An overview of a worrying development
|

An overview of a worrying development

The Flag + the Cross is a short primer on what Christian nationalism is and how it operates in the United States today. Drawing on its deep roots in American history, the authors explain central themes, such as beliefs that the United States is uniquely a Christian nation, a chosen people, blessed by God, with…

Right relationships in a binational denomination
|

Right relationships in a binational denomination

Two decades ago, I immigrated to Canada from the United States. And for the last decade I’ve been researching the power dynamics and structures of the institutional church within the (Kuyperian) Reformed tradition. One piece that seems to be missing in current discussions of the Christian Reformed Church’s binationality and the SALT report is this…

Review of March by John Lewis
|

Review of March by John Lewis

I recently read the 3-volume graphic novel March by the late civil rights giant and long-serving congressman from Georgia, John Lewis. While in seminary, Lewis helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which spearheaded many iconic moments of the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1960s. March follows the story of Lewis’ years of activism…

Disruptive Politics
|

Disruptive Politics

We have lived as Canadian expats in the U.S. for nearly four years now. Shortly after arriving, we realized that bringing up politics in conversation was insensitive to the pain many of our American friends were experiencing. We needed the advice of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady: stick to subjects like the weather and…

The End of Alternative Facts?
|

The End of Alternative Facts?

Everything has changed in politics, since Trump. I should know. In 1999 I was contracted to write speeches for Ontario Premier Mike Harris. A few years later, I was called up to work for Dalton McGuinty, a job I kept until 2012. I also worked in the last election in 2018. So, in total, I’ve…

A blessing for those who need It

A blessing for those who need It

Sportcoat is a cranky old drunk who shoots and injures drug dealer Deem. He doesn’t even remember pulling the gun but his life is now in danger. Fortunately, he is surrounded by a community that works to protect him from the organized crime elements that infiltrate The Cause, a housing project in 1969 Brooklyn. “Deacon…

His flag held high
|

His flag held high

In the midst of that chaos, they flew a flag. Jesus Saves. I felt ill to see it. How could that mob – those violent thugs – dare hold high his name? When Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington D.C., attempting a coup at the beginning of January, their Christian nationalism was flagrantly…

Biden’s Burden
|

Biden’s Burden

Virtually every day when I was a boy, we heard a snippet of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address in Peace Corps advertisements: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” It summed up an ethos that sounds almost quaint today when confidence in political institutions…

Capitol Hill Insurrection
|

Capitol Hill Insurrection

In AD 410 Alaric led his army of Visigoths into Rome and ransacked the city. By then Rome was no longer the capital of the western Roman Empire, but this single event sent shock waves throughout the known world. How could the founding city of the greatest empire in history be so vulnerable to barbarian…