not Roman Catholic). As I read that article, I kept thinking, surely he’ll pull up from […]

Walter Wink & “The Myth of Redemptive Violence”

November 8, 2021 by Robert Koehler WN: The author of the highlighted article below is right on. For background to Walter Wink’s use of the term, please see: Facing the Myth of Redemptive Violence The myth of redemptive violence and ‘The Hateful Eight’ Book Extract: The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium by […]

Reflections on “God, Trump and the Closed-Door World of a Major Conservative Group”

By Robert O’Harrow Jr. October 25, 2021 image above: Nick Ogonosky WN: There is a telling quote in the article highlighted below: “We’ve got an amazing opportunity here,” [Jim DeMint, a former senator and tea party favorite] told them. “And it’s incredible with this president, who is the last person I ever thought would promote […]

Interaction With “The CIA: 70 Years of Organized Crime”

September 22, 2017 by Douglas Valentine – Lars Schall photo above by Tom Thai | CC BY 2.0 WN: Welcome to America the Beautiful. As kids, my brothers and I loved the highlighted song, as sung by George Beverly Shea–who performed in front of more people than any other singer in history. We played it […]

Legacy of Shame:

October 19, 2021 by Kenn Orphan photo above: Photograph Source: Reagan White House Photographs – Public Domain WN: Saint Augustine recounts this story of Empire: The king asked the fellow, “What is your idea, in infesting the sea?” And the pirate answered, with uninhibited insolence, “the same as yours, in infesting the earth! But because […]

Good Shepherd New York

WN: In a Home Study Group, we have begun to study together a new book by Melissa Florer-Bixler: How to Have an Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace. The author is a writer and pastor with degrees from Duke University and Princeton Theological Seminary. Her ministry at Raleigh Mennonite Church has been featured […]

Comrade Ruskin

By Eugene McCarraher August 26, 2019 photo above: John Ruskin in 1863 WN: This is a wonderful, encouraging article about the “Economics of Heaven.” It concludes with the words: That’s why we need Ruskin’s sacramental economics more than ever. It offers an imagination, if not quite a program, for reclaiming the wealth of the world […]

On A letter from Hell

By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist photo above: pxhere.com WN: It is interesting that the photo chosen for the article highlighted below (not shown above) is along the lines of what Larry Dixon wrote (The Other Side of the Good News: Contemporary Challenges to Jesus’ teaching on hell 1 in apparent approval of an instance of […]

They Went to Bible College to Deepen Their Faith.

Becca Andrews September 30, 2021 photo above: yelp.com WN: The article highlighted below begins with Megan Wohlers telling her story of abuse, and ends with these understated words from her: And that’s not how Jesus would have acted. I added October 24, 2021 almost an identical story, only from Jerry Falwell’s (Founder) Liberty University. His […]

Josh McDowell steps back from ministry after controversial remarks on black families

By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter September 23, 2021 photo above: Josh McDowell speaks at Talbot Chapel at Biola University in California on January 21, 2020. | YouTube/Biola University WN: Meanwhile, 82 years and 150 books in, Christian “intellectual” McDowell has finally learned something about Black History in America? Thank God we’re never too old […]

How America Fractured Into Four Parts

By George Packer July/August 2021 Issue The Atlantic image above: Lucy Jones WN: Wow! The essay is stunning as it is brilliant. At least read my excerpts below. Better though, purchase the book it is excerpted/adapted from: Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal. It challenges understanding about America’s past and present place in […]

9/11 was a test:

Essay by Carlos Lozada Illustration above: by Patrik Svensson Sept. 3, 2021 WN: Below are excerpts from an outstanding essay by a Pulitzer Prizer winner for criticism in 2019. But the last lines, though intended to be hopeful, ring perversely hollow–especially given what one can read on this website about the horrors of American Expansionism/Exceptionalism/Empire: […]

An American Kingdom

By Stephanie McCrummen July 11, 2021 photo above: Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth. (Dylan Hollingsworth for The Washington Post) WN: Oh dear! Oh dear! As my good Jesuit-trained friend Gerry Ayotte says, drawing on Tradition back to the Fathers and Mothers of the Church, God speaks loudest in the silence. In the fully choreographed […]

