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Sing Him Back Home

From the June/July 2016 Print Edition

The day Merle Haggard died, I found myself talking to a friend who has served as a makeup artist in Nashville’s music industry for more years than she would like to admit. “When people ask me how long I’ve been working in the business,” she said, “I tell them I’ve been doing this since . . . . Continue Reading »

Evangelicals Won't Cave

From the October 2015 Print Edition

Could the next Billy Graham be a married lesbian? In the year 2045, will Focus on the Family be “Focus on the Families,” broadcasting counsel to Evangelicals about how to manage jealousy in their polyamorous relationships? That’s the assumption among many—on the celebratory left as well . . . . Continue Reading »

Not Yet

From Web Exclusives

With the legal affirmation of same-sex marriage in some states, should churches, synagogues, and mosques stop performing civil marriages? No, not yet. Marriage is, of course, more than a matter of statecraft.  Continue Reading »

Evangelical Retreat?

From the December 2013 Print Edition

Growing up in a Southern Baptist church in the 1970s and ’80s, I heard quite a bit about “the Rapture.” This was the dispensationalist apocalyptic teaching that some day, some day very soon, born-again Christians would be secretly whisked away to heaven, right before seven years of dystopian . . . . Continue Reading »

An Evangelical Looks at Pope Benedict XVI

From Web Exclusives

With Pope Benedict XVI’s shocking resignation this morning, Evangelical Christians might be tempted to see this the way a college football fan might view the departure of his rival team’s head coach. But the global stakes are much, much higher. As Pope Benedict steps down, I think it’s important for us to recognize the legacy of the last two bishops of Rome that we ought to honor and conserve: an emphasis on human dignity … Continue Reading »

Shrug Not

From Web Exclusives

In a post at CNN’s Belief Blog, a young Evangelical urged Christians to “shrug off” the fact that an Evangelical pastor was apparently disinvited by the President’s Inaugural Committee to pray at the inauguration because of his Christian convictions on sexual morality. We disagree. … Continue Reading »

Born-Again Babies

From the October 2012 Print Edition

Godly Seed: American Evangelicals Confront Birth Control, 1873“1973? by Allan Carlson Transaction, 172 pages, $29.95 Seeing our five sons, strangers in the grocery store ask us, “Do you know what is causing that?” What other times and other cultures considered a small family now . . . . Continue Reading »