In 2018, we here at the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) published hundreds of articles on everything from the most encouraging news stories affecting Christianity to some of the most concerning. That’s our job, our mission.
An increasing number of people in Western culture, especially teens, identify as transgender. Their “inward” experience feels askew to their “outward” biological sex. Anglican Pastor Sam Ferguson says Christians need to think carefully and compassionately about an array of questions, including: What anthropological assumptions underlie popular views and treatments? What does a loving Christian response look like?
This latest evaluation of the evangelical mind was mixed. Noll himself quipped, “In a word, it is the best of times, and it is the worst of times.” Some of the authors seemed even to disagree about what the term “evangelical mind” means.
In a segment titled “A Post-Patriarchal Christmas,” McLaren took issue with the virgin birth as a “science-defying miracle that proved something about Jesus.” He protested, “This approach never really worked for me. How can you use something you can’t prove—a virgin birth long ago—to prove something else—the unique identity of Jesus?”
