Honestly, I think we have a literacy crisis and some of it is related to a dismissal of the importance of the humanities. The church needs deep readers and thinkers teaching and leading in the church.
I had lunch with the current Sr. Pastor of my church home in Texas, and he asked to meet with me because he’s watched my social and he’s seen how it resonated with so many who had departed from his church in the past decade.
Well, it happened.
Today the lay director of my Church’s Adult Sunday School passed along an outstanding throwback article from Philip Jenkins about evangelicalism and recommended I check out the website, the Anxious Bench.
Reader, I am the editor of the Anxious Bench.
It’s so interesting that the evangelicals who enchanted me at youth conferences in the early 2000s are now the ones I am disenchanted with in the 2020s.
Today I want to celebrate one courageous woman. My wife. Kendall is 4’ 10”. The first time she was pregnant, her OB said that her pregnancy might be “at risk.” When she came to term, the OBs concern proved to be correct. He pelvis was too narrow to give natural birth.
Why is muscular Christianity on the rise again for male pastors? Why are they perpetuating a fear of the notion of effeminancy?
The entire ethos they have created reminds me more of middle school bullying and male insecurity rather than any form of Christian leadership.
I’m convinced that podcasts that do book talks and solid book reviews are important, but they are not replacements for engaging sources with deep reading.
As a historian who has read much about the tragic private lives of great evangelical figures in history, I have, as a result, become much less ambitious.
No achievement is worth the cost of a healthy family.
Yesterday, one called for me being fired from my job because I am sympathetic. Because I listen. Because I think women’s bodies matter. That man is a puny coward in comparison to my wife.
The kind of deep reading that is required for most of these subjects is slow reading that causes you to pause and reflect as you read. Sometimes I take notes and write reviews for future research and to be better prepared to talk about sources in the future.
Over the last decade, in both the academic and ministerial world, I hear repeatedly that people don’t actually read. They just teach and minister acting conversant with the sources without deeply engaging them.
It’s the issue of literacy, not the ability to read but the desire and willingness to read. He mentioned he probably wouldn’t read the books. He’d just read about them or hit them by reading introduction and conclusion.
Today’s TGC article about marriage & sex is what happens when hundreds of people in a niche theological network read 17th century English Puritans for decades.
I encouraged him to read The Making of Biblical Womanhood (
@bethallisonbarr
) and Jesus and John Wayne (
@kkdumez
). But here is what really got me about the conversation and a long term problem in the church and the academy…
Today I told my three daughters:
“Being hot is the wrong goal, so please don’t listen to cheesy pastors or Christian thought leaders and their odd variety of purity culture.”
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
by wearing a mask
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
by getting vaccinated
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
by sheltering refugees
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
by speaking against racism
LOVE. YOUR. NEIGHBOR.
Our family is PRO-LIFE in a way that most pundit right-wing Christians cannot even fathom. They have not made hard decision, knowing a human lives, family members are on the line.
In light of the recent review of Women and Gender at TGC, I’d like to commend
@albpeeler
and her work to you. She is an outstanding scholar and sister. I’ve watched her up close shepherd, with civil convictions, friends and colleagues.
The doctrine of inerrancy states that the Scriptures are without error in their original writing. It does not say that you are without error in your original reading.
7 common tropes of budding evangelical conservative theologians.
1: I found Bavinck
2: John Webster everything
3: Do you know TIS?
4: Aquinas is actually good
5: The superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis
6: Post Reformed Reformed Dogmatics
7. But Oliver Crisp says…
Some Professional News
Earlier today, I accepted a full-time appointment for the position of Visiting Assistant Professor of History at
@WheatonCollege
for the 2023/24 academic year.
We visited a third church today. The minister made a reference to Jonathan Edwards. I looked at my family and all five were giving me a very knowing look, even my 3 yr old. She leaned over to me and said: “You know a lot about him.” It was really funny.
Here. I fixed it for you all:
“To pretend to praise Christ while living lives that mock Him is like joining those who taunted Him at the crucifixion and shouted Hail, King of the Jews” (George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, 297).
Without saying your age, what's the first major news story that you remember from childhood?
1. Challenger Explosion
2. Rescue of baby Jessica
3. Berlin Wall
When brothers like
@JoashPThomas
,
@tweetraychang
, or
@KyleJamesHoward
address the problematic history of white slaveholding evangelicals, who centered the life of theology & Christian history around themselves, & then they receive pushback from white people for this, take note.
When a PCA pastor emeritus becomes a Canon for the ANCA, while inviting a prominent SBC leader to be a theologian in residence at the PCA church he founded, you are getting a glorious glimpse of what “broadly evangelical” means and why it is “beautiful orthodoxy.”
When Kendall became pregnant with our 2nd born, the OB made sure Kendall knew her rights and the risks of having a 2nd c-section. Homeschool Christian moms at our church shamed her for scheduling a 2nd c-section in a hospital because it was not natural birthing in a home.
You can now subscribe to a podcast version of Letters from an American.
I’m not a podcast person, but I am the kind of person that appreciates
@HC_Richardson
’s record of US history in real time.
You should subscribe.
Women Veterans Day is observed on June 12 in the United States, a date chosen to mark the anniversary of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act.
#WomenVeteransDay
#RepresentedInTheArchives
As soon as both were born, the surgeon walked up to me and said, sir, if you want this mother for your babies, you have to schedule your own procedure now.
All four of my kids are in public schools. They will have been taught by hundreds of specialists by the time they finish their public high school career.
So far all of my children’s elementary and middle school teachers have had graduate degrees in their field of study.
