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Dr. James Emery White Christian Blog and Commentary

Act now to share the love of Christ in the Middle East

Dr. James Emery White

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

May We All be Irish (2024)

  • 2024Mar 18

It was a pagan world, outside the borders of the accepted disciplines and understandings of civilization. But spiritual. Deeply spiritual. The supernatural was everywhere, in places and days, people and events, filling their lives with images, symbols and ritual. The earth and all in it were sacred. Gods and goddesses roamed the landscape. The world of magic was embraced. But there was no God who sat in Heaven, and no knowledge of a Christ who had come to Earth.

Into this postmodern milieu, 1500 years before postmodernism was born, came Patrick, the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland (c. 5th century).   

Patrick did not come to his task by choice. Kidnapped at the age of 15 from his father’s villa in Britain, he was enslaved in Ireland and made to serve as a shepherd. There he came into the fullness of the Christian faith and, after six years of prayer, finally made his escape. But upon reaching his homeland, he had a dream in which a man who seemed to come from Ireland handed him a letter titled “The Voice of the Irish” and at the same time heard the voices of those who lived “beside the Wood of Foclut, which lies near the Western Sea” asking him to “come back and walk once more among us.” Patrick wrote that he was “pierced to [his] heart’s core.”

Patrick returned to Ireland. Not as a slave, but as a missionary.

The legends surrounding Patrick are… well, legendary. He reportedly drove the snakes out of Ireland into the sea. Whether true or not, there are no snakes in Ireland to this day. Another legend is that he used the shamrock to explain the Trinity. There may be some truth to this as (pointing back to Patrick) the shamrock is the national flower of Ireland. He is said to have confronted and overpowered the druids, fasted for 40 days and nights on a holy mountain, and openly challenged a king by lighting a fire for an Easter celebration in open opposition to the edict that only one fire was to burn in the land—that for the pagan feast of Bealtaine.

What is most apparent is that Patrick looked for ways to connect the message of Christ to a pagan, but supernaturalized, world. In doing so, he imaginatively put himself in the position of the Irish. Looking for what they held in common, Patrick made it clear that he, too, embraced a world full of magic. As Thomas Cahill notes, the difference between Patrick’s magic and the magic of the Druids was that in Patrick’s world, “all beings and events come from the hand of a good God.” When Patrick arrived, the Irish were still practicing human sacrifice. Patrick made it clear that through Christ’s supreme sacrifice, such offerings were no longer needed. Patrick took an entire culture’s leanings toward the spiritual and led them to Christ.

During Patrick’s time, all who lived outside of the boundaries or walls of Rome were called barbarians (literally, “without the walls”), and were to be avoided at all costs. The Irish were barbarians. Cahill writes that Patrick was the first Christian missionary to a culture outside of Rome’s world: “The step he took was in its way as bold as Columbus’s.” Patrick simply wrote, “I came in God’s strength... and had nothing to fear.” As a result, Maire B. De Paor writes that Patrick “not only changed the course of Irish history but made Ireland the burning and shining light of barbarian Europe for the best part of the next thousand years.”

So on the day when “everyone is Irish,” let’s hope that it was of the kind modeled by the saint whose name marks the day.

James Emery White

 

Editor’s Note

The Church & Culture Team shares this blog annually on or near St. Patrick’s Day. We hope you enjoy reading it again.

Sources

The Confession of Saint Patrick, translated by John Skinne. (There are only two surviving works that can be attributed to Patrick: Confessio (“Confession”) and Epistola (“Letter to Coroticus”).)

Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization.

Maire B. De Paor, Patrick: The Pilgrim Apostle of Ireland.

James Emery White, Serious Times (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press).

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

Why I Love Savannah Guthrie's Mostly What God Does

  • 2024Mar 14

Savannah Guthrie is the co-anchor of NBC News’ Today, NBC News’ chief legal correspondent, and a primary anchor for the network’s election coverage. A graduate of Georgetown Law, she is a New York Times bestselling author and executive producer of a Netflix show.