War Criminal Donald Rumsfeld Found Dead at 88

by Phyllis Bennis July 1, 2021 photo above: Then-US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld addresses a press conference at the Pentagon on 4 May 2004, more than a month after the US invasion of Iraq (AFP/File photo) WN: Rumsfeld did monstrous evil around the world, on a scale not unlike that of World War II […]

I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry

WN: This review is from THE AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR JUDAISM Review: “I Was a Catholic Zionist“–An Eloquent Exploration of Judaism’s Moral and Ethical Tradition and Zionism’s Departure From It by Allan C. Brownfeld Issues Winter 2019 I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry By Ted Schmidt 430 pages, $28.00 (information […]

Mass Psychosis May Follow Cheney’s Ouster

By Community May 11, 2021 WN: There have been many voices that point to Trump as a would-be despot, tyrant, totalitarian leader. The  article below turns specific in discussing how that might play out/is playing out right now in the United States. I take it very seriously. You may wish to first view the video […]

America Must Understand How Bad Trump Truly Was in Order to See What’s Coming

By Jake Jackson March 24, 2021 image source: Blog for Arizona WN: The situation in the U.S. continues to be dire, as it teeters on the brink of fascism. excerpts: Seldom do you come across a man who changed so much in so little time. His efforts normalised authoritarian tendencies, legitimised fascism, and shaped the […]

There Is No Christian Case for Trump

January 30, 2020 Peter Wehner Contributing writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC photo above: President Trump speaking to evangelical supporters in Miami, Florida on January 3, 2020.Eva Marie Uzcategui / Reuters WN: There are multiple reasons for critiquing “Christian” behaviour in America. Especially egregious is white Evangelical embrace of Trump. In this […]

Reckoning with the Toxicity of Christian Nationalism

By Bill Berkowitz February 8, 2021 WN: The article highlighted below is very disturbing for followers of the one Mark Lewis Taylor dubs The Executed God (book review here, with the subtitle: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America). I stand in perpetual amazement at how the New Testament Jesus is read to be […]

The McCarrick Report: The Vatican Owns Up To Enabling Abuse

The McCarrick Report: The Vatican Owns Up To Enabling Abuse November 10, 2020 by Mary Pezzulo WN: The article highlighted is powerful! It also points to exponential pain, horror, and abuse of those reporting their abuse by priests–by the wider Church which gaslighted/gaslights/revictimized/revictimizes victims beyond imagining . . . One reads and weeps all over […]

The Man Card

WN: Please see this new and powerful video–free until November 3! It tells America’s story of the past half century through White Male Identity Politics. Canadian-born Liz Plank in her fall 2019 book (before the pandemic!), For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity states baldly: Although the news often focuses […]

The Priority of Peaceableness in a Disruptive Election

Craig M. Watts October 26, 2020 General, Peace & Nonviolence, Politics WN: The article highlighted is very sobering. Amen to the last two sentences: Blood may be shed. But may it never be by our hands. excerpts: Extensive studies have shown the vast majority of political violence in the US in nearly thirty years –with […]

‘He’s Destroyed Conservatism’: The Republican Case Against Trump’s GOP

Stuart Stevens was a winning GOP operative. Now he feels terrible about what he’s done to the country. By MICHAEL GRUNWALD Michael Grunwald is a senior staff writer for Politico Magazine. 08/19/2020 photo above: AP/Patrick Semansky [NOTE: It took an article by Bob Ekblad (Blind and Deaf) in Clarion Journal, noted below, to occasion a revision […]

An Open Letter To Joe Biden

Dear Mr. Biden. If I might be so bold, I wonder about connecting some dots at this incredible kairos moment of U.S. and world history. I was moved by your empathetic videoed message to the Floyd family during the funeral service in Houston. You have deeply suffered multiple losses as this article sensitively points out: […]

Editorial: Dolan delivers the church to Trump and the GOP

Editorial: Dolan delivers the church to Trump and the GOP Apr 28, 2020 by NCR Editorial Staff photo above: New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan celebrates Easter Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral April 12 during the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS/Reuters/Jeenah Moon) WN: The article highlighted below shows American Catholic leadership in relation to Trump and his party […]

