Dear friends,

Your opinion matters to me. Flourishing on the Edge of Faith is coming out in November, and I’d be thrilled if you’d help me choose its cover 🙂

Obi Okolo, BitterSweet’s brilliant designer, has given us some beautiful options. Click here and let me know your favorite! The poll takes less than thirty seconds and closes after the first 100 submissions, so hurry and let your voice be heard!

I can’t wait to share this book with you. Thanks for weighing in!

Yours with gratitude and anticipation,

Andrew.. Read More

Dear friends,

Last week, I chatted with one of the most prominent politicians in Ethiopia. I asked him, “If you could use only three words to describe where Ethiopia is heading, what would they be?”

His answer was extremely sobering. He replied, “Syria on steroids.”

The day after Ethiopia’s civil war erupted in November 2020, the U.S. Institute of Peace published this statement: “The fragmentation of Ethiopia would be the largest state collapse in modern history… would lead to mass interethnic and interreligious conflict… would overshadow any existing conflict in the region, including Yemen.”

At the time, defenders of the war ridiculed this statement as nonsense designed to defame Ethiopia. They insisted that the war wasn’t even a “war” and that this surgical “law enforcement operation” would end quickly and secure Ethiopia’s “prosperity.”

But almost two years later, the bitter truth has become undeniable: this war is mass-producing human suffering and super-charging hate. It has only led to catastrophic displacement, death, destruction, and famine... Read More

Dear Friends,

On Friday morning, I opened an email that sent a river of grateful joy flowing through me.

The email was titled “Something New from BitterSweet,” and its message announced the launch of BitterSweet Books, with yours truly as its first author.

Kate Schmidgall founded BitterSweet in 2009 with the mission of telling stories from around the world that Reject Cynicism, Defy Apathy, and Celebrate Good. In the face of a news cycle that glues us to spectacle, violence, and despair, Kate wanted to help us cultivate an alternative imagination for our lives and world.

For over a decade now, Kate and her BitterSweet team have been pursuing this intrepid, prophetic mission with exceptional excellence, elegance, and kindness. From the beginning, I’ve thought of BitterSweet’s work as a healing vision therapy. Their stories shift who we pay attention to, how we see people, and what we believe is possible for our world. Kate has now published over a hundred stories featuring the work of nonprofits that celebrate good in seemingly every context... Read More

Dear friends,

I hope you’re having a refreshing summer.

Stop & Think has taken a pause as I’ve been on a wonderful 40-day journey throughout Europe. After a nasty bout of Covid and a breathtaking hike in the Alps, two joyous weddings, three book recording sessions, five countries, seven reunions, and countless conversations, I’m home. Thank you to so many dear friends for your generous hospitality.

This week I’m sharing my recent interview with Stan Grant on his Religion and Ethics Report for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Grant is one of Australia’s leading journalists and has interviewed many inspiring moral leaders and philosophers, including Nelson Mandela and Charles Taylor.

I was humbled that Grant asked to interview me about my article in Foreign Policy on Christian nationalism in Ethiopia. Our interview is titled “How Religion and Violence Are Shaping Ethiopia Today,” and you can listen to it here.

I hope this brief conversation enriches your awareness of what’s happening in Ethiopia and how we can practice the ethic of neighbor-love in this challenging time... Read More

Dear friends,

On June 18th, Foreign Policy published my article “Christian Nationalism Is Tearing Ethiopia Apart.” Publishing this article brought a collision of gratitude and grief in my life.

On the one hand, I was deeply grateful, because I believe this article compellingly addresses an urgently important but untouchable problem in Ethiopian society: Christian nationalism. I have been inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King’s words, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” And so I chose to break the silence.

Foreign Policy is one of the largest and most respected platforms in the world. Publishing with FP gave my article the best possible chance of being read widely and taken seriously. FP generously published it on the top of their front page, and a week later, my article was still trending on FP’s top seven list. The article has been shared thousands of times on social media and is generating lots of conversation... Read More

On my walk last October, I made my way to some rocks overlooking the bay and a beautiful island. The waves lapping at my feet set a peaceful rhythm, and I hit “call.”.. Read More

Dear friends,

Warm greetings from beautiful Maine! Lily and I are here to celebrate my 39th birthday (May 28) and our 12th wedding anniversary (July 8). I’m so grateful for Lily’s relentless love since the first day we met. She’s my teacher, healer, and gift from heaven.

This week I’m sharing a live conversation about loving our enemies that I recently recorded with Telos Group. Telos is a peacemaking organization that has profoundly impacted my life. I deeply respect their work and am so honored that they invited me to join this conversation. I heartily encourage you to learn more about Telos and participate in their work.