She is also a devout Christian who just released a book on her faith that includes frank conversations about sin and grace and the problem of evil, and is replete with quotes from C.S. Lewis, Eugene Peterson, Tim Keller, Oswald Chambers, Beth Moore, N.T. Wright and Frederick Buechner.

I have been a long and faithful viewer of the Today show, incorporating it into my morning workout routine for years. Guthrie impressed me from the moment she debuted—a respect and appreciation that has continued to grow over time. 

I recall when she was on the air and had to break the news about the dismissal of her colleague Matt Lauer for sexual infidelities. She was clearly distraught, and revealed later that she and her cohost Hoda Kotb had spent time in prayer for Matt before they made the fateful announcement.

Later, reading a feature on her in a newspaper series that chronicled what various celebrities did with their Sundays, she unapologetically revealed the centrality of church attendance.

All to say, I was eager to read her reflections and I was not disappointed. She is quick to say she is not a trained theologian, and even quicker to admit she is not the poster child for a consistent life in Christ over the years. But she is deeply sincere about her faith and deeply committed to it. It has clearly become an increasingly vibrant part of her life, and now takes center stage.

And for good reason. She is the first to say that she has had to cling to it – desperately – to survive, including the death of her father when she was a teenager and a brief failed marriage in her mid-30s. Even her ascent to her role on the Today show was challenging due to longtime viewers’ anger over the treatment of her predecessor Ann Curry.

The stackpole for which she gathers her thoughts is simple: “What God mostly does... is love.” She’s right. With every subject – from sin and grace, to evil and parenting, to doubt and prayer – she returns to that one steadfast truth: God is foolish over us, and we can trust Him. Or as the subtitle of her book puts it: “Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere.”

For example, in writing poignantly of her role as a mother of two, she ends with: “He loves. Like a mother. But better.” After introducing her daughter Vale to a collection of Christian songs (courtesy of her own mother), “Jesus Loves Me” came on and her little blue eyes lit up. “That’s my song!” she exclaimed. Guthrie then reflects on John saying that he was the apostle who Jesus loved but noting that it was neither ego nor pride speaking, but rather his own sense of selfless identity. She then adds that we are all deeply loved by Jesus: “It’s a child hearing ‘Jesus Loves Me’ and saying, ‘That’s my song.’ It’s an apostle witnessing the Messiah and saying, ‘I’m the one he loves.’ But it’s a fact that belongs to all of us.”

In writing of prayer, she speaks with the depth of someone who has committed herself to it and struggled with it at the same time. “Maybe you’ve heard that famous quote: ‘80% of success in life is just showing up.’ In prayer, it’s 100%. By simply arriving to a quiet moment with God, its purpose is accomplished.” Those who attempt to be practiced in prayer know exactly what she means. She also speaks of God’s silence and her frustration with it. During one particularly trying season, she wanted God’s rescue to come, and it didn’t. Not in the sense she looked for or longed for. She then adds what she learned at the end—an impression she couldn’t help but take as a word from God:

This, Savannah. This is the rescue.

This moment, this pain, this anguish—this is the path to freedom. This is the road that will lead you out. Because this is what will force change.

This is how I am rescuing you.

It is clear that she is writing to those in her world—meaning, a mostly secular audience that may not have much of a foundation in spiritual things, much less Christianity. The book is all the better for it. It is a winsome, compelling, authentic, vulnerable apologetic for God’s character. She writes of faith, not religion, and gains a listening ear as a result. 

And it has grit. She herself writes that this

is not “God-light,” or a feel-good ideology with a dash of the divine mixed in. This is the hardest stuff. But if we can truly believe it, it is transformative. Love like that takes root and is a revolution from within. A triumph over hopelessness. A way to reimagine and rethink every circumstance, even those that disappoint us. Especially those.

