IRD

Christian Nationalism is not Christians participating in democracy. Christian Nationalism is advocating a confessional state legally privileging Christians or a particular subset of them over everybody else.

New from me: George and Laura Bush are siding with their long-time Dallas congregation in its escalating battle with the United Methodist Church. nytimes.com/2026/11/06/us/ge…

My top 5 hymns 1. Jerusalem 2. Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending 3. Jerusalem the Golden 4. Onward Christian Soldiers 5. Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer Hon. mentions: Thine be the Glory; Eternal Father, Strong to Save; Fight the Good Fight; For All the Saints

This reminds me of this passage in William Burt Pope. "But it is obvious that He who is one Person, and in whose Being there is not a distinct human personality, can never renounce His human nature...There is no manhood in Christ that can be renounced, even supposing Him - a thing impossible - to be weary of our fellowship, or the Father to demand His Son's relinquishment of us - a thing incredible. His manhood is part of His being: "He cannot deny Himself." The figures that are sometimes used, - as if He inhabited a human temple, or was clothed with our nature as with a garment, or was joined to a son of Mary - are all misleading, and should be very cautiously used. Having wrought so marvelous deliverance in the human panoply we gave Him, He would not ungird Himself at the end, even if He could. But He cannot: we were with Him in his temptations, and He will not forsake us when we rejoice in His kingdom." I'm not sure I've ever felt more loved by God than when I first read this passage. I was floored. He will not ungird himself from us, even if he could.

I'll Take Fascism Over Democracy

It is more obvious that Christianity favours something like socialism than that it favours democracy or rights. Witness the very conservative Bossuet’s great sermon on poverty: Christ came as much to deliver the poor from the oppressive rich as to deliver all of us from our sins.

The United Methodist denomination has been front and center in the local headlines over the past few months, but over the weekend, another local Methodist church made the Dallas Morning News. Only this time, it paid for the privilege. First United Methodist Church, Dallas, which has sat at the corner of Ross and Harwood for more than a hundred years, purchased a full-page ad for an open letter written by its senior minister, Rev. Mitchell Boone. It came just days after Highland Park United Methodist Church, now known as Highland Park Methodist Church, voted to leave the denomination, and on the eve of a Sunday that would see the members who wanted to stay in the denomination worshipping elsewhere, with a new pastor. In the letter, Boone explains why his church will remain with the United Methodists. dmagazine.com/frontburner/20…

Dale M. Coulter examines the dispute between Highland Park Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church’s Horizon Texas Conference, highlighting the growing tensions between denominational authority and the independence of powerful megachurches. Drawing on the church’s efforts to secure its property and autonomy amid the UMC’s recent schisms, the article explores the changing landscape of American Protestantism and warns bishops against underestimating the influence of large congregations in an increasingly postdenominational age. To read the piece, visit firstthings.com/a-cautionary…

One of the more exciting parts of this election - among many - is the return of a religious left.