John Stackhouse
4 min read
Entering Advent: Repentance and Forgiveness (I)
As Christians enter the season of Advent—the time of the church year when we undertake an examination of our lives and repent of our sins...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
"Red-Letter Christians": A Bad Idea with a Bad Name, Alas
Being a “red-letter Christian” sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? Tony Campolo, professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University,...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
Jesus, I'm NOT in Love with You
One of the blights upon the hymnological landscape today is the continued presence of what we can fairly call the “love song to Jesus”...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
A Bad Appeal for a Good Cause
Churches sometimes succumb to the temptation to appeal to our less-worthy motives in order to get us to do what we ought. In our age of...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
When Is a Not-Church a Church? When It's an "Ecclesial Community"
Pope Benedict XVI continues to make things as clear as he can for his own church and for everyone else. So now we have another document...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Leadership Structures as If We Believed What We Preach
Christianity Today magazine recently published a troubling article about a group of churches in the United States associated with Calvary...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Church Membership: Who Counts? Who Cares?
The Washington Post reports on how “soft” numbers are for church membership in the United States–an old story among us sociologists and...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Hail to the Faithful of Your Church and Mine!
Some Christians get a lot of recognition for what they do. Some write bestselling books. Others lead impressive organizations. Some...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Coercion? Or Church Discipline? Jehovah's Witnesses, Blood Transfusions, and the Sovereign Indi
The British Columbia Supreme Court has been deliberating over whether the parents of sextuplets can refuse blood transfusions for their...
John Stackhouse
4 min read
The Parachurch: A Parasite?
(I recently was asked to address the question of the “parachurch” by the Canadian Council of Christian Charities. Here is a brief summary...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
In the Anglican Church, Race Matters…Not Doctrine
I normally stay away from commenting on the convulsions of the Anglican Communion, whether here in the Diocese of New Westminster, whose...