Under Donald Trump, drone strikes far exceed Obama’s numbers

By S. E. Cupp May 8, 2019 photo above: In this 2013 file photo, an X47-B Navy drone grabs the wire as it lands aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush off the Virginia coast. | AP Photo/Steve Helber WN: This is, I believe, the first article I have highlighted about Trump’s […]

We must call the El Paso shooting what it is: Trump-inspired terrorism

It is staggering to imagine how much more violence this president may motivate if he continues down this deeply disturbing path photo above: Trump’s rhetoric is infused with notions of violence and dehumanization’. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images  by  David Schanzer WN: While I do not believe anyone is pure evil, manifestations of such are arguably […]

Progressives Need to Start Preaching Hell Again

July 16, 2019 by Chuck McKnight   photo above: Gage Skidmore, Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0 Generic. WN: Amen! Except: I so dislike the term “progressive”, which in my view can smack of just another kind of (religious) elitism. “Justice-seekers” or some such term is what I’d rather identify with. Please also read about the Poor […]

Kids Locked In Cages Aren’t So Sure You’re Actually “Pro-Life”

Benjamin L. Corey July 1, 2019   WN: Of course, the persons addressed in the article highlighted below in the end are neither “pro-life” nor “Christian”. They have always happily supported bombing the hell out of whatever perceived enemy of the month America is targeting “now” (and that is anyone/state not bowing to its hegemony […]

Good Riddance to Cultural Christianity

Good Riddance to Cultural Christianity April 19, 2019| nones, Religious Right, voluntary association photo above: Pat Robertson speaks at the Road to Victory event at the Christian Coalition Conference September 19, 1998 in Washington, DC (Richard Ellis / Alamy Stock Photo). WN: Of course, “cultural Christianity” is ever part of Christian expression in all eras, […]

Tribunal Declares Trump and Duterte Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity

Tribunal Declares Trump and Duterte Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout Published March 14, 2019 photo above: CNN Politics WN: The article highlighted below describes a continuing horror story… Lord, have mercy. Then, I must confess that this article makes me hopping furious for another reason! I’m livid about the majority of […]

Nova Scotia Chocolatier Peace by Chocolate Pledges To Hire 50 Refugees By 2022

Nova Scotia Chocolatier Peace by Chocolate Pledges To Hire 50 Refugees By 2022 The now-famous company will also mentor 10 refugee startups over the next few years. Holly McKenzie-Sutter Canadian Press photo above: Andrew Vaughan/CP — Assam Hadhad, a Syrian refugee, displays a tray of chocolates at Peace by Chocolate in Antigonish, N.S. on Sept. […]

New Pro-Life Movement: ‘No’ to Trump; ‘yes’ to atheists

New Pro-Life Movement: ‘No’ to Trump; ‘yes’ to atheists Jan 17, 2019 by Peter Feuerherd Justice People photo above: Aimee Murphy, executive director of Rehumanize International, tells a group of pro-life activists at the 2018 March for Life Jan. 19 in Washington that it’s important for people to know that being pro-life means being against […]

Early Christian Readings of Genesis One

Early Christian Readings of Genesis One: Patristic Exegesis and Literal Interpretation,  Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2018; author Craig Allert WN: Full disclosure is, that thanks to Ron, I have been a member of a catholic Anglican/ecumenical contemplative order called “Sons of the Holy Cross”. I’ve had a longstanding interest in Patristics as well, again thanks […]

The Kavanaugh Hearings

The Kavanaugh Hearings by John Graham WN: This is very wise commentary — thanks to one of my nieces for sending it our way. Of course, the issue is far greater: ultimate American Empire privilege in a world designed and brutally buttressed to be its oyster. No one in the American political system is exempt, […]

Justice That Transforms — Book Series

First 3 Volumes Fall 2018; Volume One Republished January 2020; two more projected late 2023 SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. WN: I’m pleased to add this page about three books produced fall 2018. They are of my writings on Restorative Justice over the years, including (in Volume One) […]

How Does This All End? How Do We Come Back Together?

