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Articles by Roy Knight
Certainty is not a spiritual gift
I can’t speak for all Christian traditions of which there are many and I’m far from an expert on theology, but I tend to know a few things here and there. So today I am speaking from and to my own Wesleyan tradition. I am struck by the ugly sin of certainty that seems to be residing so deeply in some of our souls. Yes, I include myself there fully! We have turned the Sanctuary into a Courtroom, and we’ve all appointed ourselves the hanging judge.
An empire of barbarism
Public executions are meant to send a message. Two thousand years ago, the Romans used them to instill fear in anyone who threatened “law and order.” One such execution happened outside Jerusalem. Very public. Very visible. A warning to anyone watching. We know the story and we know his name. And his execution did inspire fear. But fear did not have the final word. The movement gathered around him and spread throughout the empire—and eventually outlived it. A human life being taken.
Baited by Satan
If Jesus rejected worldly power as a temptation from Satan, why are so many conservative Christians fighting to get as much of it as possible? As a reminder: Satan took Jesus to a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and said, “All of this can be yours — just bow.” (Matthew 4: 8-11) But Jesus didn’t flinch. He didn’t negotiate. He said no. No to empire. No to shortcuts. No to a crown without a cross. Fast forward 2,000 years… The loudest voices claiming to represent Him?
Radical humility
Humility enters Scripture quietly. No trumpet. No spectacle. It does not force itself forward. It kneels. The world mistakes this for weakness. The Bible never does. Pride built towers. Pride crowned kings. Pride nailed Christ to wood. Humility walked barefoot through the wreckage and still chose mercy. I speak of humility often. Still, I fall short when praise tastes sweet… The command appears early.
What do we really worship?
What comes to mind when you think of idolatry? Is it golden calves? Little statues? Graven images that ancient people bowed down to? If that’s your concept of idolatry, it’s easy to assume, “I’m not guilty of that.” But in Scripture, idolatry is far more expansive and it is not a marginal issue, it is the central sin. It is what destroys Israel, corrupts kings, and leads priests astray.
This little light of mine
A couple of weeks ago, it seemed the whole world stopped for a moment when the news of Dolly Parton’s death was announced. Tributes poured in from every corner– singers, songwriters, news anchors, politicians, friends and acquaintances. It seemed people everywhere felt like they had lost a friend, even if they had never met Dolly personally. I wondered why this gal from east Tennessee was able to capture so many hearts.
Becoming what we fear
The current political portrait of America is in grave danger of becoming a mirror image of a militant Islamic state. To the extent Christians support this administration’s violence and profanities, we risk reshaping our faith into something very similar to how we imagine militant Islam. Please note, that I am not saying that Islam IS a militant anti-Christian religion.
Social justice and humility
As a pastor in the United Methodist Church, I am grateful for our denomination’s unwavering emphasis on social justice. Faith and public life are often treated as separate things. Either religion is a private matter between a person and God, or it gets tangled up in politics in ways that feel uncomfortable. John Wesley thought both approaches missed something important. His phrase “there is no holiness, but social holiness” has been quoted, misquoted, and debated for nearly three centuries.
Christian nationalism is anything but
It doesn’t matter what politicians say. It doesn’t matter what Republicans or Democrats say. It doesn’t matter what Evangelicals say. It doesn’t matter what historians say. It doesn’t matter what “the Bible says.” What does matter is that our Constitution does say, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In other words, there is no such thing as a Christian nation. It doesn’t exist. It can’t exist. Not a chance. Not with Jesus.
The danger of strong opinions
Strong opinions are easy... from a distance. It’s easy to repeat talking points... when no one close to you is being hurt by them. It’s easy to condemn people you’ve never sat across a table from, cried with, prayed with, or loved enough to truly listen to. It’s easier to judge people from far away. It’s much harder when you know their name, their story, and their pain. And Jesus never called us to love people from a safe distance.
A truly human Jesus
In my view, Christianity made its most consequential mistake when it turned Jesus into an object of worship rather than an example of what it means to be fully human. By surrounding Jesus with claims of virgin birth, sinless perfection, divine exclusivity, cosmic saviorhood, and supernatural status, the church placed him on a pedestal so high that ordinary people could never realistically follow him. Then, with remarkable inconsistency, Christians are told to “be like Jesus.” How?
