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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,

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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

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Name It and Claim It or Go Home

While the Capitol riot was still unfolding on January 6, with Trump supporters scaling walls, smashing windows, beating up police officers, and threatening reporters’ lives, some white friends contacted me privately, asking if I was sure that “every single one of them [the rioters] is white,” as I reported in a Facebook post and on this blog. I responded that I had been watching the insurrection for 90 minutes and had not seen a single Black person who wasn’t a journalist, police officer, or member of Congress. And I posed a question in return: If it turns out that one

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Don’t Ride the Fence So Hard That You Emasculate Yourself

Trump supporters have stormed the Capitol, shouting “This is our house.” All of them are white. Shots have been fired. The President started this. He won’t stop it. When will American evangelicals get it? When will they realize that their continued support of Donald Trump is a disgrace to the cause of Jesus Christ? When will they care that they are permanently dividing Black and white believers in the American Church? When will they rebuke their blind prophets, who fed this madness through their idolatrous assurances that Trump would be re-elected? When will our church leaders speak out and name

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Repentance Is Not a Bargaining Chip

I’m starting to think my American Pentecostal-charismatic brethren have completely lost it. Our movement was birthed among the poor in Los Angeles in 1906 when the Holy Spirit visited a tiny gathering of what a local newspaper derided as “Negro washerwomen.” Led by a one-eyed Black preacher named William J. Seymour, the little church that came to be known as the Azusa Street Mission erupted into a worldwide movement that now counts more than 600 million adherents. Seymour was a follower of Jesus Christ such as we seldom see today. He had no interest in praise from men, and to

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Time to Exit the Cult of Trump

Here is the good news: God is moving in people’s hearts. I have personally witnessed and heard of many people who’ve repented of their involvement in our national sin of racism. These weren’t folks who climbed on a stage to make some big public pronouncement, just everyday Christians who humbled their hearts and were moved by the Holy Spirit to confess their sins one to another. I hope this is an encouragement to the African-American Christians who’ve cried out to the Lord for justice for many years and have seen so little fruit. I pray it is also a salve

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Cracks in Our Christianity

Let the ballot counters do their job. It’s been a comfort to see images of these ordinary people of all ages and colors doing their painstaking work. They are the nuts and bolts of democracy, and I believe in them. To do otherwise would be to give up on America altogether. That’s why I’ll offer no view of who’s going to win the presidential election. I’m much more concerned about the divisions it’s laid bare—and how the Church is no better and possibly worse, reflecting the exact same polarities of race, geography, and socioeconomic status. Let’s take a look at

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The Ginormous Blind Spot

A pastor friend of mine in Africa sent me yet another Trump prophecy video and asked what I thought. These videos really get around! This particular prophet promised a flood, fire, and lots of other bad stuff if we don’t re-elect Donald Trump as president today. Add this to the asteroid Pat Robertson prophesied even if we do re-elect Trump. Hey, why not just give up now? Surveying all of the Trump prophecy videos and articles I’ve read in the past four years, I ended up with one burning question: Where are the Black prophets? How come they’re not getting

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Beware the Prophets of Fear

Not too long ago, I was an avid reader of Charisma magazine, the voice of the Pentecostal-charismatic churches. I loved columnist J. Lee Grady, who was editor for many years and served as the conscience of my high-risk, high-reward Christian faith tradition. Take a look today, though, and here’s what you might see: A Biden win will signal the end of America as we know it. My question: Is that a bad thing? There are quite a few things I’d love to see the end of in the America I know. I’d be happy to see the end of economic

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Why Black Christians Aren’t Voting for Trump

A couple godly friends repeated to me President Donald Trump’s assertion that he has done more for the Black community than any president since Abraham Lincoln. These friends are white, and I know they sincerely believe this statement, which Trump made again in last week’s debate. So how does one reconcile this with the fact that Black people are streaming to the polls in record numbers to vote overwhelmingly against Trump? Why are they lining up for as long as eight hours in a pandemic that disproportionately affects them to cast votes all over the country? Are they ungrateful? Are

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