How Evangelicals Won a Culture War and Lost a Generation

Whether it’s over the denial of evolutionary science, continued opposition to gender equality in the church, an unhealthy alliance between religion and politics or the obsession with opposing gay marriage, evangelicalism is losing a generation to the culture wars.

A recent survey from Public Religion Research Institute revealed that nearly one-third of millennials who left their childhood faith did so because of“negative teachings” or “negative treatment” of gay and lesbian people.

Christians can disagree about what the Bible says (or doesn’t say) about same-sex marriage. This is not an issue of orthodoxy. But when we begin using child sponsorships as bargaining tools in our debates, we’ve lost the way of Jesus.

So my question for those evangelicals is this: Is it worth it?

— Rachel Held Evans

God’s counting on us

A lived theology: Pete Seeger wrote only one song that explicitly mentions God (at age 92), but his life and music powerfully resisted war, oppression and destruction of the earth. Like the words scribed on his banjo, this man surrounded hate and forced it to surrender!  

Believing Aloud: An Interview with Mark Douglas

“Writing isn’t just about expressing what you think, it’s about discovering what you think, or thinking different because of your writing. And one of my great learnings in writing the articles was the degree to which if I just relied on the faith I started with and then tried to explicate it, I would have run out of things to say fairly fast. But the project of writing actually asked me to think anew and to grow in faith differently, in ways that I was not entirely anticipating.” — Mark Douglas

Midwife for the Holy

“I am a child of God. I am a trauma survivor, a compassionate listener, an empathic healer, an intuitive truth teller. I am a death doula, a minister to souls, a witness, and a guide: a midwife for the Holy. I walk alongside those who are suffering and afraid. I help others to discern God’s will in their own lives. I serve as a reminder of God’s presence in each moment. I am the Quaker shaman.”
~ Emma M. Churchman

The Amphetamine of the Upper Middle Class?

While traditionalists and communitarians have accused contemporary spirituality of narcissism for decades, the emergence of corporate spirituality has prompted a new wave of cultural criticism. Is mindfulness becoming the servant of neo-liberal capitalism — a way to soothe the nerves of professionals so they can, in turn, serve the bottom line? Can spirituality do better?