Telos said they were “blown away” by this conversation, and I hope you enjoy it. To listen, please click here.

Happy (early) anniversary, Lily!

Andrew

.. Read More

Dear friends,

I was in D.C. last week recording the audiobook of Why Pray? Seven Practices for Flourishing on the Edge of Faith (updated title). This is an intense and time-consuming process, and I want to thank my producer Robert Winship and the entire BitterSweet team for their energizing excellence.

I believe our bodies are good and that we should befriend them. Paul wrote the beautiful question, “Don’t you know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Ancient spirituality often taught people to ignore or idolize their bodies. Paul calls us to embrace our bodies as sacred homes to be cherished and cared for. I’m with Paul.  

But recording Why Pray? has given me a new window into how my body is still catching up with my belief. As I read my own book into the microphone, I discovered how little I know about my tongue, teeth, and lips. I talk every day and have recorded many hours of content... Read More

Dear friends,

I’m delighted to share that my new book Practice Flourishing: The Spirituality of Jesus is nearly finished being revised. I’ve just presented it to my board at the Institute for Faith and Flourishing, and my submission deadline for the final manuscript is May 15. My publisher BitterSweet Foundation hopes the book will be released in paperback, audiobook, and digital by mid-October. If you’d like to sign up for updates on the book’s release, please click here.

To mark this moment, I’ve written an essay about my experience writing this book. I’m excited to share it with you and want to thank you for your prayer, encouragement, and investment in my work.

Pregnancy: The Creative Process / On Writing

As a man, I would never claim to know what pregnancy is really like. But my sisters and many of my dearest friends have shared their experiences of pregnancy with me. I have watched their pregnancies unfold and witnessed the new life soon after delivery... Read More

Dear friends,

I love firsts, and this one is extra special: Lily and I are collaborating on Stop & Think with a brief essay from me and a brilliant painting from her.

Our shared theme is “groaning,” an experience that becomes increasingly familiar to us amidst pandemic, war, and other forms of conflict and loss. Lily’s painting is entitled Loss and Hope (March 2022). It’s a profound reflection on Ethiopian motherhood with many subtle meanings layered within it. Special thanks to Lily for sharing her sacred gift with me and the world.

Our work was published in this month’s edition of Cultivare, an exceptionally rich online magazine edited by my spiritual director Dr. Duane Grobman. I warmly encourage you to subscribe to Cultivare (it’s free) and read the entire edition. I hope you find it as illuminating and encouraging as I have. Special thanks to Duane for inviting our work!

Yours with groaning and gratitude,

Andrew and Lily

Loss and Hope by Lily DeCort

Groaning: Love in Pain​

My world shook, and I began to groan... Read More

Dear friends,

I recently finished reading the Harry Potter series, which was published between 1997 and 2007. My late PhD adviser Jean Elshtain always spoke so highly of these seven books, and now I know why.

In this essay, I want to share with you some of what I’ve discovered in the Potter universe. Perhaps these reflections will stir up treasured memories for you, or spur you on to read the series for the first time, or simply enrich your own moral imagination. Spoiler alert: I discuss a lot of plot details and endings below. If you want to jump around, I bold the key topics and characters.

For starters, these books deserve to be the best-selling story in history, which they are with over 500 million copies in print. They’re fundamentally about ethics — about good and evil, love and power, loss and resurrection. They speak to the human longing for goodness, joy, and togetherness despite evil, hate, and murder... Read More

Dear friends,

A few weeks ago, I met an extremely kind woman at the airport. She looked at my hat and read it out loud: “Celebrate right and good.” She then said with feeling, “That’s exactly what we need today!” I told her that’s the motto of BitterSweet, the publisher of my new book, and she generously asked me to tell her about it.

I told her it’s called Practice Flourishing, and she immediately said that she loved the title and wanted to buy it. When I told her the subtitle — The Spirituality of Jesus — she responded, “You lost me there. I’m a good Jewish girl. But I’ll buy it for my Christian friend.”

I replied, “I hear you: Christians have done terrible things to Jews for centuries. But Jesus was a good Jewish boy, and the book is for everyone.” But I could tell she had made up her mind and wasn’t interested.

She continued by saying that humans have never managed to “celebrate right and good” throughout history... Read More

Dear friends,

Why has Stop & Think taken a break?

For the last month, I’ve been focusing exclusively on writing my new book Practice Flourishing: The Spirituality of Jesus. It’s almost done, and I’m so excited to share it with you straight from my heart.

