W-4 People-Files

- James Wigton - Walker Wildmon - Bob Wilkin - Jen Wilkin - Farris Wilks - Edrin C Williams - Kelly M Williams - Rowan Williams - Sara Williams - Todd J Williams - Gary Wills - John D Wilsey - Billy Wilson - David Wilson - Kimberly Wilson - Sandy Wilson - Marvin Winans - Mike Winger - Lu Wing - Mark Wingfield -

==james wigton======

Dr. James H. Wigton is the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Cape Coral. In response to the Coronavirus crisis, Pastor James Wigton made the decision to close all worship services and activities at the First Baptist Church of Cape Coral for two weeks. This decision was based on the unanimous advice of the church leadership and in compliance with directives from state and national leaders. During this period, he continued to minister to the congregation by live streaming online sermons on Sundays at 10:00 AM. These sermons were accessible through the church website and were also archived for later viewing. Pastor Wigton emphasized that even during challenging times like the Coronavirus crisis, we can find hope in God’s promises. He encouraged the congregation to trust in God and seek His presence during times of trouble. First Baptist Church of Cape Coral has a longstanding tradition of hosting a sunrise Easter service. For the past 35 years, this service has been held at Jaycee Park, alongside the river. It typically attracts between 300 to 500 people, depending on when Easter falls. As the senior pastor, Dr. James Wigton plays a vital role in fostering community, spiritual growth, and worship within the church.

March 6, 2022:
Rev James Wigton; pastor at First Baptist Church of Cape Coral in Florida wrote the following in a column a local paper there called the News-Press: "The News Press carried a guest commentary on Oct. 17 (C.A. Farrington, Bible’s truth about a fetus, abortion) advocating that “there is nothing in the Bible to indicate that a fetus is considered to be anything other than living tissue,” and that the fetus does not become a living being until after it has taken its first “breath.” The author claims biblical support for this position. The author further claims that the Old Testament provides for a “ritual” abortion. Nothing could be further from the truth – if you believe the Bible as I do."
The quote that caught my immediate attention was "..if you believe as I do." So, if you dont believe like he does, then it's Ok to accept the position he is trying to criticize?? The 9 words he chose leaves a lot of room for interpretation. As a believer ...... assuming he is...then truth is truth whether anyone else believes it or not.....in fact, truth is truth even if no one believes it. I didnt bother to read the rest because his truth appears to be subjective and truth is not subjective.

==walker wildmon======

AFA Wants Trump to Pick Evangelicals with Right-Wing ‘Biblical Worldview’ for Supreme Court
Religious-right legal activist Phillip Jauregui appeared on the American Family Radio’s “At the Core” program with host Walker Wildmon yesterday to complain about the lack of conservative evangelical Supreme Court justices and to tout the Center’s “green list” of potential Republican nominees who meet the Center’s “biblical worldview” standard. Wildmon, the grandson of AFA Founder Don Wildmon, heads AFA Action, its political advocacy affiliate. Jauregui runs the Center for Judicial Renewal, one of AFA Action’s projects. Wildmon notes that former President Donald Trump reportedly plans to release a list of 20 potential Supreme Court nominees—a campaign tactic that won him support from conservative evangelical and Catholic activists in 2016 and 2020. While Jauregui has praised the strategy of naming names, he told Wildmon this week that it’s “probably a bad idea” for Trump to release such a long list, because “we’ve spent thousands of hours on this and we can’t find 20” who meet the Center’s narrow “biblical worldview” standard.
(Right Wing Watch 3/28/24) READ MORE>>>>>