Some News:
I have accepted an offer for a full-time renewable visiting position for the 24/25 academic year. I’m thrilled to join the Purdue University Northwest (
@PurdueNorthwest
) history department. This exciting news does not require a move!
Kendall was in labor for over 36 hr with Chloe. At that point, they performed an emergency C-Section. Chloe was delivered with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck at 2AM on 10/18. Mom and baby were safe. I observed the surgery at the Baylor’s teaching hospital in Dallas.
What can we learn from this? First, it’s important to rightly attribute ideas to the correct person and not make negligent mis-attributions, especially if your theology (like that of the TheoBros) depends upon manly authority. Missteps like this undermine your trustworthiness.
Once you see this you can’t unsee it.
Josh Howerton chooses to problematize progressive Christians with a generalization fallacy rather than forming a cogent biblical and theological argument.
Once you see this you can’t unsee it:
In general, Progressive Christians don't want to engage the Biblical arguments of theological conservatives (bc they know that's a losing battle).
So, to "skip over" dealing with the Bible, they just try to problematize the Bible teachers.
My daughter, Adalie, loves Girl Scouts, and she’s excited to sell Girl Scout Cookies again this year. But she’s immunocompromised, so for her safety and health, we won’t be going door to door this year. Would you help Adalie meet her goal?
The surgery took twice as long as expected and there were complications. But the skilled surgeon successfully delivered Asher at 10AM on 6/17. We just celebrated his 11th birthday.
@BethMooreLPM
@RevDuv
I got this, Beth.
Aaron, please apply more bacon grease that you drained into a mason jar after your last use and placed in the refrigerator. You’re welcome.
Her OB was supportive of keeping the baby, even with the risks. St Francis in Tulsa was not a teaching hospital, so I could not be with her in surgery. This made her very anxious.
Adalie was rightly named with the Hebrew name “God is Just” because we knew mom and babies lives were in the hands of a just God. She was safely born at 9AM on 6/28. She turns 9 this next week.
Today has been a tough day in our home. We made the difficult decision to lay Lenny to rest. He has been a part of our home for 13 yrs. We rescued him when we lived in Tulsa in 2010. He was 3 yrs old then. This is one of my favorite pictures of him. Many tears today in our home.
There seems to be far too few things we can all come together on, but do you all think we can agree that breakfast for dinner is always an outstanding decision?
I just want to take a moment to recognize and thank public school teachers and administrators in the U.S. I believe you’re underpaid and under appreciated. I’m grateful for you and want to work to change those conditions for you.
I once sat at the feet of the fundamentalist tribal group of TGC, CBMW, 9Marks. As I studied this social construct, I saw more of a market-gospel driven by marketing a theology of patriarchy through celebrity pastors, conferences, and publications from particular pub. houses.
Some More News. Today I signed a publishing agreement with
@BrazosPress
for the tentatively title work, Brand Evangelicals, which is a brand history of evangelicalism.
Again, Kendall was expecting our 3rd child. Her body has already endured quite a bit of trauma from the first two surgeries. Her OB stressed how dangerous this 3rd delivery was going to be, how difficult it is cut through the scar tissue, the danger of hemorrhaging.
I am, perhaps, most astonished that this tweet has received 55K+ views, 525+ likes, 150+ retweets, and no one…NO ONE…thought of authenticating the quote.
Her OB was terrified for her. She stressed the danger of the situation. Her OB brought Kendall’s pregnancy to the Head of teaching at Loyola, who took on the case. There are not many women who have had 4 successful c-sections. Everyone understood why Kendall chose life for Clara.
A friend recently let me know he lost his full-time faculty position at his university. He reported the university re-offered him his same full-time load but as adjunct at adjunct pay. What a dismal way to treat a person.
I stood in the surgery and observed. It was a long surgery with numerous complications. The surgeon was steady, skilled, and successful of preserving the life of mom and baby.
Martin Luther’s personal experience informed the passionate activism and outstanding scholarship that reformed people’s perspective.
Did I say Martin Luther? My bad.
I meant Beth Allison Barr.
And that tweet should read the same way regardless of the gender of the subject.
William Perkins in the Art of Prophesy said, “In preparation there must be careful private study.” Sadly, too many care about building a platform rather than taking care to study diligently.
We thought God was done blessing us with children. We had moved to Chicagoland. I was a couple years into my PhD at TEDS and pastoral vocation at Calvary Memorial when Kendall discovered she was with child for a 4th time.
I am thrilled to share that I will be teaching 2 courses this spring in the .
@WheatonCollege
history department. If you’re in Chicagoland & interested in studying either a survey of Colonial America or a seminar on New England witch-hunts, reach out to me. I’ll get you info.
I then had the good sense to google the first phrase: “To pretend to praise Christ.” What did I find? I discovered that this is actually a quote from George Marsden’s 2003, Yale biography of Edwards. If you have a copy, you’ll find the quote in the middle of page 297.
Tonight was my final lecture as an adjunct at Trinity Christian College.
As the students exited class today, one student exclaimed: “This is my favorite class I’ve had.” A couple others agreed.
I love teaching.
I think this tweet gets at something that I am seeing all over Twitter right now.
Everyday common digital citizens (Christian or other) are interpreting the SBC convention’s actions this week as an organized, democratized oppression of women in the name of religion.
I am thrilled to return to
@WheatonCollege
this spring, and chuffed about my course load. It will be nice to be on campus and experience its life all day M/W/F. I’m grateful for Wheaton’s legacy in liberal arts education and glad to contribute to it.
A long time ago, I listened to Tim Keller when he said not to publish before 40, but it wasn’t until today that I really strongly considered not bothering to listen to influencers under the age of 40.
It’s really not a bad idea.
[I’m under 40 (barely), so maybe ignore this.]