Wesley was an Oxford don, classically educated and an enlightenment aristocrat. But he was acutely aware of the democracy of the Spirit, and sought never to lose the common touch. In fact, early Methodist meetings were often led by lay preachers with very limited...
John Wesley said that we should “plunder the Egyptians.” Are you ready for some plundering? 1) Make fun of palm-reading, but at least they’re holding hands. Is your church? 2) Make fun of astrology, but at least they’re looking upward and remembering birthdays. Is...
Social media makes it easy for rhetorical displays of outrage. To be sure, bigotry and violence deserve our outrage, but require more than huffy-puffy outrage if we are to heal the disease and drain the poison. Our outrage must not just lead to outbursts but outcomes...
A new play “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” was scheduled to debut on Broadway in 1962. In its pre-Broadway tour, it was a disaster. Even though it had the best people behind it (e.g. Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics, George Abbott was...
Preachers don’t usually fare well in Hollywood. Think Burt Lancaster in “Elmer Gantry” (1960) or Gerald Butler in “Machine Gun Preacher” (2011) or Stuart Devenine in “Dead Alive” (1993), or Robert Mitchum in “Night of the Hunter” (1955). You have to go back in time to...
Henri Nouwen was a force of nature. For many decades, when you thought of writers on Christian spirituality, whether Protestant or Catholic, the first name to come to mind was his. Then the mind went blank. When Nouwen died in 1996, that blank began to be blanketed by...