I’m also overjoyed to announce that Practice Flourishing now has an exceptional publisher in Kate Schmidgall and her innovative BitterSweet Media House based in Washington, D.C. Kate combines world-class professionalism with incredible kindness and prophetic values. Paul writes from prison that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” I feel this intensely with Kate and BitterSweet as we prepare to publish Practice Flourishing. Look for updates in the coming months!

Kate, thank you!!! Our conversation blew me away.

This week, I’m excited to share my short article “Protest: Love’s Primal Vocation,” which was just published on Offensis, an online magazine in Germany focused on Christian faith and political praxis... Read More

Dear friends,

As we enter a new year, I want to share a simple but healing practice with you for our relationships. It comes from Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature. Wiesel said,

Dear friends,

I recently met a beautiful man who achieved great success and ruined his life in New York City.

He was working in finance with some of the richest power brokers in the American system. His performance was great, and he was promoted.

He quickly found himself working 110-hour weeks. His “team” was locked in vicious competition: the top performer got a 120% bonus on their annual salary; the fifth-place performer was simply fired. Unsurprisingly, the competition became so ferocious that colleagues — people that hung out with each other and considered each other as friends — would sometimes sabotage each other’s work to get an advantage and come out on top, or at least avoid being fired.

To sustain this level of performance, he started using drugs — what he called “synthetic performance.” All of his teammates did as well. Going to bed became the most stressful moment of his day: he only had a 4-hour window to sleep, and if he missed that, he would drag at work... Read More

Dear friends,

I have so much to learn from Black and Brown women and their extraordinary experience, wisdom, and leadership.

Earlier this year, Thasia Awad, Dichele Parker, and Heather Nie generously invited me to join their MelaNation Healing Project Podcast to talk with them about race and social justice. Thasia asks refreshingly honest, hard-hitting questions, and I hope you enjoy this frank conversation. You can listen at this link.

Sincere thanks to these insightful, powerful women for their healing work and for trusting me to be part of it. May God energize us to seek deeper understanding, healing relationships, and justice in our society.

Yours with gratitude,

Andrew

PS: Here are the questions we discuss:

1. How did I get started in the work of healing and reconciliation?
2. Why is understanding our history so important for race and social justice?
3. Why is it so difficult to learn from the past?
4. Has religion played a role in shaping injustices and become “an anchor around our necks”?

Dear friends,

What is the role of compassion in conflict?

I’m excited to share my podcast interview on this topic with my courageous friend Emnet Gilbert.

Today many people condemn voices calling for compassion. For example, the popular Ethiopian singer Dishta Gina recently cried out for peace at a concert in Addis Ababa. His courageous message was immediately ridiculed, and he was pressured into giving a tearful apology on television. His sin was simply calling for reconciliation in a time of war.

This week I received yet another death threat for my advocacy for compassion and reconciliation. The man who threatened to “dismember” me has the following banner on his Facebook page: “I’m REDEEMED to be a VICTOR not a VICTIM in any circumstance. Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ!” This is a saddening example of how “Christian” faith can be weaponized to defend violence and death.

In this hyper-polarized time, I deeply admire Emnet’s courage to explore these three challenging questions with me:

1. What does compassion with practical consequences look like in the midst of war?

Dear friends,

November 4th marked the first anniversary of Ethiopia’s devastating civil war. It also brought the answer to a prayer I’ve been praying for the last fourteen years.

This collision of intense grief and long-awaited joy reminded me of the great importance of sustained prayer. This practice has changed my life, and I hope you’ll consider making it part of yours.

It’s a bit like taking a wild leap of faith, twirling through the air, and learning to land on your feet.

How do you pray about people you don’t like? And how are you preparing for conflict or peace in your society?

I believe these two questions are intimately connected and have profoundly practical implications for our lives. Let me try to show you why.

Psalms against the Enemy

If you read straight through the Book of Psalms, it is striking to track how frequently the psalmist talks to God about his enemies.

Out of 150 psalms, “enemies” are mentioned 93 times, “foes” 40 times, and “the wicked” 104 times... Read More

Dear friends,

One of the Bible’s ugliest stories is also one of its most insightful.

The famous King Solomon had recently been installed as the ruler of Israel. Soon after, God spoke to him at night in a dream and invited Solomon, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you” (1 King 3:5).

What an astonishing blank-check offer: “whatever you want.” How would this new ruler respond, and what would it reveal about his deepest desires?

Solomon’s heart was humble, and he admitted to God that he was out of his depth. Rather than asking God for wealth or power or the death of his enemies, Solomon asked God for wisdom. He prayed, “I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties… So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong” (1 Kings 3:7-9).

