The Church of the Sexual Revolution
Carl R. Trueman
The Wall Street Journal

The website of Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., says the congregation “is committed to anti-racism and radical solidarity with folx on the margins.” Last month the church featured a “special guest” for the children’s sermon at weekly worship. Isaac Simmons, who uses the stage name “Ms. Penny Cost,” donned a high-slit sequin dress, denounced capitalism and praised liberation theology. In a follow-up post after the event, Rev. Andy Oliver, the church’s pastor, wrote: “Ms. Penny Cost was an angel in heels appearing to shepherds in the fields on the night shift, telling them that Good News had arrived on their doorstep. What was once the margins is the center.”

Conflicts and schisms are nothing new. In the 1920s American Protestantism underwent heated debates over the truth of biblical accounts of miracles and whether evolution is consistent with Christian teaching. But history isn’t quite repeating itself. Denominations divided and congregations split, but life in general proceeded as normal. The issues currently dividing Christians—sex, sexual identity, the definition of a person—can’t easily be isolated from society at large.

The newest conversation on the Faith Angle Podcast ( Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean ) is about the leadership, faith, historical record, and implications of the national security policy of Ronald Reagan. This exchange between two seasoned national security officials with unusual expertise is rooted in a hot-off-the-press new book, The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink, by Will Inboden, who is joined for this episode by Elliott Abrams of the Council on Foreign Relations.