==bob wilkin======

Bob Wilkin

I have had people point to Galatians 5:4 and say, "Doesn't Paul say that at least some of the Galatian Christians had fallen from grace? And, if they could fall from grace, so can we today." How did they take the verse out of context? We would agree that the book is addressed to Christians (Galatians 1:6,9; 5:1). We would also agree that some of the readers had fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4) and some were on the verge of doing so (Galatians 5:2). We would even agree that it is possible for believers today to fall from grace. The text clearly does not limit this falling to the Galatian Christians only. Any Christian who reverts to seeking to be justified by law has fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4). The problem is in the conclusion we draw, not in the premises. The whole issue here is what falling from grace means. Does it mean that the believers in question have fallen from their positional standing in grace? If it does, then Paul contradicts himself because in other passages he clearly states that is impossible (cf. Romans 8:38-39; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; Colossians 2:13-14; 1 Thessalonians 5:10; 2 Timothy 2:13). Since scripture is God's Word, it cannot contradict itself. Thus, whatever Paul meant by falling from grace he did not mean falling from one's position as a child of God. Is there not another obvious alternative, one which fits the context and Pauline and biblical theology perfectly? Falling from grace means that a believer who reverts to pharisaical thinking and practices has fallen from a present experience of grace. While our position in the grace of God is secure, our experience of His grace is not. If a believer today is unwittingly duped into joining a works-salvation cult, he will cease to experience God's grace until he leaves the cult. In fact, if a believer joins any group, cult or otherwise, which teaches that we must produce good works in order to maintain our salvation, he will cease to experience grace. Even the linking of assurance to the quality of our lives can lead a believer to fall from a daily experience of grace. Falling from grace is a real problem today. May we proclaim the gospel and assurance clearly so that we can help people begin anew or continue to experience God's grace in their daily lives. --Bob Wilkin

==jen wilkin======

Jen Wilkin is an author and Bible teacher from Dallas, TX. She has organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. Her passion is to see others become articulate and committed followers of Christ, with a clear understanding of why they believe what they believe, grounded in the Word of God. Jen is the author of Ten Words to Live By: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands, Women of the Word, None Like Him, In His Image, and Bible studies exploring the Sermon on the Mount and the books of Genesis, Exodus, Hebrews, and 1 Peter.

Jen Wilkin

Note...where this battle for holiness begins. It’s the believer’s mind that must be readied for war. When we strive to live holy lives, we often begin by attempting to curtail sinful behaviors: I should swear less. I should stop spending impulsively.
But Peter points us to the source of our sin: our thoughts. Every sinful action we engage in is the result of a sinful thought that fed a sinful desire. If we want to set our hope fully on grace, we must deal with our sin at the source.
Temptation presents itself to the mind as a reasonable choice. We allow our thoughts to dwell on its reasonableness, fueling our desires. And as James tells us, “Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). For this reason, Paul admonishes us to seek transformation not through the renewing of our actions or our desires, but through the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2) -Jen Wilkin; Gospel Coalition

==farris wilks===================

Pastor Farris Wilks is a prominent figure associated with the Assembly of Yahweh (7th day) near Cisco, Texas. Wilks, along with his brother Dan Wilks, are American petroleum industry businessmen. They founded Wilks Masonry in 1995 and later established an early hydraulic fracking company called Frac Tech in 2002. Eventually, they became billionaires. In 2011, they sold their 70% interest in Frac Tech for a staggering $3.5 billion. The brothers reside in Cisco, Texas and are major investors in conservative causes, supporting platforms like The Daily Wire and PragerU. They also backed Senator Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Religious Leadership: Farris Wilks is married to Jo Ann and is the father of 11 children. He currently serves as the pastor and bishop of the Assembly of Yahweh (7th day) near Cisco. In his sermons, he has taken strong stances against homosexuality and abortion rights. Assembly of Yahweh (7th day): The church was founded by Farris’s parents, Voy and Myrtle Wilks, in 1947. It holds that the Bible is true and correct in every scientific and historical detail. The congregation celebrates Old Testament holidays and considers the Old Testament historically and scientifically accurate. They view homosexuality and abortion as serious offenses.