Solomon’s honest prayer is surprising for an ancient ruler and perhaps counter-cultural for all of us still today: he admits to being small, not knowing what he’s doing, and needing God’s help in the very basics of human community... Read More

Dear friends,

In place of my usual essay, I’m excited to share a 5-minute video celebrating the work of the Neighbor-Love Movement. Click here to watch.

Special thanks to my monthly Stop & Think subscribers who help make this work possible! If you would like to become a partner in this work, please click here.

Yours with gratitude,

Andrew

 .. Read More

Dear friends,

I’m a massive fan of BitterSweetMonthly. This storytelling platform (and more) was founded by my relentless, brilliant friend Kate Schmidgall to “reject cynicism, defy apathy, and celebrate good.” Those three movements are such a challenging, beautiful way of being human. And it’s how Kate lives and what BitterSweet nurtures through its moving stories and beautiful images.

I was deeply honored when Kate asked me to write for BitterSweet, and my first story was recently published. It’s entitled “I Feel Like a Dancer,” and it’s about a truly extraordinary organization called StandProud in the Congo. StandProud is helping disabled youth walk, often for the first time in their lives.

I hope you enjoy the story, subscribe to BitterSweet, and consider supporting StandProud. Writing this story rocked and recentered me. Next time you put your shoes on and stand up, give thanks for this precious gift and remember our beloved neighbors in Congo and around the world who are working to restore the dignity, joy, and power of our disabled neighbors... Read More

Dear friends,

As we remember the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I want to share a story about Jihad. This is not a story about global terrorism, religious extremism, and death. It’s a story about a devout Muslim, neighbor-love, and hope.

A few years after 9/11, I was living in a neighborhood in Addis Ababa known as Little Mogadishu. The neighborhood got its name from the numerous Somali refugees who had fled there from the violence ravaging Somalia. My neighbors carried stories of terror and trauma similar to survivors of 9/11.

At the heart of Little Mogadishu is a bustling open-air market. Throughout this labyrinth, you can find vegetables, electronics, fashion clothes, international money transfers, khat, and pretty much everything in between. So one day I ducked inside a tiny shop to buy a pair of shoes.

As so often, I was carrying my laptop with me. My entire professional life was inside that computer, and I foolishly took it with me everywhere I went... Read More

Dear friends,

What’s your story?

Many ancient cultures told stories about our world that begin with violence. The gods were envious and angry. So they fought each other, killed each other, and we were made from the bloody aftermath as their servants.

The world that emerged was a mirror of this original conflict: kings, soldiers, and slaves competing and cowering in a struggle for status and survival. Priests enshrined the winner gods in temples and images throughout the land to remind people of where they came from and how the world works.

These stories were the bestsellers in their time. Strikingly, archaeologists have discovered versions of them in places as far afield as ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and South America.

Why were these stories so popular?

Perhaps their popularity makes sense in light of the headline news stories we tell today. In these stories, the great events, the events that supposedly change our world and grip our attention, are often driven by competition and conflict, violence and victory... Read More

Dear friends,

For the last month, Lily and I have enjoyed the special gift of hosting Lily’s sister Eleni and her beloved children Naomi (12), Nolawi (11), and Naodi (4) from Ethiopia in Illinois. We have shared a wonderful adventure of playing, learning, and serving together in a time of much-needed renewal.

This week, five of our families gathered at my parents’ house for a farewell celebration. After all of the yummy desserts were eaten, conversations were finished, and games were played, I opened my phone and looked at the picture I had taken. There was nothing surprising in the image — not even the mischievous bunny ears and mirthful faces 🙂

But what I saw deeply moved me. It struck me as a living icon of what is possible in our world through God’s love: a family bound together across so many of the differences that contemporary culture says should divide us:

We were born and raised as citizens in different nations — Ethiopia, Mexico, and the United States... Read More

Dear friends,

The Christian imagination invites us to recover a more complex vision of who we are as humans. This moral vision energizes us to better understand ourselves and to cultivate healthier relationships and public life. Its “complexity” means that it braids together seemingly opposite truths that reflect the actual state of our reality and cultivate wisdom for living together. My late PhD adviser Professor Jean Elshtain called this a “moral anthropology.”

On the one hand, human life is infinitely precious and worthy of cherishing. We know this when we hold a baby in our arms and look deeply into the faces of our loved ones.

Christians, Jews, Muslims, and many others agree that we are created and loved by God. Genesis 1 teaches that we were designed in God’s image and invested with divine value. This means that God created each person as an embodiment of God’s own dignity with a calling to care for God’s world.

