As we bid farewell to 2024, I’ve rounded up the top 15 Outlook opinion pieces from 2024 that represent the year we lived and the larger questions you, our readers, are interested in exploring.
This year, our commentaries have sparked meaningful dialogue about faith, politics, culture, and the evolving mission of the PC(USA). From exploring the church’s potentially pastor-less future to grappling with Christian nationalism and reproductive rights, these 15 articles represent the voices and perspectives that resonated most deeply with our readers. Before we move on into the new year, join us as we revisit the stories that shaped the past 12 months and continue to inspire thoughtful engagement in the Presbyterian community and beyond.
1. Trump’s Bible: Profaning the sacred for profit and politics
Former President Trump’s promotion of the “God Bless the USA Bible” desecrates the sacred in the name of profit and politics, writes Emery J. Cummins.
2. The future of the PC(USA) is pastor-less, and that’s OK.
A church can be viable without a pastor, writes Catherine Neelly Burton. Once we embrace this, churches can go about their work of being Christ’s body.
3. God did not save Donald Trump
“I’m glad Donald Trump is alive, and I’m quite confident God is, too. But my understanding of Christian theology makes me certain that God did not save the former president from assassination,” writes Shane Claiborne, Religion News Service.
4. A call to celebrate the Trans Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday
When we embrace our trans siblings, the mystery of Easter bursts into our lives, writes Shea Watts.
5. On a misunderstood Mr. Rogers quote
Mr. Rogers famously said to “look for the helpers.” Brendan McLean wonders if that’s the best instruction for adults and connects his question to Romans 10.
6. The future of the PC(USA) is being reformed by God
And it is as limitless as the holy imagination that we vow to practice when we are ordained, writes Allison Unroe.
7. When it comes to fertility and reproductive rights, consider mercy
Elizabeth N.H. Link shares her journey with IVF in light of the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling on “extrauterine children.”
8. Teaching Reformed theology in Trump’s America: The Barmen Declaration and the far-right evangelical culture war
Progressive Christians read Barmen as a rejection of Christian nationalism, writes Theologian David W. Congdon. Conservatives view it as supporting their fight against a fascist administration. Where’s the truth?
9. The great ends of the (small) church
Budgets and worship numbers matter — but they are not everything, Phil Blackburn believes.
10. What if ministry isn’t about what we think it’s about?
When the congregation at Arlington Presbyterian Church decided to be the church, Sharon Core reflects, profound shifts followed.
11. Confessions of a church-less pastor
What does it mean to be a pastor without a church? What does it mean to be a church without a pastor? Karie Charlton reflects.
12. It’s time to ditch standing committees
What if we structured congregations on members’ time and talents instead of organizational needs, asks Philip Blackburn?
13. The Book of Clarence
Film critic Joseph Holmes finds writer-director Jeymes Samuel’s “The Book Of Clarence” to be a satisfying remix of familiar biblical movies like “The Life of Brian” and “Ben Hur.”
14. Three churches, one focus: Uniting to confront Christian nationalism
Three PC(USA) churches in the Seattle-area grapple with Christian nationalism using the Book of Confessions as a guide. — Haley Ballast
15. ‘Cowboy Carter’ is complex. So is Beyoncé. So am I.
Psychologist and theologian Chanequa Walker-Barnes encounters her tenth grade self in Beyoncé’s latest album, “Cowboy Carter.”
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