Kindle Deal: I read this book last year and highly recommend it. Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity by Edward Gilbreath is $3.99.
Seven of the best articles I came across this week:
1. Jonathan Leeman in The Washington Post – Why Repentant Pastors Should Be Forgiven, But Not Restored to the Pulpit. When the pastor is exposed, some push the message of forgiveness. “Who of us is without sin?” they might say, drawing from Jesus in John 8. Meanwhile, others object: “But how can we trust this guy?”
2. Catherine Peppinster – How the Queen, the “Last Christian Monarch” Has Made Faith Her Message. For the past 17 years, her messages have taken on a different tone, with the Queen explaining her own personal faith – “the anchor in my life”, as she described it in 2014.
3. Parents need to be aware of the YouTube culture and what passes for entertainment there. Chris Martin’s post, “Parents, Please Don’t Let Your Kids Watch Logan and Jake Paul” is a good place to start. But this article in Vanity Fair shows how the problem is deeper than one entertainer’s gaffe: “Why Logan Paul Should Really Worry Us.”
4. The Radical Christian Faith of Frederick Douglass. The great abolitionist spoke words of rebuke—and hope—to a slaveholding society.
5. Two articles on Oprah that are worth your time. First, check Elizabeth Dias’ excellent analysis: Oprah and Trump Promote the Same Populist Theology. Then, take a look at Ross Douthat’s description of Oprah as “Prophet, Priestess… Queen.”
6. Alistair Roberts – The Gospel and the Twitter Wars. Progressive versus conservative evangelical spats are one of the very worst things about Twitter, which is really saying something.
7. Leigh Jones – The New Pro-Life Generation. High-school students are organizing and engaging in the fight for life, despite sharp opposition from some administrators and peers.