Whom shall I send?
In an odd bit of timing, the Southern Baptist Convention has voted to advance a constitutional ban on all women pastors the same year that The United Methodist Church is celebrating the 70th anniversary of full clergy rights for women in The Methodist Church. A number of UMC annual conferences are marking the occasion. Our WV Annual Conference did so last week in Buckhannon.
Be resolute in your faith
I have been trying to figure out what to write in such strange times. I am a retired pastor and also an American, and the message of Jesus Christ and the calls to patriotism seldom sync very well. That is true, especially now. The United States is engaged in a war, for no particular reason other than the presidents of the United States and Israel decided that it makes sense.
His name is David
For Roy’s latest column, turn to the Review’s Opinion page. Here’s an award-winning piece of Roy’s that we first published on June 26, 2019. His name is David. David’s life is nothing noteworthy as noteworthiness is usually defined. His early months as the son of a middle-class family were nothing unusual. There was the daily feedings, diaper changes, restlessness, crying, cooing and all of the usual sounds and activities of a newborn child and infant.
What would Jesus never do?
Back in the old days, you know, in the 20th century, there was a time when “WWJD?” was everywhere. Remember that? “What would Jesus do?” It was on bracelets, on keychains, on bumper stickers, and t-shirts. It was a bit hokey, sure. But it was also a real attempt to put a holy speed bump in front of our worst impulses. What would Jesus do? I don’t hate that question. At least I miss what it was trying to do anyway.
I stand with the Pope
“Blessed are the peacemakers. To be a peacemaker is no easy matter. It forces us out of our comfort zones of distraction and indifference and may well be resisted by those who have an interest in perpetuating conflicts.” I stand with the Pope. I am a United Methodist. I stand in a stream of Christians who trace our origins indirectly to the Protestant Reformation. Some of those Protestant “protests” (via Martin Luther) were in response to corruption and evil being perpetuated by the church itself.
Christian Nationalism 101
These days we are hearing the term “Christian nationalism” bandied about. But what is it? Simply put. it fuses national identity with religious identity until being American and being Christian are somehow one and the same. The prophets had a word for people who confused national power with God’s kingdom: apostasy. “I hate, I despise your religious festivals,” God thundered through Amos. “Away with the noise of your songs.
I am resurrection and life
The Rev. Roy Knight gave the following remarks at the Wednesday, April 1, Lenten Lecture at Romney Presbyterian Church. We’re all familiar with the story of Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus. Recall how in the Gospel of John (chapter 11) word comes to Jesus and his band that his close friend, Lazarus, is gravely ill and facing death. When Jesus arrives, it is too late. Lazarus has not only died but has already been buried.
Politics and Religion
Politics comes from the Greek word “polis”, the city, the public life; how we order our common life together. Politics simply means how a community decides who belongs, who has power, how resources are shared, and what kind of world we’re building. Religion comes from the Latin word “religare,” to bind together to “realignment,” to tie back into right relationship with God and one another. So, politics is about how we live together. Religion is about what ultimately binds us together.
Anger and lament
I’m trying to follow Jesus. But some days I want karma to swing a bat. That’s where my head’s at. I’m not going to lie about it; pretend I’m not incensed. Heather Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent on a Wednesday in Minneapolis while trying to watch out for her neighbors.
Marking time
We as followers of Jesus don’t keep time like the rest of society. We keep time by the life of Jesus. And follow it with our own unique calendar, which is why we celebrate the new year at the beginning of Advent and why we still say Merry Christmas and celebrate the season up until Jan. 6, which is known as Epiphany, even as the rest of the world tucks it neatly away until next December.
To those who struggle in darkness
I’m not writing this to everyone. I’m writing this to you—the person whose heart is heavy today, the one for whom this day is not merry and bright, the one who doesn’t feel at all like singing. I’m writing this to you who face subtraction today; who feel the combined attrition of the all losses you’ve accrued this year; the people who’ve died, the ones who left voluntarily, those you’ve had to push away to protect yourself.
