Building an intergenerational church

Building an intergenerational church requires a shift in mindset. It requires a commitment to creating an inclusive environment where everyone, regardless of age, feels they have a place and a voice.

Journey with Jesus through Black history

Just as Luke felt compelled to offer a trustworthy narrative of his experience with Christ, so did Carter G. Woodson as it related to the rich history of African Americans.

Dismantling U.S. foreign aid hurts Americans – and the world

In a globalized world where a disease outbreak in one country can turn into a pandemic, where natural disasters, conflicts, and the people displaced by them cross borders, does withdrawing U.S. aid and collaboration with other nations in addressing these risks make America safer? Does reneging on commitments we have already made to other nations, damaging trust and credibility in the United States abroad, make us stronger? Does abruptly cutting thousands of American jobs related to international aid make America more prosperous?

Predisposed to forgive

Perhaps the Amish are unique in their inclination to be predisposed to forgiveness. And yet, their examples cause us to reexamine our beliefs about forgiveness.

Justice. Mercy. Faith.

Through The Christian Citizen, we seek to shape a mind among American Baptists and others on matters of public concern by providing a forum for diverse voices living and working at the intersection of faith and politics, discipleship and citizenship.

Our collective failure to truly honor the victims of the Holocaust

Our collective failure to truly honor the victims of the Holocaust

The shadow of the Holocaust, a genocide that happened in the middle of a supposedly civilized world, while that so-called civilized world refused to believe in the barbarism despite repeated reports and pleas, is never far for me as someone who grew up in Poland, even though I was born forty years after it happened and its memorialization was neatly limited to official places with plaques. These memories are everywhere, it just takes a bit of unearthing.

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Learning to dance

Learning to dance

If the Incarnation teaches us anything, it teaches that God blesses and uses the body. Today, some churches incorporate dance and movement of the body into worship itself.

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Nostalgia and the Church

Nostalgia and the Church

There is a healthy kind of nostalgia that can show us that our place is a room of remembrance, but we dare not allow unhealthy nostalgia to turn that room into an idolatrous space that will never grow, change, or adapt.

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Ultimate allegiance

Ultimate allegiance

So, Church—what shall we do next? The we is imperative because if we are to truly be one nation under God, if we are to truly be incorporated in the body of Christ, if we are to truly embody our ultimate allegiance to the empire of eternity, our next moves must be different.

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Featured Series

Faith and Politics

Our church signs need work

Our church signs need work

Planet Fitness, the real-life Average Joe’s, come-as-you-are establishment, beat every church sign I knew with its slogan, The World Judges, We Don’t.

We must deal with our public grief

When loss occurs, grief inevitably follows. Yet in public life, grief from our collective losses seems to routinely get short-circuited. We seem incapable of allowing it into our lives. But that stymies our shared project of creating communities that thrive, because it causes so many of us to pretend or wish our losses never happened. For others, it means a retreat from public life entirely.

Separation of church and state does not mean the church is politically innocent

We must disabuse ourselves of the false notion that the church is apolitical. We must overcome the concept, so commonly taught among us, that we might somehow, in separating church from an influence over the state or the state having influence to keep us from being church in certain ways, arrive at some spiritual state of political innocence in which spirituality or religious life is not political.

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At The Christian Citizen, we’re passionate about justice, mercy, and faith. We produce award-winning content that is provocative, timely, and relevant. What started more than 25 years ago as a print publication is now a digital-first publication that maintains a commitment to print. More recently, we’ve added a weekly e-newsletter, podcast, and a growing presence on social media. Now, for the first time, we’re adding a member support program—Christian Citizen Ambassadors!

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We feature thought-provoking articles and action-inspiring essays that intersect faith, politics, discipleship and citizenship, while examining a variety of public concerns ranging from gun violence, racism, trauma and sexual violence to poverty, food insecurity, disabilities, and immigration.