August 1, 2018 by Tim Suttle 8 Comments WN: In the article highlighted below, we are told — again by this author — that America has a wisdom problem. I have no doubt that he is right. What must be asserted however much more so is that America has an Evil Empire problem. When an […]

Willow Creek, Your Time Is Now

August 6, 2018 by Scot McKnight 68 Comments photo above: Pat Baranowski was the executive assistant to the Rev. Bill Hybels at the Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., one of the largest megachurches in the country. CreditAlyssa Schukar for The New York Times WN: What can one add — that is not […]

Pope revises catechism to say death penalty is ‘inadmissible’

Commits the church to working toward its abolition worldwide1 Aug 2, 2018 by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service Theology   photo above: Pope Francis gestures before speaking about the death penalty at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, at the Vatican in this Oct. 11, 2017, file photo. […]

Judgment days

In a small Alabama town, an evangelical congregation reckons with God, President Trump and the meaning of morality Please go to the end to read the fascinating article by the above title and subtitle1. WN: Trump – “Angel of Light” A kind of mantra in my Canadian white evangelical upbringing went, “You can be sincere […]

Enough Bombs Bursting in Air. We Need to Love One Another.

By William Rivers Pitt Truthout, Published July 4, 2018 WN: I love it when people not necessarily in the faith reflect back to us Jesus’ central message to “love one another”. And I think it singularly sobering that they remind people of faith about its central tenet. Would that the white evangelical majority everywhere in […]

How Martin Luther Paved the Way for Donald Trump

To understand why evangelicals support the president, look to the first Protestant. By Michael Massing April 19, 2018 illustration above by Sabine Formane WN: This article draws a fascinating direct line from Martin Luther in the early 16th century to Donald Trump in the 21st. There is likewise a fascinating/tragic direct line to be drawn […]

The Last Temptation

How evangelicals, once culturally confident, became an anxious minority seeking political protection from the least traditionally religious president in living memory Michael Gerson April 2018 Issue Politics WN: This is a greatly informed, wise and even hopeful assessment of what has happened to white Evangelicals in America since their embrace of Trump (81% voted for […]

Billy Graham and the Gospel of Fear

February 21, 2018 byCecil Bothwell Photo above by Richard Bromley | CC BY 2.0 [NOTE: For a differing view with my reflection on it, please also see my February 23, 2018 post about Billy Graham.] WN: Billy Graham’s passing (February 21, 2018) will occasion countless eulogies the world over; he will be touted as the […]

Hellrazed? — edited by Kevin Miller

WN: Kevin Miller produced the movie Hellbound? five years ago to look at changing views on the doctrine of hell. As he began “exploring” hell, partially motivated by having read his friend Brad Jersak’s book, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell and the New Jerusalem, he was alerted to the publication of Rob […]

The Fundamentalists Holding Us Back from a Climate Change Solution

The evangelical Christian movement has been at war with environmentalism for decades—but the stakes have never been higher. By ALLIE CONTI illustrated by LIA KANTROWITZ Aug 20 2017, 7:15pm WN: It is truly tragic to see US politics swayed by a minority of religious climate change deniers – out of all proportion to their numbers. […]

Pope Francis allies accuse Trump White House of ‘apocalyptic geopolitics’

Article vetted by the Vatican offers scathing critique of Steve Bannon, who is Catholic, the Trump White House and ‘evangelical fundamentalism’ in the US photo above: Ivanka Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and President Donald Trump stand with Pope Francis during a meeting at the Vatican on May 24, 2017. Evan Vucci—AP WN: Utterly appalling and […]

White Supremacy Is Anti-Gospel. I’m Glad the Southern Baptist Convention Agrees

WN: I copied the entire article below. It is about an historic decision by the Southern Baptist Convention. Russell Moore has been the head of the (SBC) Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission since 2013. As you can see from the links, he has been an amazing voice within those ranks for actually […]

America’s Iran Hysteria

The Irrationality of Iran Vilification By Danny Sjursen Posted by Danny Sjursen at 7:46am, May 30, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. WN: It is now almost in every geopolitical instance a truism that if the United States says “black” the reality is the inverse – or significantly other. Such is the case in the article highlighted below. America’s view […]

