Richard Mouw

The need for moral clarity

I don't know how I would write a distinctively "Christian" health care bill, but I do know that Christians have important things to say about the general patterns of health care.

By Richard Mouw | November 17, 2009; 09:34 AM ET | Comments (1)

Mercy a Commandment, Not a Legal Requirement

We people of the Book are commanded to show mercy. That is a given. But we have to be very careful about moving too quickly from mercy as an individual disposition and pardon as a legal act.

By Richard Mouw | August 25, 2009; 12:30 PM ET | Comments (2)

For those of us who believe that God does speak to us today through such vehicles as church teaching, the Bible, and conscience, there is nothing really offensive about the idea of getting short and snappy messages from the Divine.

By Richard Mouw | August 11, 2009; 12:43 PM ET | Comments (2)

Mr. Carter's Own Interpretations

I have spent most of my adult life arguing against gender discrimination within the Christian community, but Mr. Carter's declaration makes me nervous.

By Richard Mouw | July 21, 2009; 10:13 AM ET | Comments (2)

The Two John Calvins

We celebrate the 500th birthday of Calvin the revolutionary reformer, and remember Calvin the rigid dogmatic.

By Richard Mouw | July 11, 2009; 05:01 PM ET | Comments (5)

Collective Guilt and Forgiveness

A lesson on sin, slavery, apology and forgiveness from the Garden of Eden.

By Richard Mouw | June 23, 2009; 01:21 PM ET | Comments (5)

Engaging Holocaust Deniers is Betraying Truth, Friends

The refusal of Holocaust deniers to face the facts of the horrendous crimes against the Jewish people means that we cannot hold out an olive branch to them without betraying our Jewish friends.

By Richard Mouw | February 6, 2009; 02:00 AM ET | Comments (0)

Warren: A Good and Hopeful Choice

Rick Warren is exactly the right person for he assignment. The President-elect does not deserve the flak he is getting on this.

By Richard Mouw | December 30, 2008; 09:13 AM ET | Comments (5)

Episcopal Church Needs Evangelicals

While I respect and support those who sense God's call to depart from a denomination like ECUSA, I also want to respect the call of those evangelicals who choose to hang in there. I don't want to see ECUSA left without an evangelical presence.

By Richard Mouw | December 17, 2008; 05:44 AM ET | Comments (10)

Evangelicals are Celebrating Obama, Too

In my part of the evangelical world, folks have been celebrating the election of Barack Obama. This is true even for those who voted for his opponent--there are many Republican evangelicals who see his leadership as a symbol that America is taking great steps forward from our too-often racist past.

By Richard Mouw | November 12, 2008; 04:03 PM ET | Comments (67)

Check the Evidence

If someone were to start passing the word around that the president of the world's largest evangelical seminary "pals around with potheads," I would not feel that I was being treated fairly.

By Richard Mouw | October 10, 2008; 06:53 AM ET | Comments (3)

Inconsistent, Not Hypocritcal

Allowing women to serve as national leaders but not as congregational leaders is a hard viewpoint to defend. But, given the biblical data that the conservatives appeal to, it is better to push the argument in terms of coherence and consistency than to throw around labels like "hypocrisy."

By Richard Mouw | September 3, 2008; 01:11 PM ET | Comments (18)

A Refreshing Look at Character

For many of us who look at election issues from a faith-based perspective, the Saddleback event was a refreshing initiative.

By Richard Mouw | August 18, 2008; 01:05 PM ET | Comments (11)

Private Matters and Public Trust

With public figures like John Edwards, we have to distinguish between forgiveness as a personal act and forgiveness as a public absolution. He has violated the public trust in a serious way, and we may well continue to entertain doubts about his ability to provide significant political leadership.

By Richard Mouw | August 13, 2008; 02:06 AM ET | Comments (0)

Theology's Failure, Astrology's Gain

Our "high" theologies often are rather inadequate for helping ordinary folks deal with very basic issues that preoccupy them (and us!): problems in our intimate relations, financial woes, complex health concerns.

By Richard Mouw | July 17, 2008; 04:39 PM ET | Comments (3)

Humor a Gift from God

We true-believer types need to lighten up a bit, and take religious humor as a gift that enables us to take a critical look at our own formulations.

By Richard Mouw | June 23, 2008; 06:33 AM ET | Comments (6)

Choose "Humbly" Next Church

Can anyone remember knowing nearly as much about the congregation of a presidential candidate—or even of an actual president--as we know about the church from which the Obamas have now resigned?

By Richard Mouw | June 8, 2008; 11:54 PM ET | Comments (10)

Achievement Must Be Linked to God

Without industry we would be dull and lifeless people. But when industry is not linked to the other virtues, especially a concern for promoting the common good, it deteriorates into greed.

