It Goes Without Saying? A Reflection on Pope Francis
April 25, 2025 “If necessary, use words.” The original (Saint) Francis purportedly said this. Preach the gospel all the time, and—if necessary—use words. To this, we talkers want our chance to reply. First, we might point to when Paul asked, “How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?” Second, we […]
Christian Love and LGBTQ+: A Q&A with Dr. Chad Ragsdale
*Editor’s Note: A common slogan within LGBTQ+ communities is that “love is love,” implying that any consensual sexual expression is a legitimate form of love. At the same time, love is a longtime cornerstone ethic of Christianity. How does love as taught in Christianity compare with this popular view of love? To help us think […]
Expressive Individualism and LGBTQ+: Q&A with Dr. Chad Ragsdale
*Editor’s Note: What is expressive individualism and how does it relate to contemporary trends regarding sexuality and gender? To help us understand this powerful worldview, I caught up with Dr. Chad Ragsdale, a Christian thinker on worldview and culture. In this conversation, we talk about modern views of truth and meaning and how Christians can […]
Why I Chose To Preach on Sexuality and Gender (Part 2)
My wife and I are blessed to have raised four children. I remember when we just had two. It seemed manageable at that point. We could play man-on-man defense. Then we had our third child and everything changed. All of a sudden, we had to fall back into zone defense and it didn’t seem to […]
Why I Chose to Preach on Sexuality and Gender, Part 1
It is no secret that one of the most explosive topics of our day is sexuality and gender. For many decades, there has been a concerted effort to change the narrative about the norms regarding sexuality and gender. Those efforts have been largely successful in silencing Christians, and especially preachers, from speaking with clarity on […]
Why Our Church Decided to Pray About the Transgender Bill
December 9, 2024 *Editor’s Note: When, if ever, should a church take a public stance over local legislation? Recently, the leaders of Harpeth Christian Church in Franklin, TN (located just outside Nashville by the Harpeth River) had a tough decision to make. Would they stake a position regarding a Tennessee law banning gender-transition treatments for […]
Review of Richard & Christopher Hays’s ‘The Widening of God’s Mercy’
In The Widening of God’s Mercy, father and son Richard and Christopher Hays show why they believe same-sex sexual relationships and marriage ought to be fully welcomed in the church today. The present book represents a change of mind and therefore comes with much anticipation: what new data led him to reverse his earlier position? […]
Review of Richard and Christopher Hays’s ‘The Widening of God’s Mercy’
In The Widening of God’s Mercy, father and son Richard and Christopher Hays,[1] show why they believe same-sex sexual relationships and marriage ought to be fully welcomed in the church today. This book is significant because Richard Hays has been a leading New Testament scholar for over four decades and his 1996 book The Moral […]