Evangelist Franklin Graham hits perfect storm in Vancouver

Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun  03.05.2017 photo above: Thirty-three Vancouver Christian leaders wrote a public letter admonishing Graham for saying “Islam is a ‘very evil and wicked religion’” and for “portraying … U.S. President Donald Trump as intrinsically aligned with the Christian church.” Photo: Graham takes the stage in Alabama. Mark Wallheiser / Vancouver Sun WN: […]

Constantine in Canada – Ron Dart – with Vancouver letter re: Franklin Graham

February 27, 2017 Constantine in Canada: The Conservative Evangelicals Ron S. Dart WN: Years ago, I wrote an editorial in The Mennonite, a U.S.-based periodical, about evangelism being carried out – without the Gospel.  The Editor later informed me that he had never received so many angry Letters to the Editor attacking my article in his […]

If Being a Christian Means XYZ, then I am not a Christian.

February 15, 2017 by Kimberly Stover WN: I have copied the entire posting below, with a link at the end for where you may see the original, become a “Follower” of the author, etc. Billy Graham was definitely right on in the citation below from 1981. Would that he too had stayed away form the […]

We Are All Deplorables

Posted on Nov 20, 2016 By Chris Hedges an excerpt: Those cast aside by the neoliberal order have an economic identity that both the liberal class and the right wing are unwilling to acknowledge. This economic identity is one the white underclass shares with other discarded people, including the undocumented workers and the people of color demonized by the carnival […]

Why would Christians vote for Trump?: Coren

It is difficult to understand how millions of evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics can still be committed to Trump and ignore or justify his repugnant actions By Michael Coren Amen! Tues., Oct. 25, 2016 an excerpt: Donald Trump is a winner. Not that he’s likely to win the election but his style, approach and entire […]

Donald Trump’s Apocalypse Is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Whatever happens in November, the forecast is more stormy weather ahead. By John Feffer October 13, 2016 1:30 photo above: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to a campaign rally at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Tuesday, August 9, 2016. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci) an excerpt: In the United States, meanwhile, Trump’s economic […]

An Open Letter to Michelle Obama, October 13, 2016

 WN: A friend reminded me, in response to that below, that none of us in the first world is untainted vis à vis violence. And with that taintedness is a bending at least towards hypocrisy and Pharisaism – which my friend also reminded me about. So with that mea culpa, please read on.: Dear […]

“Christian” Zionism’s flawed vision of Israel

by Rabbi Dow Marmur An excerpt: Of late, however, some have argued that nowadays this may not be the primary motivation of mainstream Christian evangelicals. Their commitment to Israel may be more about being ashamed of what has been done to Jews in the name of Christianity through the ages. Supporting the Jewish state is […]

“Pardon Me?!”

“Pardon Me?!” A one-time friend, Lloyd Billingsley, years ago confidently told me that “the left” by definition is ideological, “the right” by contrast normal/normative. Such in turn ideological blindness still gobsmacks me. Lloyd is an intelligent man but profoundly doctrinaire, and like a close acquaintance, Lloyd sadly is highly unloving – even hateful – towards […]

Billy Graham – Echoes in the Shadows

This was written by Bill C. Davis. WN: Billy Graham has been the most known representative Evangelical for the last half of the twentieth century. No one has emerged in the twenty-first to take his place. This is why in my novel he appeared as THE representative Evangelical. As such, he most represents the tragedy […]

The Spirit of Antichrist

WN: Another of my now-and-then reflections. An excerpt: One of my good friends several years ago gave up on the church. Still a “believer,” he embarked on a private study of Christian doctrine, only to “discover” that the traditional biblical texts were no longer to be trusted, and instead needed to be rewritten à la […]

The Mother of All Christian Heresies

WN: Another incidental writing. An excerpt: The War just fought against pirate Saddam Hussein and Iraq, with recently reported Iraqi civilian casualties of over 37,000(1) [Twelve times the civilian casualties of September 11, 2001, in America!] is another classic instance of the pot calling the kettle black; of Emperor Bush demonstrating moral equivalency to Saddam […]

Spirituality of Restorative Justice

WN: Presented at Arts & Peace Festival, Restorative Justice Workshop, March 1, 2001. Something similar was also presented at Regent College in 2003. It is also clickable. an excerpt: Centrality of Western Christian Spirituality for Criminal Justice The defining religious ethos of Western spirituality historically has been Christianity. Christianity has also been the reigning ideology […]

Is Paul the Father of Misogyny and Antisemitism?