This vision of humanity stands in marked contrast to ancient myths like Enuma Elish and contemporary ideologies that devalue human life... Read More

Dear Friends,

Paul writes from his prison cell in Rome to the Jesus community in Ephesus that we are at war. Paul’s intense language makes sense in light of the violent conflict he survived in Ephesus and our similar experiences of conflict today.

Paul was one of the pioneers who took the message of Jesus to Ephesus, perhaps the most famous city in the Roman Empire besides Rome itself. After just three months, Paul was painfully rejected at the local synagogue. So Paul started hosting conversations and healing the sick in public spaces around the city (Acts 19:8-12). For Paul, the message of Jesus wasn’t confined to religious gatherings; it belonged just as much in the street among strangers and the suffering.

The core of Paul’s message was metanoia: a call to a change of mind and practice in response to Jesus (Acts 20:21). Local sorcerers were so inspired by Paul’s ministry that they voluntarily burned the magical tools of their trade, which were worth massive amounts of money (Acts 19:17-20)... Read More

Dear friends,

This week I’m sharing a one-hour interview that I recently recorded about the war in northern Ethiopia. If you’d like to better understand what’s happening, the larger context to the conflict, and how you might respond, I hope this conversation is helpful. Special thanks to Zach Elliott for inviting me back to LAB: The Podcast for this important conversation.

Please join me in praying and advocating for a sustained ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian aid for the suffering, and a dialogue-based resolution to this devastating conflict.

Yours,

Andrew

.. Read More

Dear friends,

A friend recently put words to something that struck me as both obvious and like an important revelation: being loved and being known are two different things and two different needs in our lives. We may have one without the other.

We need to be loved because we need to experience that our lives have value. Human beings are not content with merely existing, just like plants can’t survive in the soil without water and sunlight. Love enlivens and illuminates our worth.

But we also need to be known, because our lives have inner depth and we feel lonely and less than ourselves when this depth is unexplored or treated like it doesn’t exist. Being known is like cultivating the soil of the self. It enriches the depth and density of who we are, and creates a sense of rootedness in relationship.

People in our lives may genuinely love us. They may smile and embrace us, say kind words to us, spend time with us, give gifts to us, go out of their way for us and generously help us when we’re in need... Read More

Dear friends,

In this essay, I’m sharing an intimate page of my heart with you. My focus is the love of my wife Lily and the mystical heart of marriage rooted in the revelation, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them” (1 John 4:18).

Hannah Arendt wrote that thanking is the most authentic form of thinking, and I want to pause to express my deep thanks for Lily’s sacred ministry in my life. I hope you’ll receive this reflection as a prayer of blessing over your treasured relationships and an invitation to deepen your love and thanksgiving with the ones you cherish.

Lily’s Love: The Mystical Heart of Marriage

Lily made my 38th birthday perfect in the beautiful way she does. She made me feel loved, seen, heard, like I belong.

After Lily’s delicious brunch with family, my heart was still secretly heavy. Lily invited me to sit on the couch and read her card... Read More

Dear friends,

Not long ago, I sat in a memory-saturated room in Addis and heard the most remarkable questions from some of the people I love most in this world. We had just celebrated the wedding of a beloved friend, but these were the considerations on people’s minds:

“What if the violence escalates and we don’t have a country anymore?” “What if we can’t escape to safety?” “What if we can escape but our families can’t? If violent mobs come to our neighborhoods again, will we pick up sticks, stones, and metal pipes to defend our neighbors? If this is what we need to do to survive, is life still worth living?”

As I listened and my heart bled, I wondered if these were the questions people were asking in Rwanda before the genocide exploded in 1994. What a horrific thought. It was the kind of conversation I never want anyone to hear but consider sacred because it was the honesty of my friends in a land I love... Read More

Dear Friends,

I’ve just finished teaching a 4-week Zoom course called “Love Your Enemy.” In the face of rising conflict here in Ethiopia, I decided to devote a month to studying what some of our greatest leaders have taught about loving people who hate us and want to harm us. We looked at Jesus, Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King Jr, and Arthur Brooks.

Wonderful participants joined the course from four continents and eight countries: Ethiopia, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, the United States, Sweden, Finland, and the Philippines. As we studied together, we found that praying for our enemies is one of the most consistent and powerful practices of love that these leaders taught. Prayer interrupts and can uproot the enmity we feel toward others as we talk to God for their wellbeing.