Evangelicals With Deep Pockets Are Funding Climate Change Denial
In a baffling display of cognitive dissonance, two “Christian” Texas billionaires, Farris and Dan Wilks, have emerged as the patrons of climate change denialism. Their substantial wealth, built on an industry that contributes substantially to the destruction of the planet, now fuels a movement that contradicts both the scientific consensus and the teachings of their professed faith. When he’s not pillaging the earth of its natural resources, one of the brothers, Farris Wilks is the pastor of a modest church known as the Assembly of Yahweh in Cisco, Texas… and a freaking rich Pastor, at that. They have made their fortune from fossil fuel extraction using oil and gas fracking (Good Man Project 3/10/24) READ MORE>>>>>

==edrin c williams==============

Rev. Edrin C. Williams serves as the lead pastor at Sanctuary Covenant Church, which was established in 2003 in north Minneapolis. The church intentionally fosters a multicultural congregation and is associated with the Evangelical Covenant Church. His commitment to unity and justice has been particularly evident during times of social upheaval, such as the outrage over George Floyd’s death. Rev. Williams holds a Master of Divinity degree in Preaching & Communication from Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN. He is an advocate for the local church and is passionate about equipping leaders of all ages. As the Senior Pastor of Sanctuary Covenant, located at the corner of Broadway and Lyndale in North Minneapolis, he is devoted to tangible community development grounded in a theological commitment to loving your neighbor. During the coronavirus outbreak, Rev. Williams demonstrated innovative ways to greet congregants to avoid potential contact with germs, emphasizing safety and care for the community. In the neighborhood of Hawthorne, just five miles north of the Minneapolis intersection where George Floyd was killed, Rev. Williams sees hope in the ongoing protests.
He believes that this moment is a real opportunity to change the system and address deep-rooted issues like racism. For him, it’s not merely about being a good person; it’s about actively pursuing equity, justice, and equality

May 20, 2022: MPR: How evangelical Christians in Minnesota are responding to calls for racial justice
Guests:

The Rev. Edrin C. Williams is the lead pastor at Sanctuary Covenant Church, which was started in 2003 in north Minneapolis as an intentionally multicultural congregation associated with the Evangelical Covenant Church.
Carl Nelson is president and CEO of Transform Minnesota, a network of evangelical Christian congregations across Minnesota.

==kelly williams================

Pastor Kelly Williams and his wife started Vanguard Church in March 1997, in partnership with the Southern Baptist Convention. He has served as the senior pastor since then. They now have two in-person locations in the Colorado Springs and Palmer Lake area and one online location.

The Good Pastors Are Under Siege
Thirty years ago, I was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary, the same seminary that Pastor Andy Stanley attended. See, God had used Pastor Charles Stanley when I was 17 years old to confirm for me that I was called to be a pastor. I was really struggling, and I turned on the television and Pastor Charles Stanley was preaching, and he said strangely enough, “Are you struggling with whether God has called you to be a pastor?” I said out loud, “Yeah, how’d you know?” I sat down and listened. Pastor Charles Stanley said, “If you can do anything else and be happy, don’t be a pastor, but if you can’t, know you are called.” I rose from that moment and committed the rest of my life to being a pastor. I headed off to Liberty University and then with my wife, Tosha, whom I met at Liberty, we headed to Dallas Theological Seminary to prepare for the pastorate to get ready to plant a church with the Southern Baptist Convention.
(Kelly M Williams/The Good Pastors 11/14/23)
READ MORE>>>>>

