Sermon Resources on Religion And Public Life

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Religion and Politics in America

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Religion has always been woven into American politics. John Quincy Adams liked to read the Bible in the mornings and would plunge naked into the Potomac for a swim before attending his weekly Sunday c...

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Ash Wednesday & A Public Faith

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Joel 2:12-13, Romans 3:20-26, Job 42:5-6, Ezekiel 9:4, Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 3:20

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always enjoyed the public nature of Ash Wednesday. That is to say, what happens when we leave an Ash Wednesday service and there is the sign of the cross, for all who ...

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Statistics on Religion in America: The Rise of the None's

Author

JR Woodward

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Scripture

Matthew 7:13-14, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Luke 18:8, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Matthew 24:12-13

In March 2009, we received the results from the widest religious survey conducted in the United States, the ARIS (American Religious Identification Survey) study. There is much to gain from this repor...

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“Respecting” Religion by Making it Private

Author

Nancy Pearcey

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Scripture

Exodus 5:1–2, 1 Kings 18:21–39, Daniel 3:16–18, Matthew 5:14–16, Acts 4:19–20, Psalm 2:1–2, 10–12

Most secularists are too politically savvy to attack religion directly or to debunk it as false. So what do they do? They consign religion to the value sphere—which takes it out of the realm of true a...

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Author

Richard John Neuhaus

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Citizens are the bearers of opinion, including opinion shaped by or espousing religious belief, and citizens have equal access to the public square. In this representative democracy, the state is forb...

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Author

Stephen L. Carter

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It is no more narrow to claim that one religion is right than to claim that one way to think about all religions (namely that all are equal) is right.

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The Separation of Church and State in America: What Did Their Separation Entail?

Author

Jon Meacham

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The wall Jefferson referred to is designed to divide church from state, not religion from politics. Church and state are specific things: the former signifies institutions for believers to congregate ...

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Religious Faith in the Workplace? The Resistance May Not Be What You Think

Author

John C. Knapp

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More often than not, park-it-at-the-door thinking [about religious faith] has less to do with hostility to faith than with the avoidance of risk, for many employer’s fear that any hint of religion is ...

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The Church Losing its Place as the Center of Attention

Author

Tim Wu

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The Church was the one institution whose mission depended on galvanizing attention; and through its daily and weekly offices, as well as its sometimes-central role in education, that is exactly what i...

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Has Religion been a Force for Evil in Human History

Author

Francis S. Collins

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Scripture

Exodus 3:7-10, Isaiah 58:6-10, Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 23:27-28 , James 1:26-27, Psalm 146:7-9

A major stumbling block for many earnest seekers is the compelling evidence throughout history that terrible things have been done in the name of religion. This applies to virtually all faiths at some...

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Seeking Integration Between Faith and Politics

Author

Kristen Deede Johnson

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I grew up near Washington D.C. surrounded by politics…I helped with the campaign of a friend’s father as he ran for state office, watched our friendly county supervisor become a US congressman, and le...

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Christians in Politics: Often Our Own Worst Enemies

Author

Jake Meador

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Though American Christians do have genuine opponents in the public square and in elite institutions, they have often been their own worst enemies, making disastrous political compromises and looking t...

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Where Were the Humanists?

Author

Timothy Keller

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Scripture

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, Isaiah 41:10, Revelation 21:4, John 14:1-3, Romans 8:38-39, Psalm 34:18, 2 Corinthians 5:1

Not long after the December 2012 Newtown shootings, and all the speeches by civic leaders, memorial services, and funerals were over, Samuel G. Freedman wrote a column in The New York Times titled “In...

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Author

Christopher Dawson

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Any religious movement which adopts a purely critical and negative attitude to culture is therefore a force of destruction and disintegration which mobilizes against it the healthiest and most constru...

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Author

Michael Wear

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We do not love our neighbor for affirmation, but because we have been loved first. Now is not the time to withdraw, but to refine our intentions and pursue public faithfulness.

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Author

Abraham Kuyper

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God built into the creation a variety of cultural spheres, such as the family, economics, politics, art, and intellectual inquiry. Each of these spheres has its own proper "business" and nee...

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Living Faith Through Selfless Service

Author

Oscar A. Romero

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Scripture

Isaiah 53:4-5, 1 Samuel 17:, 1 John 12:24-25, Matthew 16:25, Psalm 116:15

Whoever seeks to avoid danger at all costs may ultimately lose the fullness of life, but the one who, out of love for Christ, dedicates themselves to serving others discovers a life that endures. Arch...

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Author

Bill Mefford

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Pentecost . . . The Holy Spirit fills the disciples and they speak in tongues they likely do not understand themselves. It is an uncontrolled public witness – uncontrolled by human agendas – as well a...

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Religion: A Private Affair

Author

Peter Baelz

Keywords

So it is that in most Western industrialized countries church and society have lost their identity, religion has become more and more a private affair, and morality has become secular. This process af...

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Author

Justin Giboney

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Scripture

Psalm 2:10-11, John 18:36, Matthew 5:13-16, Jeremiah 29:7, Micah 6:8, 1 Samuel 15:22

We can’t separate what we believe in the political arena from who we are in Christ and what obedience to God demands...That said, not every tenet of Christianity should become the law of the state. We...

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Author

Russell Moore

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The problem was that . . . Christian values were always more popular in American culture than the Christian gospel. That’s why one could speak of “God and country” with great reception in almost any e...

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Author

Michael Wear

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Christians: The crisis is not that you are politically homeless. The crisis is that we ever thought we could make a home in politics at all.

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MKL’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail-a Short History

Author

Esau McCaulley

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On April 12, 1963, eight clergy—two Methodist bishops, two Episcopal bishops, one Roman Catholic Bishop, a Rabbi, a Presbyterian, and a Baptist—wrote a letter addressed to the citizens of Alabama. Thi...

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Defining the Secular

Author

David Zahl

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Scripture

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 14 , Judges 21:25 , Genesis 11:4 , Romans 1:21-22, Psalm 14:1 , Acts 17:22-23

In this short (and humorous) excerpt, author David Zahl shares a definition of the secular: Perhaps secular warrants its own explanation, though. My most immediate association comes from the belov...

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Scripture Guide, John 13:1-17, 31b-35 (Guide C)

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

At this point in the Gospel we move out of the streets into the quiet of a room. “The noise of the cosmos has died away: the stillness of night prevails” (Bultmann). And yet, in [that] quiet room, Jes...

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Maundy Thursday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

This guide has been updated and expanded. Our Maundy Thursday guide for 2026 on John 13 incorporates this material along with additional commentary, illustrations, and discussion questions. Check ...

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Praying for Demar Hamlin & Our Primal Desire to Pray

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 4:null

Like many of you, I've been somewhat glued to the story of Damar Hamlin since Monday evening, when the defensive player for the Buffalo Bills collapsed on the field after making a tackle. In the ...

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Repentance for the Religious

Author

John W. Rilling

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Scripture

Romans 3:25, Hebrews 9:28, Matthew 4:1-2, 1 Peter 2:24, Psalm 51:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:21

Written almost a hundred years ago, this excerpt from the Reverend John W. Rilling points out one of the main reasons we continue to observe Lent, a period of repentance and discipline for many who ca...

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Author

Phillip Yancey

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In no other arena is the church at greater risk of losing its calling than in the public square.

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Of Every Hour We Must Give Account

Author

Jeremy Taylor

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God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends: but so, that for every hour of our life (after we are persons capable of laws, and know good from evi...

Sermon Resources on religion and public life

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