Still, students asked what a prayer for enemies might actually say and sound like. In response, I’ve written a prayer for enemies that I want to share with you... Read More

Dear Friends,

Melkam Fasika — Happy Ethiopian Easter! This season has taken on a new significance for me, and I want to share a very personal reflection with you as we meditate on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

On Good Friday 2020, I started receiving dozens of death threats. People sent me graphic images of death, demons, and heavy weapons. They said they would butcher my body, run me over with a car, or throw me off a bridge. I can feel my heart beating faster and my body becoming tense as I recall these violent words and images. It was a life-changing season.

Why did this happen? Powerful people were outraged that I was trying to build bridges between extremely polarized leaders, and they unleashed a campaign of fake news against me, including a lie-filled YouTube “documentary” that got 55,000 views. Soon enough, people who mostly identified as Christians started promising they would kill me.

I never thought I’d say this... Read More

Dear friends,

This week I’m sharing an article that I recently published with my partner Dr. Tekalign Nega on the website Ethiopia Insight. Our article invites Ethiopia’s religious leaders and communities to devote a week to praying and preaching about loving our neighbors in a time when almost every day seems to bring news of another massacre. Please join us in praying for and promoting this reconciling initiative. If you or your community would like to get involved, please email me.

Yours with gratitude,

Andrew

The Neighbor-Love Week for National Reconciliation

Ethiopia is an overwhelmingly religious country. The Pew Research Center found that ninety-eight percent of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Christians say that their religion is “very important” to them. This makes them among the most religious people in the world.

There is little reason to assume that Ethiopian Muslims, Evangelicals, Catholics, and followers of other faiths see their religion as less important to them. Taken together, over ninety-seven percent of Ethiopia’s population holds its religious texts, traditions, and teachers with very high authority... Read More

Dear friends,

This essay reflects on some Ethiopian Evangelical responses to the war that broke out in Ethiopia on November 4, 2020. My reflections will be uncontroversial to some, controversial to others, and unfamiliar to others. For more context, here is a 15-minute interview that I did with my friend Roger Sandberg for Christianity Today.

As usual, I want to thank you for stopping and thinking with me. My goal is to pause and seek greater honesty, compassion, and human wellbeing across boundaries, while acknowledging the complexity of the situation and limits of my perspective. I welcome your feedback.

Yours with prayers for peace for all,

Andrew

Some Ethiopian Evangelical scholars have published articles on the war in Tigray. Implicitly or explicitly, these articles defend the war. I’d like to offer some brief reflections in response.

1. One article expresses sorrow for the suffering the war has caused. I deeply appreciate this compassionate starting point. (Another skips this expression of sorrow.).. Read More

Dear friends,

Today marks 20 years since my best friend Matt Powers was killed in a car accident. Matt was only eighteen; I was seventeen.

I love and miss Matt. He was a person of infectious joy. His smile was so genuine and his mirthful laughter — I can still hear it dancing through the air today. Matt was a fierce competitor, and he was working hard to become a personal trainer. But Matt was extremely kind and made others feel included. He loved God and loved his neighbor and loved me. We did everything together — sleepovers, birthdays, sports, road trips, music, church, life.

Today, if you’re grieving, I want to say you’re not alone. Maybe your grief started recently. Or maybe it started decades ago. You do not need to deny or suppress your grief.

In 2019, I was at a therapist’s office at the University of Chicago talking about Matt and weeping. Through my tears, I asked Dr... Read More

Dear friends,

Two thousand and nine to 2019 was a decade of losing my self. It was the beginning of an unexpected and priceless spiritual liberation. I am still on this journey today.

Deep inside my life, I have found a need to be better than others. I’d like to see this as innocent, as me simply wanting to work hard, be my best, and do valuable things. But I think there are deeper and darker roots to my perfectionism. It comes down to me feeling better about myself if I feel better than others — trying harder, doing more, perhaps being more “faithful.”

As I look back on the last decade of my life, I’m seeing that God sent me on an extended identity crisis that is slowly deconstructing this need to be better than others. And this is enabling me to be with and for others as equals with new empathy and intimacy. Unexpectedly, my identity crisis is leading to my liberation... Read More

Dear friends,

How do you not hate, even after three of your precious daughters have been murdered?

This is the burning question at the heart of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish’s powerful book I Shall Not Hate. Dr. Izzeldin is a Palestinian doctor who was born and raised in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp after his family fled from Israel in 1948. He tirelessly served between the Gaza Strip and Israel as the first Palestinian doctor to work in an Israeli hospital, overcoming extraordinary challenges and humiliations.

Then in December 2008, Israel unleashed a devastating 23-day military campaign on the Gaza Strip. Dr. Izzeldin writes, “I felt a colossal, choking fear for my children, a level of terror I had never experienced before” (169). And then it happened: his daughters Bessan (20), Mayar (15), and Aya (14) were killed when an Israeli tank fired into their bedroom in the Jabalia refugee camp.

