Many people write to the ministry expressing concern or sadness about the progressive creep of their favorite Christian institution. After sitting through many, many calls with Christian leaders over the last three years, Monique and I have come to a very firm conclusion: the number one way that doctrinal drift happens is through indiscriminate hiring. Most ministries, churches, and schools will ask an applicant about their personal testimony at some point in their interview process. But the reality is, very few Christian organizations have a process in place to probe the details of an a ..read more

Monique and I have a lot of Zoom calls with leaders in all kinds of churches, ministries, and Christian schools. In these conversations, it is not uncommon for us to advise them on issues related to doctrinal drift. In fact, I wrote an ,article recently outlining three steps we recommend all Christian institutions take in order to prevent drift. We also offer services to help them implement these steps. Doctrinal drift happens primarily through indiscriminate hiring. (I discussed this issue on a ,podcast last year.) Weak policies can contribute to the issue, as well. The number-one way to sto ..read more

Why I'm Not Promoting Tim Ballard and the Movie, Sound of Freedom I remember the first time I ever went on the internet. I was 27 years old. I was doing research for a lecture that I was developing during my first year of teaching as a professor. I was amazed by how easy it was to quickly access massive amounts of information. Instead of spending hours in the library or hundreds of dollars on books, I could quickly sift through data and develop my lesson. What I didn't realize at the time, however, is that I was able to sift through good information and bad information on the internet because ..read more

In November of 2017, I met Rachel Shockey, who is the current President of ,Women in Apologetics (WIA). At the time, WIA was a fairly new ministry, organized just a few months before. Rachel and I struck up what would become an important friendship. She invited me to attend the inaugural WIA conference at Biola University in January 2018. Many of the talks prompted me to reflect more deeply on my own journey in apologetics, as well as on the unique contributions that women can make to the larger enterprise of apologetics. I began seminary in the early ’90s. I believe that I was the only woman ..read more

One of the repeated statements about God’s character is that He takes up “the cause” of the poor. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (Deut. 10:18–19; emphasis added) The prophet Isaiah pleads with God’s people to repent of their ways and take up “the cause” of the poor, to be ..read more

In an age where British royalty married a mixed-race woman from Los Angeles, it’s hard to imagine that there are people who still believe that interracial marriage is a controversial idea. But then . . . you get people saying things like this, from a woman (Jean Cramer) who tried to run for city council in Michigan a couple years ago said that interracial couples are a problem. Her reason? Because…the Bible. https://youtu.be/q4NagpCFrOc More recently, Monique and I interacted with a young woman who wanted advice about her new boyfriend. She explained that he was an advocate for something call ..read more

Originally published: 10/13/20 Updated: 9/6/22 In the fall of 2020, a student at Biola University forwarded an email newsletter to me for a rather unusual campus “affinity group” called Commune. Here is the description: The mission of Commune is to provide an authentic space for white students to learn and process how their whiteness informs their understanding of pursuing kingdom justice in society today. Now maybe I'm reading too much into this, but this sounds like a Christian-y way of saying that the group's focus is on helping white students understand their white privilege. This is an o ..read more

Going beyond starting a backpack program In the wake of the social unrest of 2020, many churches wrestled with how they might respond to injustice in a tangible way. We commend the desire of churches that feel called to “stand for justice.” Such efforts are often an extension of their love and concern for their neighbors. But many pastors who reach out to us are unsure about the tangible steps needed to move forward. Many of the ideas are narrow in scope, often focusing on actions such as launching backpack programs and starting food pantries. Those services can certainly have their place. Ho ..read more

Two "Racial Reconciliation" Models Explained Recently, this tweet caught my attention. (Note: I have omitted the person’s identity.) My mind immediately flashed back to the summer of 2020. In the wake of the social unrest, white evangelicals were exhorted to “listen to their brothers and sisters of color.” There was a strong push to platform minorities, host lament services, and create “diversity committees.” Anyone who wanted to ask questions or slow down the process was labeled a “racist.” Monique and I strongly advised against this strategy two years ago. We still do. And the replies to t ..read more

Answers to 3 Critical Questions Recently, I was on a Zoom call with a pastor in a mid-sized town in the Midwest. His town, and his church, are mostly White. He was inquiring about having Monique come speak at his church for a weekend conference on racial unity. As the conversation developed, it was clear that this pastor was struggling. He had a general sense that he was supposed to “do something” for his church related to the race issue. He was also concerned with whether it was even okay that his church was predominantly white. Did he need to do something to “fix” that? So he was reaching o ..read more