Resources by Topic: Culture and Worldview

In this excerpt from my novel Dominion, two characters discuss racial stereotypes about black people.

Jack Phillips is the owner and artist of Masterpiece Cakeshop who was sued for acting on his convictions and not baking a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. I appreciated this article adapted from his new book The Cost of My Faith: How a Decision in My Cake Shop Took Me to the Supreme Court. What he writes here is unique, powerful, and well communicated (with a bit of light-heartedness too).

The following excerpt from my novel Dominion is a fictional depiction of listening to good officers and understanding the difficulties and pressures they face. Here the main character Clarence, a black journalist, has a discussion with Detective Ollie Chandler. 

In honor of Black History Month, Christianity Today has a compilation of 20 stories that Christians should know. The stories of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglas are some of my favorites.

Racism among conservatives sometimes (by no means always) takes the classic and more obvious form. Among liberals however, it often takes the paternalistic form of “you can’t take care of yourselves so you must depend on us to take care of you, and that’s how we earn your votes.” Both are racist and demeaning in their own ways.

In this excerpt from my novel Dominion, the main character Clarence Abernathy, a black journalist, shares about his experiences as a black man with his friend and coworker. What Clarence shares echoes what every black man, from poor guys to rich ones, told me when I interviewed many black Americans while researching Dominion.

Like many of you, I am not looking forward to all the political turmoil, including in the church, that is sure to come as the presidential election gets closer. At the same time, this is an excellent opportunity for God’s people to determine where our hope is placed.

If you’ve seen the news, you know about the nightly riots and looting and protests against the police in downtown Portland, thirty minutes away from our home. There has been a heavy toll on the officers and their families, and the lack of police presence and resources in other areas has also affected people in the city.

At my request, EPM staff member Stephanie Anderson researched and wrote the following, with which I fully concur. This is a justice issue that should burden all of us. May God use this blog to draw attention to what is surely on His heart.  

Two and a half decades ago I joined others, including many physicians, in expending a lot of time and effort to oppose Oregon’s move to become the first place in human history (yes, even before the Netherlands) to legalize physician assisted suicide. We warned about the slippery slope of euthanasia, which is simply abortion of the elderly.

This article by Jonathan Tjarks is a helpful reminder that most of the people around us embrace the idea of a build-it-yourself spirituality, though they likely don’t realize it. But such beliefs are ultimately hopeless and empty. So may we boldly share the good news about Jesus and the truth, grace, and hope He offers! 

In this blog I’ll address some difficult issues that some will misunderstand or be offended by despite my efforts to speak accurately and carefully. There are many balancing statements in this blog, which partly accounts for its length. If you take one statement out of context without those other balancing statements you can misunderstand anything I’m saying. I hope you don’t.

In this excerpt from my novel Dominion, the main character Clarence reflects about life as a black man in America. 

Soon after the death of George Floyd, Kelsey Brown, a woman I know and deeply respect, who lives here in Oregon, shared the following words on Facebook. My heart breaks for Kelsey and her family, and all the more having heard these stories over and over again from trustworthy people like her and Vergil.