/

He Taught the Whole Nation to Sin

Manasseh was the worst king of ancient Judah, and to compound his awfulness, he reigned longer than any other—55 years. The Bible records just how vile he was: He erected idols in the temple, practiced sorcery, and sacrificed his own sons in the fire. “But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray,” 2 Chronicles 33:9 says, “so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.” In other words, not only did Manasseh sin, but he taught the whole nation to sin. Which lands me right at the end of October 2024,

//

When Giants Fall

The last two weeks have been tumultuous for evangelical churchgoers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, to say the least. Two of the most revered megachurch leaders, Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church and Pastor Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, both stepped down after revelations of sin. While Evans’ confession of an unspecified sin “a number of years ago” was cloaked in vagueness, Morris’ was not, thanks to the public outcry of an Oklahoma woman who claimed that Morris sexually abused her for more than four years beginning when she was 12 years old. Morris was a married traveling

///

Sorry to Break the News, but There Is No Middle Ground

I’ve been thinking about how to write this post for days. On October 20, I had the most horrifying prophetic dream I’ve ever had, and it concerned former President Donald Trump and his Christian followers. I am certain the dream was an urgent warning from God. But I also know that many of my readers come from traditions that dismiss or at least downplay the possibility of God speaking to us through dreams. I get that. That is why I am going to write this post from two angles: What I see and hear with my natural eyes and ears,

/

The CRT Smackdown

Everyone is talking about Critical Race Theory. Never mind that most of us hadn’t even heard about it till, like, last week. Folks are talking and pontificating and bloviating about this complex subject as though they’ve been experts all their lives. White evangelical leaders, in fact, are stumbling over themselves to denounce it. Consider this: • The Southern Baptist Convention teed up CRT as a subject of debate during this week’s annual meeting, and some white pastors made plans to assail it, going so far as to rally under a pirate banner with the slogan “Take the Ship!” (I couldn’t

//

Derek Chauvin’s Eyes

Derek Chauvin’s eyes flashed, cutting through the judge’s bland intonation of guilty…guilty…guilty. That moment in a Minneapolis courtroom on April 20 signaled what I believe to be a historic shift: Twelve ordinary Americans—six people of color, six white—reached unanimous agreement about what they saw in the killing of George Floyd. They called it murder. These everyday folks, with a decidedly mixed bag of preconceptions about race, were able to process two weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses, reason together face to face, and arrive at the same conclusion. This happened in a nation with a history of aggressively denying the

/

Learning from a Racial Unity Fail, Pt. 3: It’s All About the Heart

You saw it. The defense attorney’s opening statement in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who planted his knee on George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Not once did the attorney acknowledge that a tragedy had taken place, that a man’s life had been snuffed out. You heard the excuses. That Chauvin was a little guy, and Floyd was very big. Illegal drugs were found in Floyd’s system. The onlookers made the officers feel stressed and anxious. Now it’s time for a heart check. Do you lean toward the excuses, or do you lean

//

The Crime Without a Face

Three days after the horrific murders in Atlanta, we still haven’t seen the faces of four of the six women of Asian descent gunned down by Robert Aaron Long. As someone who covered crime for many years as a print journalist, I remember the scramble to locate photos and bios of victims in the immediate aftermath of a multiple murder or mass-casualty event. Journalists are incredibly resourceful in tracking down this information, but all the firepower of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other esteemed news outlets hasn’t managed to bring the faces of these

///

Learning from a Racial Unity Fail, Pt. 2: No More Crumbs

Starting in December, the Lord repeatedly brought me to a passage in Ezekiel 9. The prophet was recounting a vision from God in which he was carried in the Spirit to Jerusalem. Here in the holy city, Ezekiel witnessed something that would have horrified any devout Jew of his time: The glory of God lifted from the Temple and paused at its threshold. Then poof—it was gone. Before the glory departed entirely, however, the prophet saw a “man clothed in linen” holding a writing kit. The Lord commanded this man to “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a

/

Learning from a Racial Unity Fail, Pt. 1: It’s Deep, Y’all

The Black South African singer possessed a rich, nuanced voice. Mature in her faith and gracious in manner, she repeatedly yielded the mic to the white South African woman with a thin, average-quality voice who kept asserting a front-and-center role during worship. I watched this dynamic unfold at a small, interracial Christian healing service in Johannesburg, South Africa, several years ago, growing increasingly frustrated. The Black singer was a recording artist with a powerful presence, and she could have blown the white woman off the stage. Yet she honored the sacredness of the moment by refusing to engage in a

////

The Trump Prophets Repent, All Hell Breaks Loose

The day after the Capitol riot, a prominent charismatic prophet named Jeremiah Johnson repented for prophesying that President Donald Trump would be re-elected in 2020. The response was immediate and devastating, according to a Facebook post from Johnson: “Over the last 72 hours, I have received multiple death threats and thousands upon thousands of emails from Christians saying the nastiest and most vulgar things I have ever heard toward my family and ministry. I have been labeled a coward, sellout, a traitor to the Holy Spirit, and cussed out at least 500 times. We have lost ministry partners every hour

1 2