Four days ago, I published my eighteenth book: The Wideness of the Sea: How to be Evangelical and Gay Affirming. I started working on this book in about 2018 when I was still a seminary professor. In the ensuing months, I ended up writing more than one hundred pages, but the book just didn’t “gel” and I realized it wasn’t the right time, so I shelved it. Earlier this year, I had a sense that it was time to return to…

DEI is falling on hard times. So, I thought I’d write an article that provides a simple explanation of its value. I’m using as inspiration the 2023 Academy Award nominated short doc The Only Girl in the Orchestra. The film tells the story of Orin O’Brien, a double bassist who joined the New York Philharmonic in 1966, the first woman ever to do so. Joining the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s as a woman was not easy. For example,…

I have a few words to say about white male privilege. Yesterday, I was interviewing theologian Brian Zahnd for a discussion on contemporary evangelicalism and culture when I decided to end the interview with a fun question. Since Zahnd is a big music fan, I asked him if he could go back in time to a concert of the past, what would it be? Zahnd mulled it over and then said he’d go to 1975 so he could see Led…