Looking forward, the road is precarious. Many signs indicate we are a denomination in poor health.
Find exclusive content here not available in the monthly print version of The Banner. New As I Was Saying blogs are posted Fridays and sometimes Tuesdays, and Behind The Banner blogs post on the third Friday of every other month (but sometimes more frequently).
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As a pro-life activist my whole adult life, I never thought I’d live to see the end of Roe v. Wade, if that’s what this is.
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What do we do when the pain and struggle are ongoing, and the happy ending doesn’t appear?
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Today, when opinion is taken to be fact and fact taken as opinion, there seems to be a wide array of approaches as to how to deal with change.
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There is a well-known sculpture, called The End of the Trail, that exemplifies this theme for Native Americans and Indigenous people.
- April 15, 2022| |READ MORE
Human language—in all its variety and vitality—is a glorious reflection of our being made in the image of a God who created the world through his word, a God who is the Word.
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There was a secret message Jesus wanted to whisper into the hearts of the servants, in the back room where the jars were kept.
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I love giving advice. It’s one of my spiritual gifts, my love language, my default mode when someone has anything off-kilter in their life.
- March 25, 2022| |READ MORE
We believe the answer to this question is in understanding the cultural paradox of our faith.
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The imagery of building is not primarily intended to convey physical construction with brick and mortar; rather, building means extending the work of God in the world.
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While I’ve come to appreciate the service and its meaning over the years, I admit there’s a tiny sense of dread that goes along with my appreciation.
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One recurring question I get as its editor in chief is whether The Banner will ever consider going entirely digital, forgoing its print form.
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I discovered that the increase of religious “nones” is strongly correlated with use of new technologies.
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Polarization seems to have pervaded every corner of our families, churches, and society.
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Let’s look back one last time to some of our best from 2021.
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The Christian Reformed Church has wrestled with divorce as a theological issue and a social reality through most of its existence.
- December 22, 2021| |READ MORE
One of the obvious problems with the death penalty is that you can’t bring someone back from the dead when you get it wrong.
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This year in particular, the tree farm I grew up on reminds me that joy and sorrow often mingle side by side, especially during the holidays.
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Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, The Banner will close the online commenting function on its website.
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I think sometimes we are so afraid of being defined by our grief or by our suffering that we try to avoid its presence in our lives.
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You’ll see that there have been many groups of people who feel this way. It’s just like when I was moved around a lot and then finally grew up in an adopted family.
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Most people are baffled when they learn that some congregations in the CRC refused to baptize adopted children as recently as the 1980s.
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The debate over various women’s rights in the Christian Reformed Church has been ongoing for over a century.
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There is something about our nature that hinders us from understanding.