How was Dr. Izzeldin not consumed with hate and a desire for revenge?.. Read More

Dear friends,

The emotional intelligence of Jesus inspires me to live differently.

At the beginning of his movement, Jesus overhears a guy named Nathaniel talking about him. Someone told Nathaniel that Jesus was the Messiah, but Nathaniel doesn’t buy it. In fact, Nathaniel takes a stab at Jesus: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46).

Nathaniel was basically saying that Jesus was either a loser or a troublemaker if he was from Nazareth. Nobody expected good things from that rural town. We’re all too familiar with these kinds of generalizing, belittling attitudes today based on something about our identity. They’re often at the root of the isolation and conflict between us.

How does Jesus respond to Nathaniel’s insult?

Two responses were predictable. First, Jesus could have  been offended and insulted Nathaniel back: “Where are you from? You’re the real loser!” Or, second, Jesus could have defended himself and started a debate with Nathaniel: “You’re wrong: Nazareth is actually a great town!”.. Read More

Dear Friends,

Ravi Zacharias was a world-famous Christian speaker and writer. He wrote many books and had a huge global ministry. When he died last year, my social media was flooded with his pictures, quotes, and testimonies about how he changed people’s lives for Christ. It was like a Protestant saint had been canonized.

Since then, it has been revealed that Zacharias sexually abused many women in the United States and other countries. He had hundreds of female massage therapists’ numbers in his phone, which he used for extramarital sex. He had hundreds of images of women, including pornographic images, in his phone, which he actively requested from women. At least one woman has claimed that Zacharias raped her. He embezzled tens of thousands of dollars from his ministry to sustain and silence these relationships.

It turns out that Ravi Zacharias was a deeply broken, corrupted, harmful man, even as he was a beloved celebrity Christian leader.

These six observations come to mind... Read More

Dear friends,

I’ve become fascinated by the psychology of insults. Over the years, if I kept a list of the insults I’ve been called, it would be long and sometimes entertaining. I’ve been called most of the ethnic insults in Ethiopia, KKK, a pimp, a dangerous liberal, etc. Whenever I write about something even remotely controversial, I can expect to be insulted by someone — often someone with a sweet slogan on their platform like “Shine a candle in the darkness.”

Why do people use insults?

Insults are colorful, undigested ways of saying, “I’m angry” or “I hate you” or “I’m superior to you” or “I’m afraid of you.” They’re attempts to express negative emotion and intimidate and belittle the other person into believing they’re less — less than “us,” less than human, less than whatever is supposed to be the standard.

So why not just say, “I hate you” instead of “You’re a piece of sh*t” or “F*ck your mother”?.. Read More

Dear friends,

In my last Stop & Think, I made seven observations about how Christian nationalism has become such a powerful force in Evangelical Christianity around the world. This week, I’d like to look very briefly at ten pillars of Christian nationalism itself.

As always, this essay is an invitation to stop and think — not necessarily to think like me. But I’ll suggest that each of these ten pillars should be carefully analyzed and fiercely opposed by followers of Jesus. The reason is because each pillar harbors a deep dishonesty that creates (1) blindness toward ourselves, (2) broken relationships with others, and (3) a blasphemous pride toward God.

Rejecting Christian nationalism is one of the most exciting and challenging opportunities for Christian conversion and witness around the world today. When we abandon these pillars, an idolatrous temple can fall and a new freedom for God’s presence opens up between us. Humility is strength not weakness.

Yours with gratitude,

Andrew

10 Pillars of Christian Nationalism

1. Innocence: 

“We are good people, and our history is glorious... Read More

Dear friends,

How did we get here? How has Christian nationalism become such a powerful
force, fusing Christian symbols, nationalistic identity, and a cult of personality
around a political leader?

Here are seven brief observations based on my Evangelical upbringing.

1. None of the Evangelical churches I attended in my formative years ever
spoke about political injustice and violence except abortion. Sin was personal
and private (for example, smoking, drinking, cursing) and rarely, if ever, public
and systemic (for example, greed, poverty, hate, racial prejudice, unjust
warfare). Christians on Sunday mornings were left unpracticed in the analysis
of contemporary public life, despite the common slogan of “understanding the
times” (1 Chronicles 12:32).

