The “I Have a Dream” speech21 was not a sermon; it was a political address. But its author did not feel that he had to relegate his religious faith to the private and subjective sphere. He knew that certain truth claims were central to his Christianity, and he did not hesitate to argue for them in the full glare of publicity. Though King met with

At this juncture in our common life, the chance of the preacher is crucial—as it has not been in a long time—precisely because the dominant texts are failing. . . . It is a task of the church—with synagogue and mosque—to offer this countertext of generosity, fidelity, and neighborliness. It is the chance of the preacher to permit people to give up

that connected to the kind of market-driven ethos that has led to an evangelical Christianity determined to be as angry as the people in the pews? Maybe. Is the sort of individualism (“Jesus died for you”) of such appeals part of what could enable white evangelicals to be the statistically least likely people in America to agree that social justice

The Lord knows there is much to criticize in the church, but I doubt that relentless, unsympathetic, exasperated censure against one specific people is the best way to convince them of your criticisms, let alone build them up in Christ.