In 1861, a small Presbyterian denomination known as the Covenanters, founded in 1809 in Western Pennsylvania, created a petition that pointed out that the Constitution made no reference to Jesus Christ and the law of God. “The petition received initial support from Senator Charles Sumner, and in 1862 two Covenanter ministers presented the document to [...]
Full Story » Anyone with a Bible, and anyone who has been to church around “Easter,”1 knows the sequence of events surrounding the crucifixion. So why hasn’t there been an upturn in attacks against Jews during Lent? The answer is simple: Because Christians do not see today’s Jews as responsible for Jesus’ death. Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League knows this, and every critic of The Passion of the Christ knew it when it hit theaters in 2004. Jews weren’t attacked in the streets when Cecil B. DeMille’s 1927 silent screen adaptation The King of Kings was shown. The same is true of the 1961 version, dubbed “I Was a Teenage Jesus” by critics, when a blued-eyed Jesus was played by Jeffrey Hunter.
Full Story » The world is in a mess, and Christians know it. Too many of us believe that we have not been called to change the world. What if centuries ago Christians had taken a similar position? What would the world be like today? John Newton (1725-1807) was an infamous slave trader. The church knows him best as the author of such well-known hymns as “Amazing Grace” and “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.” Even while Newton was a Christian, he was also a captain of a slave ship. “Newton penned the beloved hymn ‘How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds in a Believer’s Ear’ during the leisure time afforded by a voyage from Africa to the West Indies.”1 Keep in mind the often repeated claim that Christians are not called to change the world. Following this line of logic, Newton could have remained a slave trader and a good Christian.
In time, however, Newton confessed “shame” for “the misery and mischief to which [he had], formerly, been [an] accessory.” He eventually denounced his former occupation with the publication of Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade (1788), “a stinging attack upon slavery that makes scenes from Alex Haley’s Roots seem mild by comparison.”2 Newton believed, prior to his denunciation of the slave trade, that he could be a good Christian and do nothing to fix social evils. “By 1788 Newton considered it ‘criminal’ to remain silent and not inveigh with evangelical fervor against the entire slave system. This conviction did not arise automatically upon his conversion, but from ethical deliberations that [William] Wilberforce set in motion.”3
England’s abolition movement was almost entirely led by the evangelical wing of the church. At the pleading of Lady Middleton and Bishop Porteus, James Ramsay wrote a long Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies (1784). Ramsay was “convinced that men will not respond to lessons of eternal redemption from those who enslave them on earth, or about heaven when kept in hell. . . . He proposed steps to total Emancipation, and suggested that free labour would yield more profit to plantation owners.”4
Full Story » Sunday, February 1, 2009, was the 60th anniversary of the National Day of Liberty. Officials chose the particular date of February 1 because it was on that day that President Lincoln (besides his many flaws) signed the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery. The commemorative day was conceived of and first informally celebrated by a former slave, Major Richard R. Wright, who wished for a yearly commemoration of the event. A year after his death, Truman signed a bill (July 1948) proclaiming the observation on Feb. 1.
Full Story » While appearing on the September 12, 2008 episode of “The View,” John McCain was asked about his opposition to the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision. The question relates to the type of judges he would nominate to the Supreme Court. McCain insisted that he would support judges who took a strict constructionist view of [...]
Full Story » The world is in a mess, and Christians know it. Too many of them believe that they have not been called to change the world. What if other Christians had taken a similar position? What would the world be like?
Full Story »