2. Political holidays always drew the loudest applause and most emotional
response from the congregation, and this was never addressed. The cross
and American flag sat side by side on the stage, fueling the fusion of these
symbols. Saying “God bless America” and playing the national anthem in
church were never questioned... Read More

Dear friends,

Stop & Think this week offers a response to the historic siege of the United States Capitol Building on January 6 by pro-Trump rioters. I look at disturbing parallels between Nazi Germany and contemporary Trumpist America based on my PhD research on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Some of my readers may disagree with my analysis, but I ask you to read with openness of heart and honesty of mind.

Thank you for stopping and thinking with me,

Andrew

A Time for Vigilance and Resistance: Disturbing Trends in Nazi Germany and Trumpist America 

I’ve studied every surviving word of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) — all of his journals, letters, sermons, lectures, and books. What I’m seeing in America today increasingly reminds me of the rise of Nazism in Bonhoeffer’s Germany. Like Bonhoeffer, followers of Jesus should pay vigilant attention and fiercely oppose these dangerous trends.

1. We see increasingly apocalyptic political rhetoric like “Save America!” 

The rally where Trump spoke and incited violence minutes before the Capitol siege on January 6 was titled “Save America!”.. Read More

Dear friends,

As we begin a new year, I’m practicing gratitude as an act of humble defiance and radical hope in the face of the many evils and sorrows that 2020 brought. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called gratitude “a profoundly transforming power,” “the Yes from which all [life] springs.”

Here’s a list of 20 reasons why I’m giving thanks for 2020 amid the grief we carry. I invite you to start 2021 with your own act of humble defiance and radical hope.

Yours with love,

Andrew

1. Mom’s Health: My mom had a stroke scare hours before we returned to Addis on January 14. It was an ominous start to 2020, but mom fully recovered and has been healthy since.

2. The IFF Board: The board of the Institute for Faith and Flourishing (formerly ICCG) provides invaluable leadership, friendship, accountability, and generosity as we serve Ethiopia. Thank you, James, Liz, Joe, Steve, and Lily!

3. West African Pastors: Lily and I taught a Christian Ethics course for 50 West African pastors in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in January.

Dear friends,

2020 has been an extremely difficult year.

The coronavirus pandemic has taken around 1.67 million lives. Some of my dearest friends have lost their parents to the disease. Perhaps you or people you know have lost loved ones. We have all felt the ache of ambient stress, lost rhythms, loneliness, vulnerability, and uncertainty. The whole world has labored under the heaviness of loss and grief, and we carry this in our bodies.

The United States has seen high-profile police killings of Black Americans (George Floyd among others), nationwide protests, and a rancorous presidential election. The integrity of our democratic values and institutions is being severely questioned. Ethiopia has had high-profile assassinations, horrifying massacres, and a heart-wrenching war. Some 50,000 people have become refugees and 2.3 million children face hunger among other crises.

Polarization has become a feature of our daily lives across the world. It seems that more and more people not only disagree with each other but see each other as enemies locked in existential conflict... Read More

Dear friends,

On Saturday, a rally called the “Election Jericho March” was held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This nearly 5-hour event shamelessly fused Christian identity, American nationalism, and a cult of personality around Donald Trump. (It’s one thing to support some of Trump’s policies. It’s another to give unquestioning allegiance to Trump as a leader.)

The “Jericho March” was MC’ed by Eric Metaxas, the author of the famous biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Early in, Metaxas told the crowd that if they saw a helicopter that wasn’t Trump’s Marine One, “get your bazooka out and shoot it down.” The “joke” would have seemed more fitting at a Taliban rally, but the crowd erupted with cheers. Later on, another speaker said that Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act to stay in office; if he didn’t, they would start “a bloody war.” Again, the crowd went wild, and Metaxas kept saying, “Praise the Lord!” Another speaker urged the crowd to threaten local leaders that they will “burn it down!”.. Read More

Dear friends,

Dear friends,

Beloved Ethiopia stands on the brink of civil war. The United States Institute of Peace writes that war in Ethiopia “would be the largest state collapse in modern history” and “would overshadow the existing conflicts in South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.”

In response to the escalating conflict in Ethiopia, the Neighbor-Love Movement has published a Joint Declaration for Human Value and Nonviolence in Ethiopia. Our Declaration is available in English, Amharic, Afaan Oromoo, and Tigrigna. It calls upon Christians, Muslims, and all people of good will to defend human dignity and condemn violence in Ethiopia.

As you read the English version below, would you please pray for peace in Ethiopia and add your voice by signing our Joint Declaration? It has already been signed by over one hundred Ethiopian leaders, many holding senior positions in Ethiopia’s religious and civic life. We would be grateful for your solidarity and support in this critical moment.

May peace prevail and human life flourish in Ethiopia!.. Read More