Resisting the Single Story: What Advent Teaches About Power
By Laurie Nichols
Every powerful system has a way of telling its own story.
It tells us who matters, who gets to speak, and who should stay quiet. It rewards certainty and punishes nuance.
This Online Articles area (formerly our Library) gathers reflections, op-eds, and essays that engage the pressing questions of faith, justice, and public life. Here, you’ll find hundreds of thoughtful and engaging pieces from scholars, practitioners, and everyday Christians — leaders and writers who bring fresh insight and faithful imagination. These articles are meant to spark deeper discipleship, fuel courageous action, and equip the church to embody the gospel in a complex world. We invite you to explore, learn, and join the ongoing conversation toward a fuller expression of Christian faithfulness and a more just society.
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By Laurie Nichols
Every powerful system has a way of telling its own story.
It tells us who matters, who gets to speak, and who should stay quiet. It rewards certainty and punishes nuance.
By Ron Sider
I often fail to come even close to the submission and faithfulness prayed for here, but these words represent my desire. I hope you can make these words your sincere longing as well.
By Nikki Toyama-Szeto
Dear friends,
Dr. Ron Sider, our dear friend and colleague, passed away on Wednesday night, July 27.
Ron died of cardiac arrest, following a hospital stay for treatment for some ongoing health conditions.
By Kristyn Komarnicki
I live in a state of hopelessness.
Pennsylvania is one of the few states that retain both the death penalty and a life-without-parole policy. And the death penalty is the ultimate statement of despair.
By Kenji Kuramitsu
By Bernie Sheahan
I’m Bernie Sheahan. I’m creative…and mentally ill. There are many categories of mental illness; I’m an expert on just one.
By Cindy Wang Brandt
Editor’s Note: This excerpt was originally published in March 2019.
Dishes are an under-discussed topic in parenting books. While others focus on children (not sure why that is), I feel like dishes deserve much more attention simply because of the amount of space they occupy in family life.
By Liz Cooledge Jenkins
Fourth-grade child on the cross,
you did not choose this.
There is nothing in you
nor your family, friends, or schoolmates
that deserved this.
By D. Zac Niringiye
Is the absence of responsible Christian political engagement a betrayal of the gospel? Or is it what the gospel teaches?
By Amy Kenny
I am certainly not the first person to think of God as disabled.
Nancy Eiesland, who pioneered disability theology, imagined God in a sip-and-puff wheelchair. After a friend declared that her disability would be removed in heaven, Eiesland was horrified because she felt that would erase a part of who she was and how she understood God.
By Deborah Masten
I do not have one friend, loved one or colleague who is not currently dealing with a major life stressor at this time. Not one.
By Kristyn Komarnicki
June is Pride Month, and Pride is something I’ve learned a lot about over the last decade of my work with LGBTQ+ folx. And the learning continues. I’ve learned about the origins of Pride as a parade.
By Elizabeth L. Jemison
As black and white Christians in the postemancipation era wrestled with the often-intimate relationship between Protestant Christianity and white supremacy, they set the stage for national religious and political conflicts that reverberate to our day.
By Felicia Melian
If you grew up in ’90s evangelicalism, like I did, there’s a good chance your parents either banned or were suspicious of the young wizard Harry Potter (while the “sorcery” in the Narnia and Lord of the Rings books was considered okay) without much investigation into why.
By Andre Henry and Cole Arthur Riley
Spirituality has always been relevant to the quest for Black freedom. But sometimes the relationship between the two is complicated by Christian traditions influenced by colonization.
A conversation with Duke Kwon
We recently talked with Duke Kwon, co-author of Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair, about his latest book with Gregory Thompson.
By Rohadi Nagassar
A curious feature in American evangelicalism (which is different from Canada on this notable factor) is self-conferring the position of protector and gatekeeper to all Christian truth. This posture produces a certain response when theological or cultural presuppositions are challenged.