==rowan williams====================

July 6, 2023: Presbyterian Outlook: On women pastors and biblical authority: A Presbyterian reflection
More could be said about learning from both the insights and the dangers a biblical text may present. But in closing, I invite you to consider the former Archbishop of Canterbury’s eloquent summary of this important point. Scripture, Rowan Williams contends, is the record of “an encounter, a contest, a wrestling”:
Here in Scripture is God’s urgency to communicate; here in Scripture is our mishearing, our misappropriating, our deafness, and our resistance. Woven together in Scripture are those two things, the giving of God and our inability to receive what God wants to give … The gift of God, the liberty of God, is passed through the distorting glass of our own fears.
So, Williams goes on to suggest,
When we listen to a passage that is difficult, alien, or offensive, I think our reaction should be neither to say, “This is the Word of the Lord, so the difficulty is my problem,” nor to say, “This is rubbish, we ought to produce a more politically correct version of Scripture!” Our task, rather, is to say that the revelation of God comes to us in the middle of weakness and fallibility. We read neither with a kind of blind and thoughtless obedience to every word of Scripture, as if it simply represented the mind of God, nor with that rather priggish sensibility that desires to look down on the authors of Scripture as benighted savages. We read with a sense of our own benighted savagery in receiving God’s gift, and our solidarity with those writers of scripture caught up in the blazing fire of God’s gift who yet struggle with it, misapprehend it, and misread it (A Ray of Darkness: Sermons and Reflections).
(It is worth noting that Williams made these striking observations in a sermon on 1 Timothy 2!)

==sara williams=================

Sara Williams is a Christian social ethicist. Ethnographer. Community-engaged teacher-practitioner-scholar. Evangelical Episcopalian on the journey. Fairfield University, Religious Studies, Faculty Member The University of Georgia, Social Work, Alumna Yale Divinity School, MAR Ethics, Alumna Emory University, Graduate Division of Religion, Alumna

A sizeable US demographic, many Evangelicals are sending money and manpower to Israel
Evangelical support for Israel is deeply rooted in the Christian Bible. However, it’s important to note that Evangelicalism is far more varied than the media often portrays, said Sara A. Williams, assistant professor of religious studies at Fairfield University. There is dispensationalist theology, which teaches that the end times can only start if Jewish people reconstitute and repopulate “Greater Israel,” and accept Christ as their Messiah. Some Evangelicals believe the Israel-Hamas war is the beginning of the End Times, meaning the world is entering a phase where God will eliminate sinners, opening the way for Christ’s return. “This belief has gotten ‘into the water,’ so to speak, of American Evangelicalism, and even American foreign policy,” Williams said.
(Cathryn J Prince/The Times of Israel 11/12/23)
Read More>>>>>

==todd j williams=================

Todd J. Williams is president of Cairn University in Langhorne Manor, Pennsylvania. He has extensive leadership experience in secondary and post-secondary education. Previously Dr. Williams served as headmaster and chief executive officer of Trinity Christian School of Fairfax in northern Virginia. He holds degrees from Cairn University (B.S.) and Temple University (M.Ed. and Ph.D.). With an array of professional experience as a professor, lecturer, administrator, chief executive officer, and educational and organizational consultant, Dr. Williams serves churches, schools, and colleges as a visiting teacher and speaker on subjects ranging from biblical and Christian studies to cultural, organizational, and professional issues. His involvement with the Witherspoon Fellowship in Washington, D.C. as its Visiting Lecturer for Spiritual Formation in 2004 has contributed substantially to his interest in and commitment to the John Jay Institute’s vision and mission to prepare Christians for principled public leadership.

Todd J Williams Files

The Constitution guarantees the right of expression. The freedom of expression is a core principle of our constitutional republic. We do not censor. We do not stifle. It is an American ideal.
What I am referring to, though, is something different. I am referring to the dangers of unfiltered, unrestrained and unmeasured personal expression: saying things without thought, without considering the truthfulness, the accuracy and the implications of our words.
This is not a wise way to live. Of course, we can say and do whatever we want, but there is a very poignant verse in the Bible where the apostle Paul says, “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful” (1 Cor. 10:13). Another way of expressing this is to use a more contemporary axiom, “Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should.”
Knowing what to say, when to say it, and how to say it; knowing when we should do something because it is the best course of action and not just simply because we can — these require judgment. This is the way of wisdom.  It is not a way of repression but a way of restraint, of self control, and of choosing what is best.
The Old Testament book of Proverbs has numerous references to the importance and impact of our words. In Proverbs 17:27, we see that restraint regarding our words says something about our character: “Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.”
The real question is whether we as a society value the personal character qualities of being knowledgeable and having understanding. Another implication of this passage is that when people do not restrain themselves, they show themselves to be the opposite of having knowledge and understanding. It is possible to assess the character of people by their lack of verbal restraint. We have all experienced this on a relational level. But it has larger societal and cultural implications that begin with us as individuals on a relational level.
We must also consider the damage done by words expressed without filter or consideration. In Proverbs 12:18 we read, “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Words have the power to inflict pain and wound. They also have the power to bring healing.
-Todd J Williams

