This week I explained why I signed the Confession of Evangelical Conviction, asked considered whether Christians like me actually fit under the “evangelical” label, and considered a Latina commentary on Mark 7. Elsewhere:
• For more information on who wrote the confession I shared, and what prompted it, check out reports from Religion News Service and Baptist News Global.
• Pro-life voters are politically homeless, says one prominent pro-life scholar, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
• Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump “are against life,” said Pope Francis this week, yet “you must vote, and one has to choose the lesser evil.”
• Could we reach “a bipartisan consensus that as policymakers consider how to support America's families, any solutions should include the moms and dads ‘on the home front’ who provide full-time care to their kids”?
• Could white mainline Protestants determine who wins the White House this year?
• I agree that public schools can be a good option for Christian families like ours, and I’m sadly unsurprised that many of my fellow evangelicals were outraged to find that argument appear in Christianity Today.
• Fans of Jesus and John Wayne will want to watch the new documentary based on its closing chapter — it drops September 26th on YouTube.
• Are Protestants right that Scripture is fundamentally clear? Yes, but...
• “Yes might be the most powerful word in the world,” wrote Peter Marty. “It can create, build, and heal. Its capacity to change hearts makes it essential to a posture of hope.”
• I’m glad that New York Times readers got to learn about Brother Lawrence this week.
• Tucker Carlson platforming someone who blames World War II on Winston Churchill illustrates one danger of the present age: the rise of podcast historians who lack meaningful training in our discipline.
• Could we reconcile conservative and progressive views of U.S. history in a way that “would allow us all to turn our focus and attention to the places where deeper disagreement remains, namely, in our judgments about the present state of society and the direction it should take”?
• Manipulated photos and other misinformation are nothing new; in fact, they go back around a hundred years in political history.
• I love this idea for a college course: looking at the intellectual history of science fiction to consider how “the way we talk about and use technology [is] influenced by the way we’re trained to think about technology and the future[.]”
• For consecutive years, fewer college students are reporting depression, anxiety, and suicidality.
• Some more good news for one sector of higher ed: HBCUs have experienced a surge in enrollment.
• A friend of mine who teaches history at another Christian university is battling Stage IV cancer. If you’d like to help out the Kelley family, click through to this GoFundMe campaign.
• Finally, RIP James Earl Jones — as for many of us, his voice has been a big part of the soundtrack of my life.