WN: This paper highlighted below answers in the negative the question posed in the title. It was written by Pamela Eisenbaum, Pauline scholar, practising Jew, feminist, and professor at a Christian seminary. She subsequently wrote Paul was not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle. I delivered a sermon inspired by her, entitled […]

Emperor Bush, Pirate bin Laden, Calvin College, and the Gospel

image above: webpages.uidaho.edu WN: Evangelicals were in bed with former President George W. Bush like never before. They of course are out of sorts with President Obama. The Christian Left however hugely welcomed Obama, who has hardly since in any way (if ever) shown desert of the Nobel Peace Prize. The paper, written during the […]

Christian Zionism

image above: azquotes.com WN: This was done for a new book by Ron Dart, Canadian Christian Zionism: A Tangled Tale. Of it: There has been considerable research and writing done on English, American, and German Christian Zionism, but there is a paucity of serious and substantive writing and research on Canadian Christian Zionism. This prier […]

Capital Punishment

image above: izquotes.com WN: I was invited to dialogue with Dr. Richard Land of (later) “The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission” of the Southern Baptist Convention. The dialogue was organized by the Presbyterian Church in Alaska, and took place March 22, 1997 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It was teleconferenced throughout Alaska including into […]

The Biblical Revelation of the Cross

A Bible Study of the Atonement of Jesus Christ – the Righteous Servant, Norman McIlwain, Oak Wood Publishing House, 2006 Reviewed by Phil Groom Why did Jesus die? It’s a simple enough question at first glance: he was crucified. That’s what happens: crucifixion kills. But for Christians, as well as for anyone else who wants […]

Chapter Sixty-Three

In 2007 I first published Chrysalis Crucible, a coming-of-age novel about young Andy Norton who goes off to West Berlin in the early seventies to evangelize – with all the answers. You can find a page about it on this website. I’ve republished it (2015) as Kindle eBook and Amazon print-on-demand. Andy discovers in West […]

WAR AND HELL – and Exception-Clause Footnote Theology

WN: War and Hell is an interactive essay with a movie and a book. The movie: Saving Private Ryan. The book: The Other Side of The Good News: Contemporary Challenges to Jesus’ Teaching on Hell, Wheaton: Victor Books, 1992 (later published by one other at least). The current iteration of this document was prepared for […]

Book Reviews List

SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. A Farewell To Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Gospel of Peace –Brian Zahnd Against The Death Penalty: Christian and Secular Arguments Against Capital Punishment –Gardner C. Hanks A Gentler God: Breaking Free of the Almighty in the Company of the Human Jesus […]

“Not Enough!” and International Restorative Justice

Colloquium on Violence & Religion (COV&R) Presentation, May 31 – June 4, 2006, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada WN: When I finally decided to register to present a paper at my friend Vern Redekop’s urging (he was the Conference host), there was only a slot left under French language workshops. I immediately asked two bilingual colleagues about […]

René Girard and Violence

WN: The paper below was (re)written just for my own joy in 1997, with subsequent rewrites. A version was prepared for a Fraser Valley BC “Christ and Violence” conference in 1998. It almost got me fired before hired! One of the interviewers for my (new) position as Executive Director of M2/W2 Association had taken exception […]

Chrysalis Crucible – a novel

SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. PLEASE NOTE: In that there is no need to make money from sales, here is a PDF version of the novel: Crysalis Crucible. My only request is that, if you wish to share about the novel, you acknowledge the author, and send them […]

The Spirituality of Penal Abolition

ICOPA IX Presentation 2000 Noted Canadian Quaker activist and author Dr. Ruth Morris was the main organizer of the above annual event, that year in Toronto. She later was a recipient of Correctional Services Canada’s Restorative Justice Award, and of The Order of Canada. Her death from cancer (September 17, 2001) was a huge loss […]

Restorative Justice

  NOTE: Some of what follows is excerpted from Chapter One of Justice That Transforms: Volume 1 WN: From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, is one of the three “grandfathers” (if one must use that term) chronologically of Restorative Justice, together with Mark Yantzi and Dave Worth, the first and longstanding […]