==gary wills=================

Garry Wills (born May 22, 1934) is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1993. Wills has written over fifty books and, since 1973, has been a frequent reviewer for The New York Review of Books. He became a faculty member of the history department at Northwestern University in 1980, where he is an Emeritus Professor of History.

Garry Wills and the Real Kennedy Curse
Our talk is based on our shared love for Garry Wills’s The Kennedy Imprisonment, a revelatory book about not just the Kennedy family but also the nature of “great-man politics.” This is an in-depth discussion that touches on many topics including the mainstreaming of Catholicism in the 1950s, the appeasement policies of the British ruling class in the 1930s, Cold War liberalism’s embrace of elitism, macho culture and misogyny, and mass movements as an alternative to great-man politics.
(Time of the Monsters Podcast 11/26/23)
READ MORE>>>>>

The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it?
Its power to do good is matched by its incapacity to do anything wrong. It cannot kill. Thwarting the god is what kills. If it seems to kill, that is only because the god’s bottomless appetite for death has not been adequately fed. The answer to problems caused by guns is more guns, millions of guns, guns everywhere, carried openly, carried secretly, in bars, in churches, in offices, in government buildings. Only the lack of guns can be a curse, not their beneficent omnipresence.

Gary Wills

There is much in Chesterton that might commend itself to the right wing in America: his militarism, antifeminism and anti-Semitism. But, to the credit of the right wing, these are less emphasized than Chesterton’s populism, his opposition to experts and his distrust of modern science. What they like about Chesterton is what Jay P. Corrin has called "the battle against modernity" and especially against Darwin.
The most embarrassing of Chesterton’s positions, in this refashioning to evangelical tastes, is his deep and omnipresent opposition to capitalism. However eccentric himself, he shared with his beloved Samuel Johnson an opposition to the absurdity of individualism as a principle of community. He sincerely loved tradition, and rightly saw untrammeled consumerism and the glorification of the entrepreneur as destabilizing -- what Belloc called the attempt to use explosives as a social glue.
So the first task for American conservatives who want to use Chesterton is to explain away his anticapitalism. This Michael Novak attempts to do as part of the extraordinarily wrong-headed reprint series of Chesterton’s works appearing from Ignatius Press. Novak argues that what Chesterton really opposed was more monopolism, rather than the competitive principle itself (a grave misreading of Chesterton’s debt to John Ruskin). And he takes comfort from Chesterton’s opposition to socialism. Novak shows the divided nature of the right wing’s own cultural heritage when he praises Chesterton as a productive and innovative journalist and, at the same time, celebrates his "devastating criticisms of modernity."
If Chesterton were an artist or thinker on the scale of Ruskin, this opportunistic discipleship could do him little harm. But most of what Chesterton ground out in the journalistic productiveness Novak praises was formulaic trash. With a sure instinct, the right-wing celebrants behind the Ignatius Press edition have not only accepted but are highlighting the worst aspects of the man’s work. They are actually printing, with pseudo-learned footnotes, 11 volumes of his lamentable columns for the Illustrated London News (1905-1936) The terms on which Chesterton wrote this weekly column were stultifying. It had to fill one of the ILN’s large pages (1,600 words) , and he was not to deal with religion or politics. The editors rightly note that he circumvented the ban on subjects that mattered most to him, but he did it in indirect ways that gave his style the arch and trivializing tone that offends (rightly) so many.