There is little doubt that some will read her memoir and reflections on faith and find things they might quibble with. For me, that would be to miss the forest for the trees. Here is a woman in an incredibly influential position in our culture who is unashamedly proclaiming her rather (dare I say it?) evangelical faith in Jesus.

And all I have to say is,

“You go girl.”

James Emery White

Sources

Savannah Guthrie, Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere.

Stephen Battaglio, “‘Today’ Co-Anchor Savannah Guthrie Puts Her Faith on the Line in a New Book,” Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2024, read online.

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of ChristianHeadlines.

Image credit: ©Getty Images/Jamie McCarthy / Staff

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

Parents Shopping Kids on Instagram, Wake Up

  • 2024Mar 11

A recent article in the New York Times (NYT) detailed a deeply disturbing phenomenon. Titled “A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men,” it ran the following sub-heading: “Seeking social media stardom for their underage daughters, mothers post images of them on Instagram. The accounts draw men sexually attracted to children, and they sometimes pay to see more.”

For example, Elissa has been running her daughter’s Instagram account since 2020, when she was only 11 and too young to officially have her own account. She posted photos of her daughter in evening dresses, high-end workout gear and dance leotards. Her daughter now has more than 100,000 followers—some so attached to her that they pay $9.99 a month for more photos.

Some of the child influencers earn six-figure incomes.

Welcome to the world of Instagram influencers who have accounts managed by their parents. And yes, it’s legal. As the NYT reports, “Although the site prohibits children under 13, parents can open so called mom-run accounts for them, and they can live on even when the girls become teenagers.” The investigative article adds,

But what often starts as a parent’s effort to jump-start a child’s modeling career, or win favors from clothing brands, can quickly descend into a dark underworld dominated by adult men, many of whom openly admit on other platforms to being sexually attracted to children.

Disturbed yet? Here’s more:

Thousands of accounts examined by The Times offer disturbing insights into how social media is reshaping childhood, especially for girls, with direct parental encouragement and involvement. Some parents are the driving force behind the sale of photos, exclusive chat sessions and even the girls’ worn leotards and cheer outfits to mostly unknown followers. The most devoted customers spend thousands of dollars nurturing the underage relationships.

The investigation found 32 million connections to male followers among the 5,000 accounts the newspaper examined. These interactions can lead to abuse. “Some flatter, bully and blackmail girls and their parents to get racier and racier images.” Men are openly fantasizing about sexually abusing the children they follow on Instagram and laud the platform for making them available. “It’s like a candy store” said one; “God bless instamoms,” wrote another.

This when one in three preteens lists “influencing” as a career goal, and 11% of Gen Zers already describe themselves as influencers.

One mother interviewed for the article said: “I really don’t want my child exploited on the internet.... But she’s been doing this so long now. Her numbers are so big. What do we do? Just stop it and walk away?”

Yes, that is exactly what you do.

Listen to one mother’s remorse:

Kaelyn, whose daughter is now 17, said she worried that a childhood spent sporting bikinis online for adult men had scarred her.

“She’s written herself off and decided that the only way she’s going to have a future is to make a mint on OnlyFans,” she said, referring to a website that allows users to sell adult content to subscribers. “She has way more than that to offer.”

She warned mothers not to make their children social media influencers. “With the wisdom and knowledge I have now, if I could go back, I definitely wouldn’t do it,” she said. “I’ve been stupidly, naïvely, feeding a pack of monsters, and the regret is huge.”

Parents, please wake up.

James Emery White

Sources

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Michael H. Keller, “A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men,” The New York Times, February 22, 2024, read online.

For stats on the career goals of Gen Z see Erica Parker at The Harris Poll, read onlilne.

“The Influencer Report: Engaging Gen Z and Millennials,” Morning Consult, read online.

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of ChristianHeadlines.

Image credit: ©GettyImages/x-reflexnaja

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.