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From pulpit, Gushee to focus on America, Kingdom of God

“A moral compass and a spine. How desperately we need them today,” the Rev. David P. Gushee, Christian ethicist, tweeted on June 22.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous question: Who stands fast? Who remains steadfast? Who, in other words, has both a moral compass and a spine?” Gushee tweeted in part.

“When a regime is telling daily lies, who retains a hold on the truth? When every effort is being made to obscure reality, who sees clearly?”

Gushee is the current president of the American Academy of Religion and immediate past president of the Society of Christian Ethics. He will serve as chaplain for Week Two at Chautauqua.

He will preach at the Ecumenical Service of Worship at 10:45 a.m. Sunday, July 1 in the Amphitheater. His sermon title will be “The Kingdom of God and America.”

Gushee will share his faith journey at the 5 p.m Sunday, July 1, Vespers in the Hall of Philosophy. This week, his sermon titles include “On Dignity,” “On Justice,” “On Peace,” “On Love” and “On Community.”

At Mercer University, where he has worked for 11 years, Gushee is a Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and director of the Center for Theology and Public Life. He also teaches seminary students at Mercer’s McAfee School of Theology.

As an activist, Gushee has been involved in efforts dedicated to peace, justice and human dignity — specifically in regards to torture, climate change and, as his Mercer faculty webpage states, “the continued harm being inflicted on LGBTQ persons by Christian churches and families.”

Regarded as one of the world’s leading Christian ethicists, Gushee is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 22 books, including Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Texts, The Sacredness of Human Life, Evangelical Ethics, A Letter to My Anxious Christian Friends, Still Christian: Following Jesus out of American Evangelicalism and the upcoming Moral Leadership for a Divided Age: Fourteen People Who Dared to Change Our World.

Gushee holds a bachelor of arts from the College of William and Mary, a master’s of divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a master’s of philosophy and doctorate of philosophy from Union Theological Seminary.

 

Tags : 2018 Week TwochaplainDavid Gushee
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The author Mary Lee Talbot

Mary Lee Talbot writes the recap of the morning worship service. A life-long Chautauquan, she is a Presbyterian minister, author of Chautauqua’s Heart: 100 Years of Beauty and a history of the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. She edited The Streets Where We Live and Shalom Chautauqua. She lives in Chautauqua year-round with her Stabyhoun, Sammi.