Chesterton’s strength lay in verbal economy. No one could compress an argument into an epigram with greater precision. Forced to bloviate for over 1,000 words before or after he made his telling remark of the week (if he had one) , he resorted to rhetorical flourishes. Then, because he was a genuinely modest man, he tempered the large verbal gestures with self-deprecating exercises that helped fill the rest of the space (and became as labored as the bravado)
Though Chesterton never grew as a thinker, the statement of his central insight is always stunning, in whatever genre, before it is dulled by repetition. Thus he wrote one brilliant biblical essay (on the Book of Job) , one superb piece of Shakespeare criticism (on A Midsummer Night’s Dream) , one neglected masterpiece in narrative verse (The Ballad of the White Horse) , one great fantasy-novel (The Man Who Was Thursday) , one dark joke of a playlet (The Surprise) , one gripping short story ("The Flying Stars") , and assorted short prose passages on nightmare, myth and creativity scattered through books like those on Dickens, St. Francis and St. Thomas. Here, for instance, is his description of the crisis that broke and reforged the spirit of St. Francis:
We used to be told, in the nursery that if a man were to bore a hole through the center of the earth and climb continually down and down, there would come a moment when he would seem to be climbing up and up. . . . We cannot follow St. Francis to that final spiritual overturn in which complete humiliation becomes complete holiness or happiness, because we have never been there. . . . We have never gone up like that because we have never gone down like that. . . . The symbol of inversion is true in another way. If a man saw the world upside down, with all the trees and towers, hanging head downwards as in a pool, one effect would be to emphasize the idea of dependence. There is a Latin and literal connection; for the very word dependence only means hanging. It would make vivid the Scriptural text which says that God has hung the world upon nothing. . . . The mystic who passes through the moment when there is nothing but God does in some sense behold the beginningless beginnings in which there was really nothing else. He not only appreciates everything but the nothing of which everything was made. In a fashion he endures and answers even the earthquake irony of the Book of Job; in some sense he is there when the foundations of the world are laid, with the morning stars singing together and the sons of God shouting for joy.
Those are the words of a great spiritual writer, no matter what use people make of his tawdrier work.
--Gary Wills; Christian Century, May 16-23, 1990 pp.532-533

==john d wilsey=================

John D. Wilsey is Associate Professor Church History and Philosophy at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Research Fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy. He is also the author of American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea and One Nation under God? An Evangelical Critique of Christian America. Wilsey is a columnist for World Opinions, and his other public writings have appeared in outlets such as Law and Liberty, Current, Acton’s Commentary, Christianity Today, Providence, Public Discourse, 9Marks Journal, The Gospel Coalition, Aeon, History News Network, The American Conservative, The Imaginative Conservative, Anxious Bench, Religion and Liberty, and Religion in American History. He has reviewed numerous books for Themelios, Southeastern Theological Review, Public Discourse, Fides et Historia, Westminster Theological Journal, Trinity Journal, The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Journal of Church and State, Evangelical Quarterly, Journal of Markets and Morality, H-Diplo, Ad Fontes, and The London Lyceum. He is an elder at Kenwood Baptist Church at Victory Memorial in Louisville.

