I am reading the Roman statesman-philosopher Cicero these days. You might ask why in the world that dusty old personage should be occupying my thoughts. The answer is that, as part of the preparation of my new book on democracy, I am attempting to retrace the most significant lines of Western political thought. This month that […]
Lessons from Cicero on America’s 247th Birthday
“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.” — John 17:20-21 John 17 often is labeled as Jesus’ “high-priestly prayer.” This is because he stands in the sight of God praying for his people. In this extraordinarily profound
Our weekly gun massacres in the United States are shocking in the extreme. They set us apart from other nations in the worst possible sense. I have not yet been in or near one of these massacres. The closest I have gotten is that the recent shooting in an Atlanta medical office building took place in
Our Weekly Gun Massacres Mark a Devastating Cultural Failure
One of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a
For a long time, it was clear the white Christian Right in the United States was waging a war of reaction (sometimes open, sometimes clandestine) against just about every social, cultural and legal change that has taken place in our country since about, say, 1962. If we take the time horizon that far back, these changes would
The Christian Right Continues Its Futile but Dangerous War of Reaction
Since summer 2015, the most important figure in American life has been Donald J. Trump. Every time some of us hoped we would be through with him, he has shown he is not through with us. His exhausting presence and terrible impact on our country have not ended and apparently will not end even after he
The ‘Man of Lawlessness’ Gets Indicted in New York
Twitter is an enticement to sin. How’s that for a lead? Shall I say more? I discovered Twitter early and have maintained a steady presence there, despite various pauses, doubts and regrets. I almost abandoned the site last year when Elon Musk took over. I might do so still for various Musk-related reasons, such as
The Dubious Ethics of Christian Twitter
Last week, I was in Amsterdam for the annual academic colloquium of the International Baptist Theological Study Center. Among the scholars present there was my friend Fyodor Raychynets, a distinguished Baptist pastor and theologian, and a leader of the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary in Kyiv, which I had the privilege of visiting several years ago. I
An Interview with Ukrainian Baptist Theologian Fyodor Raychynets
Joint article by Lisa Sharon Harper and David P. Gushee. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison. — Mark 6:27 On the day we write this post, during the week Tyre Nichols was buried after being murdered by Memphis police
The State Murder of Tyre Nichols
Black America flipped the script on a racialized democratic state to make it more perfect. It is Black people’s fight that makes the United States exceptional. —Randal Jelks (2022) Many of us are profoundly worried about the health of American democracy. If so, we need to attend deeply to the deadly contradiction between structural racism and
The Black Resistance Tradition and Its Fight for U.S. Democracy