Slavery

The Complicated History of Evangelicals & Slavery

Sean McGever’s “Ownership: The Evangelical Legacy of Slavery in Edwards, Wesley, and Whitefield” sheds light on the multifaceted story of 18th C. Evangelicals & slavery

Juneteenth’s Global Power

The spirit of Juneteenth is the most powerful spiritual and political force in the world. 

The World Confronts Modern Slavery, Offering Hope
The World Confronts Modern Slavery, Offering Hope

The common thread across these scenarios is the use of force, fraud, or coercion to keep victims under control and extract profit. This is the defining feature of human trafficking. Fortunately, these heartbreaking, uncivilized practices no longer go unnoticed.

George Washington’s Christian Realism

Christian Realism is our theme at Providence, and Christian Realism was the theme of George Washington’s life that America celebrates with today’s federal holiday.

Mobs and Monuments: Distinguishing between the United States and Confederate States
Mobs and Monuments: Distinguishing between the United States and Confederate States

King recognized that for nations, as for individuals, the measure of goodness is not perfection, but rather direction. America was born headed in the right direction—and continues to build a “more perfect union” dreamed up by imperfect men.

Immortal Memory: What Scotland’s Robert Burns Can Teach Us about Nationalism
Immortal Memory: What Scotland’s Robert Burns Can Teach Us about Nationalism

Tonight people will gather for Burns Night to remember one of Scotland’s national heroes. But should this man’s flaws cause us to rethink his place in national mythmaking and nationalism in general?

The Delightful Heresy of Jacksonianism
The Delightful Heresy of Jacksonianism

Christians should remember this: any political theology that treats its own people as a divinely chosen political community treads on heretical soil.

When Human Rights Violations are a National Security Issue: The North Korean Slave Trade
When Human Rights Violations are a National Security Issue: The North Korean Slave Trade

While realists and liberal internationalists typically argue about whether the goal of foreign policy should be to achieve pragmatic objectives or to support our fundamental beliefs about the value of human lives, adherents to either school likely would agree that working to end the scourge of the North Korean slave trade meets the threshold for action.

The Spirit and the Body in War
The Spirit and the Body in War

This article about the tools necessary to defeat Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers was originally published in Christianity and Crisis on August 10, 1942.  Examining the relationship between ideals and power throughout history, editor Reinhold Niebuhr argues the importance of discerning and then actualizing, the Allied Powers’ potential power. Conversely, he advocates against succumbing to the belief that Nazi defeat is inevitable.