John D Wilsey Files

Nationalism...is the multifaceted and contested ideology that forms the vocabulary and imagination of a political community. And religion has always played an important role in the development of nationalism. Sometimes nationalism is harmful, but sometimes it is a necessary part of our collective effort at identifying ourselves and our ideals. In one sense, we are all nationalists. If we look to the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, then we are nationalists of one sort. If we look to America as a New Israel, then we are nationalists of another sort. But not all nationalisms are the same.
Elie Kedourie, a twentieth-century scholar who taught at the London School of Economics, mapped nationalism’s subtleties and complexities, particularly those introduced by the influence of religious and philosophical ideas. Kedourie wrote or edited over twenty books in his career, and Anthony Smith summarized his work on nationalism by observing that he saw three kinds of relationships between nationalism and religion.
First, some nationalistic expressions are secular. Secular, revolutionary nationalism displaces and stamps out traditional religion as a partner alongside the state in securing order and social cohesion. Its key marker is its open hostility to traditional religion. This kind of nationalism is exemplified by eighteenth-century revolutionary France and twentieth-century revolutionary Russia. But even the violently secular revolutionary French and Soviets employed religious rituals, symbols, and behaviors for nationalistic purposes.
Second, some nationalistic expressions find an alliance with traditional religion. In this model, institutional religion subordinates itself to a nation in support of its political agenda. Under this kind of nationalism, acquiescent religions are subsumed into the state and become defined by the nation’s aims rather than by trans-political creedal tenets. An example of this would be the Anglican established church in England, with the monarch as the head of the church. English nationalism, especially as it was manifested in the nineteenth century, was informed by the sacred texts, images, symbols, and rites of the Anglican establishment.
We do not have to look far for examples of Christian nationalism emanating from the right. But equally troubling is the secular nationalism and state-driven civil religion that’s emerging from the left.
Third, nationalism often takes traditional religion and fashions it into a political theology. This kind of nationalism consists in a composite of theological themes that are articulated for a nationalistic agenda. For example, biblical ideas such as mission or election are borrowed from a coherent theological framework and redefined according to political goals. So in the 1840s, American manifest destiny represented a redefinition of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19–20 from carrying the gospel of salvation in Christ to the world to extending the American Union over all North America. This third brand of nationalism takes religious doctrines and perverts them for purposes for which they were never designed, as opposed to the second brand of nationalism, in which traditional religion is not essentially redefined. Such a model seems consistent with how Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry define today’s Christian nationalism in their book, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (Oxford, 2020).
-John D Wilsey ; Public Discourse; Progressive Nationalism 2.22.22

==billy wilson=====================

William Marion Wilson (born October 4, 1958) is the president of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was previously the vice chairman for ORU board of trustees. Wilson attended the Pentecostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee, where he earned his Master of Arts and Doctor of Ministry degrees.

June 2, 2023: Charisma: ORU Celebrates 10 Years of Billy Wilson’s ‘Transformative Leadership’
Since Dr. Billy Wilson took office as Oral Roberts University’s fourth president in June 2013, the Christian university not only has continued its commitment to excellence in education, but it has seen a great deal of positive growth toward a bright future.

==david wilson===============

Two Dallas pastors: 'Simply say yes' to the 2024 bond package
Two Dallas pastors, with strong connections to the city's southern sector, voiced their support for the city’s upcoming 2024 Bond Package. Which of the ten propositions do they endorse? All of them. The Rev. David Wilson, who leads Greater Cornerstone Baptist Church, and The Rev. Jerry Christian, the senior pastor at Kirkwood Temple CME, spoke at a press conference on Thursday to give their support to the over billion dollars-worth of bond funds. (KERA News 4/26/24 ) Read More>>>>>

==kimberly wilson==============

Feb 15, 2023: Religion News Service: A 300-year-old church hopes to connect with spiritual but not religious neighbors
It’s also hosted speakers, including Kimberly Wilson, who performed “A Journey,” her one-woman show about Black women who shaped American history; writer Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, author of “Hollywood to the Himalayas,” which details her life as a Hindu convert; and the Rev. Matthew Wright, an Episcopal priest and Sufi practitioner who teaches about contemplation. A current series features author Mark Greene, host of the “Remaking Manhood” podcast.

