Civic discourse is far from civil these days. And there is so much more of it, thanks to social media. Everywhere people are drawing lines, choosing sides, treating even issues with little moral importance as if they were lines drawn in the sands of eternity. It is as if the whole of society was pushing…
I am well aware, as I sit in my little Covid-induced bubble of a home office, that larger forces are at work. By larger, I mean the current drama on the nation’s political stage. Georgia had its most unusual dual Senate race runoff yesterday, and surprise of all surprises, it appears that both Democratic candidates,…
Being Black History Month, let me share some questions people are asking me concerning race relations. These questions come because of my recent book, Ethics in the Age of the Spirit: Race, Women, War, and the Assemblies of God. Q. What compelled you to start the research in the first place? While in my undergraduate…
I am so impressed and intrigued with this new book, Ethics in the Age of the Spirit, by Howard Kenyon. It has been difficult to complete the manuscript, reading and re-reading many parts because it so intrigued me. It is an academic masterpiece. It is also an exciting read, informative and academically excellent. To me,…
It has taken thirty years, but my newest book has just been published by Pickwick Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock. Here are a couple of excerpts from the first chapter of Ethics in the Age of the Spirit: Race, Women, War, and the Assemblies of God: A trilogy of issues—black-white relationships, women in…
Yesterday’s news, if not a surprise, was a shock. President Trump set the refugee limit at 18,000 for the coming year, advancing the administration’s sustained effort to dislodge faith communities from their historic involvement in refugee resettlement. As Galen Carey, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals has said, this action is…
Forty years ago, I embarked on a mission to understand the Pentecostal brand of racism. I had come to accept that racism is endemic to American society, but I could not admit that it was rampant in my own Pentecostal tribe, a tribe that claimed to be a shining model of spiritual exceptionalism. Out of…
Sometimes you never know what ancient chapter of your life will come roaring back. Such is the case with research I devoted myself to for most of my twenties. A year ago, Darrin Rodgers, director of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, contacted me through Facebook. He and others, including Marty Mittelstadt, Evangel University professor, and…
This Christmas season I was invited to light an advent candle and share a reading at my church. I was asked to speak on sorrow in the face of joy. Here is what I shared: I get that the holiday season is not always merry. Two days before Christmas last year my mother passed away…
Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. So said Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. People with shallow understanding will give him due honor for this day, and then repeat the sins of the past for…
