Latest project: The Sky Is Not Falling: Living Fearlessly in These Turbulent Times (Worthy Publishing, Sept. 6).

Many today have lost faith in government. How do you think Christians should conduct themselves in this volatile time? Many people today are exasperated by government, frustrated because it doesn’t seem to be functioning. But as Christians we don’t give up on the system because government is one of the three institutions which God specifically ordains: marriage, government and the church. Government’s function is to preserve order and do justice. When it exceeds its biblical warrant, then it’s fair game for us to oppose it. But we cannot be respectful of those who govern us and give up on the institution at the same time. Remember, the only thing worse than bad government is anarchy.

How do you defend the culture wars when many think Christians shouldn’t be involved? I can’t think of a single issue that Christians have introduced into what is called the culture wars, whether it’s the deconstruction of marriage or the erosion of religious liberties or the encroachment upon the sanctity and dignity of human life; every attack has been made by secular liberalism. Christians are merely defending, as we are commanded to do, a biblical view of justice in society. When it comes to life and marriage, these are specific biblical mandates. We have no option but to defend those. As for religious liberty, it is in our DNA as Christians. We are made to be free in God’s image, with a free will. Freedom is part of human nature, so obviously we must defend it. No one can responsibly blame us for the culture wars. 

John Piper—best-selling author, pastor and leader of the Desiring God ministry—was once a racist, he admits in Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian (978-1-433-52852-1, $19.99), releasing Sept. 30 from Crossway.

In the Civil Rights era, Piper grew up in Greenville, S.C., where “enforced segregation was almost absolute,” he writes. Comparing his world to that of Jesse Jackson, who lived just across town, he observed that it was no wonder Jackson attended a liberal theological institution rather than a fundamental or evangelical school in the South, which were “committed to segregation.”

Despite his racist tendencies, Piper had an affection for Lucy, a black woman who came to clean the family’s home every week. His mother, a “gutsy Yankee fundamentalist,” invited Lucy to their church for his sister’s wedding—a daring move in 1962 when the congregation had voted not to allow blacks into services. Piper’s mother was the lone voice against the motion.

Along with his mother’s good example, Piper was strongly affected by a comment by an Urbana missions convention speaker in favor of interracial marriage. God’s work in his life regarding his racist attitudes continued at Fuller Seminary and beyond. 

Today, working in an urban parish, he doesn’t see himself as a model multi-ethnic pastor, but his congregation is intentionally aiming for greater diversity, and not long after he turned 50, he and his wife, Noel, adopted an African-American little girl.

Piper wrote Bloodlines with the aim of seeing Christ-followers learn to live “the kind of lives that advance the cause of Christ-exalting racial diversity and Spirit-enabled racial harmony.” He sees the gospel as “the only sufficient power for this effort, and the only power that in the end will bring the bloodlines of race into the single bloodlines of the cross.”

He devotes much of the book to the gospel remedy for racism, and addresses the Reformed church, acknowledging that some of its representatives have not always been good examples of racial reconciliation.

Piper also warns against another extreme—making race an idol. “Some churches have never taken the first baby steps in thinking biblically about race and ethnicity. Others devote so much focus to it that people get sick of the issue, and backlash sets in,” he writes, urging a God-centered balance.

To order Bloodlines, call 800-323-3890, or visit www.crossway.com.