==sandy wilson================

May 19, 2023: Christian Post: ‘He changed my life’: 5 remembrances of Tim Keller
“Tim Keller was a once-in-a-century sort of person. There is no pastor I know, in the last 100 years, who did what Tim Keller did to take the Reformed faith to the street, to the church, and to the academy,” said TGC Interim President Sandy Willson, as quoted in the condolences.
“He will be remembered among this generation’s most effective Christian pastors, apologists, and evangelists. Tim not only made the most articulate arguments for the Christian faith; he also demonstrated our faith with his humble and gracious spirit and his relentless passion to see the lost come to know the Lord he so loved.”

==marvin Winans======

Legendary gospel artist Marvin Winans is ‘OKAY’ after fainting during a church service
The renowned Gospel artist and pastor of Perfecting Church in Detroit, Bishop Marvin Winans, is okay after he passed out at his Toledo, Ohio church earlier this week, in a video that is circulating. In the video that has made its rounds on social media, the 66-year-old Winans can be seen teaching the Word of God before he begins
to lean forward, swaying left and right, before ultimately collapsing to the floor. It appears that the
congregation was unaware of what was happening to their pastor until he hit the ground. In a reassuring
livestream on Friday, Bishop Winans addressed his followers, telling them that he was “fine.” He
recounted the incident from Wednesday, October 16, while ministering at his Perfecting Church in Toledo.
(The NC Beat 10/18/24) READ MORE>>>>>

==lu wing======

Lu Wing, Ph.D. is a chaplain with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Crime Lab and has been a toxicology consultant within the biopharmaceutical industry for over 25 years. Lu was ordained in 1998 after graduating from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in Cell Biology (1980) and completing his Ph.D. in Biochemistry (1992) at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. In 2022, he earned an M.A. in Theological Ethics, also at the University of Aberdeen. As such, Lu effectively brings his scientific background into his Bible teaching.

Dr Lu Wing

The passage culminates in a powerful declaration of freedom: “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (6:14). Living under grace enables us to overcome sin, not indulge in it, as God’s Spirit transforms our hearts and actions.
This transformation by the Spirit underscores that a nominal, “in name only” Christianity, is impossible. True Christianity demands a life that reflects Christ’s teachings. Paul’s words in Romans 6:6, “that we should no longer be slaves to sin,” echo Jesus’ call to authentic discipleship, seen when He spoke of bearing one’s cross (Luke 9:23) and condemned lukewarm faith (Revelation 3:15-16). Faith here isn’t a label but a transformative relationship with Christ—“… sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (6:14). -Dr Lu Wing

==mike winger======

Mike Winger Says Benny Hinn Is Not a Christian During Interview With Charisma
Christian YouTuber Mike Winger, an ordained pastor who is not currently shepherding a church, recently spoke with Charisma Media’s John Matarazzo about his four-hour video titled “The Victims of Benny Hinn: 30 years of Spiritual Deception.” Seventeen days after posting his viral video, Winger shared in a separate video that Hinn was attempting to get the previous video, which has over 900,000 views, removed from YouTube. In the four-hour video, Winger argued that Hinn was financially and spiritually abusive throughout his years of ministry. Winger’s interview with Charisma comes after the outlet posted a two-part interview with Hinn. Matarazzo said, “We’re trying to platform voices the best way that we can as we see God moving
(Charisma 5/17/24) READ MORE>>>>>

==mark wingfield======

Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He recently served 17 years as associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Prior to that, he spent 21 years in denominational journalism. His latest book is Why Churches Need to Talk about Sexuality (Fortress Press). He and his wife, Alison, are parents of two adult sons and live in Dallas.

Mark Wingfield

“What in the name of everything righteous and holy is wrong with 30 per cent of Americans? We’ve spent six years diagnosing why evangelical Christians have taken the bait and followed someone who is the antithesis of their professed faith. We’ve exhausted that inquiry, and nothing productive will come of it right now. What we need to focus on instead is those who are Trump enablers through their silence”.
--Mark Wingfield; Baptist News Global; How many indictments will be too many? 8.1.23

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