By Richard Mouw | June 3, 2008; 08:08 AM ET | Comments (5)

Evidence of Heartfelt Spiritual Longings

One thing we can be sure of: we are in for another round of talk about how religion has become a “commodity” that people shop around for in our “consumerist” culture. This is too bad, because that kind of rhetoric...

By Richard Mouw | February 27, 2008; 01:34 PM ET | Comments (3)

Signals of a Shift

This agenda may very well signal an important shift in a sense of Jewish identity, at least for a portion of the younger Jewish generation in America.

By Richard Mouw | January 11, 2008; 05:41 AM ET | Comments (5)

Do Not Be Discouraged

If our motivation is to “cure” poverty—and all disease and homelessness—we are bound to become disillusioned.

By Richard Mouw | December 14, 2007; 10:13 AM ET | Comments (17)

Unexpected Yearnings

We struggle to fill our celebrations with food and toys, only to discover that such things do not satisfy the deeper hungers.

By Richard Mouw | November 27, 2007; 12:58 PM ET | Comments (0)

A Gap We Cannot Ignore

I was once on a panel with—this sounds like a bad joke, but it really happened—a rabbi, an imam, a Buddhist, and a Hindu. We were asked to talk about peacemaking, and I was the first to speak. I talked...

By Richard Mouw | October 16, 2007; 01:15 PM ET | Comments (1)

A Label that Carries Baggage

For a movement to be considered a religion in its own right it surely must have a relatively coherent worldview, a system of thought, that is different on some very basic matters from other movements that want to inform us...

By Richard Mouw | September 24, 2007; 08:32 AM ET | Comments (43)

Beyond Saying "No"

For the believer, serving a patient is itself a matter of religious conviction.

By Richard Mouw | August 13, 2007; 09:30 AM ET | Comments (9)

Honestly Stating Our Beliefs

Pope Benedict has now reminded us that there is no easy path to unity.

By Richard Mouw | July 23, 2007; 05:34 PM ET | Comments (46)

Directing Our Lives One Way or the Other

The simple answer to the heaven-and-hell question is “Yes.” Either we are directing our lives toward what the Westminster Catechism calls our “chief end,” namely, “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever,” or we have turned away from a...

By Richard Mouw | July 2, 2007; 03:49 PM ET | Comments (96)

A Need for More Articulate Questions and Answers

I suppose one has to consider this kind of discussion by Democratic candidates to be refreshing, when compared to the cluelessness of Howard Dean and John Kerry on the subject of faith and politics the last time around. John Edwards...

By Richard Mouw | June 11, 2007; 02:10 PM ET | Comments (2)

Not Just Wish-Fulfillment

We hunger for God because God created us with that hunger, or we hunger for God because we refuse to accept that our deepest spiritual hungers are incapable of being fulfilled.

By Richard Mouw | May 29, 2007; 08:39 AM ET | Comments (270)

Thinking Critically About Politics and Justice

Jesus wants us to think critically about accepted political and economic policies, as well as about widespread social practices.

By Richard Mouw | May 10, 2007; 07:06 AM ET | Comments (60)

A Need for "Convicted Civility" in our Dialogue

The history of relations between evangelicals and Mormons is largely characterized by hostile charges and counter-charges. This has begun to change, as our two communities have begun to see each other as potential partners in addressing some of the key...

By Richard Mouw | May 4, 2007; 09:42 AM ET | Comments (35)

Repentance, Forgiveness Are Complex Matters

The Bible underscores the difficult nature of real repentance and forgiveness.

By Richard Mouw | April 25, 2007; 06:33 AM ET | Comments (4)

Integrating with Discernment

The spiritual practices that are native to our religions are not free-floating. They are tied to fundamental world views.

By Richard Mouw | April 13, 2007; 09:05 AM ET | Comments (41)

Speaking Critically but Carefully

Those of us who criticize Israeli policies have to be careful not to encourage anti-Semitic attitudes, especially those of us who worship the God who forged a special -- and eternal -- bond with the Jewish people.

By Richard Mouw | February 23, 2007; 08:39 AM ET | Comments (5)

The Importance of Environmental Stewardship

I am encouraged that many evangelical leaders have been stepping forward in recent months to express a concern about global warming in particular and environmental stewardship in general. But this is long overdue. It is a sad thing that...

By Richard Mouw | February 8, 2007; 10:33 PM ET | Comments (0)

Prayer as Honest Conversation

My best prayer is singing the old hymns, especially when driving to work in the morning. I'll suddenly turn off NPR and start belting out: How Great Thou Art.

By Richard Mouw | February 5, 2007; 02:02 PM ET | Comments (16)

Our Unjust War Leaves A Mess To Clean Up

One way to get your stubborn teenager to come out of his locked bedroom is to set the house on fire, but that would not be proportionate strategy. It seems clear now--and we should have anticipated this at the outset--that the invasion of Iraq would create a chaos that would be totally unmanageable.

By Richard Mouw | January 10, 2007; 07:02 PM ET | Comments (314)

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