After a lifetime of thinking, teaching and writing about Christian ethics, Duane Friesen, North Newton, wants to start a community conversation.
Friesen, Edmund G. Kaufman Professor Emeritus of Bible and Religion at Bethel College, is a member of the Witness Commission at Bethel College Mennonite Church. The group plans an event for Peace Sunday every year.
This time, given the current political climate and a fraught election season, they decided to host a discussion of Christianity and democracy, and to invite a leading Christian ethicist, David Gushee from Mercer University in Macon, Ga., as the keynote speaker.
BCMC is partnering with Bethel’s Department of Bible and Religion to bring Gushee to campus for several presentations Sunday and Monday, Sept. 15-16.
Sept. 15, Gushee will speak during worship (9:30 a.m.) and Sunday school (10:30 a.m.) at BCMC. “He’ll be focusing on some of the key biblical texts on the Christian and politics,” Friesen said.
In the afternoon, Gushee will lead a forum on democracy and Christianity, which will run from 3-6 p.m. in Memorial Hall on the Bethel campus, and include a panel of local leaders and scholars, and a chance for discussion around tables.
Sept. 16, Gushee will speak in convocation at 11 a.m. in Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center at Bethel.
The public is invited to any and all events, which are free.
“Our hope is to bring together progressive Christians from all denominations in [the area],” Friesen said, “to give us all a chance to see and meet each other.”
When “Christianity and democracy” rose to the top for Peace Sunday 2024, BCMC pastor Nathan Koontz noted that a sister college, Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, had recently hosted Gushee on its campus.
One of Gushee’s best known books is Kingdom Ethics, written with the late Glen Stassen. Friesen had used the book as a text in his classes. He was friends with Stassen, and knew Gushee from attending professional meetings.
When Friesen contacted Gushee, he responded positively.
“We wanted to create an engaging conversation in the context of so much misinformation in the middle of this election season,” Friesen said. “If you watch Gushee’s interviews and listen to his podcasts, you know he [can do that].”
He added, “Authoritarian Christian nationalism is a threat to democracy, to a just society, and to the integrity of the church. Our aim is to contribute to an engaging and thoughtful conversation among diverse denominational, religious and secular traditions in a search for the common good.”
As a past president of both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics, Gushee is one of America’s leading Christian ethicists. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of more than 28 books and more than 175 academic book chapters, journal articles and reviews.
His most recent book is Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies (Eerdmans, 2023).
In addition to Kingdom Ethics, Gushee’s most recognized works include Changing Our Mind, his personal and theological journey to advocating for full inclusion of LGBTQ Christians in the church, and Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism, a memoir of his movement from Catholic childhood to the Southern Baptist Church to what he calls post-evangelical Christianity.
Gushee has written hundreds of opinion pieces and given interviews to scores of major news outlets and podcasts. He and Jeremy Hall co-host the podcast Kingdom Ethics.
Gushee has an undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary and an M.Div. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is ordained in the Southern Baptist Church. He earned an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel ranks at #23 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest” for 2023-24. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see http://www.bethelks.edu