Forked tongues and political hallucinations
Some days it feels like Scripture reads the news better than we do. The Bible names the human heart with a clarity we often resist. Psalm 12 speaks of flattering lips and double hearts. Proverbs warns of deceitful mouths and lying tongues. James reminds us that blessing and cursing should never come from the same mouth. Scripture understands how easily people are seduced by smooth words. It understands how the tongue can twist truth, fog the mind, and create a kind of spiritual intoxication.
Thanksgiving began with immigrants
Pope Leo XIV didn’t mince words. Standing before reporters in Castel Gandolfo last week, he called out the U.S. for its “extremely disrespectful” and sometimes violent treatment of migrants — and you could almost feel the moral indictment echo across the ocean. This wasn’t a political speech. It was a gut check from a global moral leader who also happens to be American-born. And he said what millions already know: cruelty isn’t a border policy. It’s a national disgrace.
Budgets
If Jesus showed up at a church budget meeting, I wonder how long it would take before we asked him to leave. Not because we don’t love him. We do. We sing about him, pray to him, plaster his words on coffee mugs and bumper stickers. But the Jesus who overturned tables and called the wealthy “fools,” who measured faithfulness by how we treat the hungry and the homeless, who said our eternal destination hinges on whether we gave a cup of cold water to the “least of these?
I can’t find it in the Bible
I’ve checked everywhere and I cannot find the following anywhere in the Bible: Cast out the poor from you for their woes are not your responsibility. Ship them someplace else if you need to or if all else fails wall them out. Nope. Choose first your people but even among them help only those you feel truly deserve it. Not there. Raise your eyes to the economy. Let it guide your heart and all your decisions and especially how you vote. Couldn’t find it.
I wake up angry
I wake up angry more than I want to admit. This is my confession and my encouragement, offered to the tired ones like me who still care about human dignity, faithful living and a democracy worth the name. I didn’t write this because I have all the answers. I wrote it because I’m scared of what anger is doing to me. I also wrote it because I suspect you’re trying, like me, to keep both your heart and your integrity. I carry the names of some of the people I love in my mouth like gravel.
Foregiveness or hate?
Two sentences, same stage. The contrast couldn’t have been starker. One a widow, eyes rimmed with grief, said: “I forgive him.” Moments later, the most powerful voice in the room thundered: “I hate my opponent.” If you want to take the pulse of America, you can’t script a sharper contrast. On one side: the difficult work of mercy and reconciliation. On the other: contempt repackaged as leadership. Both drew applause, but only one deserves to shape the future.
The Bible is clear, part 2
In my previous column I shared the dangerous assumptions of reading the Bible from a particular perspective and worldview. You may want to revisit it as you read today’s column. The following is a humorous story that can illustrate these dangerous but pervasive attitudes. My wife and I laughed so hard we started crying at the following story.
The Bible is clear, part 1
I used to say, “The Bible is clear!” all the time before I began to study it more deeply in my theological and pastoral training. With time, I began to realize that this phrase often carries hidden assumptions and dangers. Here are a few of those assumptions: It assumes that my interpretation is the only valid one. It assumes that cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts have no significant impact on meaning. Especially when I’m just referring to my preferred English translation of the Bible.
On humility
I have been reflecting on the distinguishing features of those who are characterized through and through by humility of heart. What is humility and what makes or keeps a person humble? Merriam-Webster defines humility as “freedom from pride or arrogance: the quality or state of being humble.” As I watch and consider such folk, three things always seem to stand out: freedom, joy, and humor. Freedom.
Confessions of a woke clergyman
For the past couple of months, I’ve been doing some serious soul-searching, have spent hours in quiet reflection, prayer, and faced some hard truths. I need to come clean now and get this all out in the open. I have to admit that my more conservative friends have been right all along: I am woke. “How woke?,”you ask. I hope you’re sitting down. I’m so woke, I want the Epstein files released so rapists face accountability and so all survivors of abuse know they matter.
Do something
I write this column on the morning after Congress voted to rescind all funding for the organizations that run National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System. My parents never listened to NPR, but I do remember watching a few programs on PBS when I was a kid, usually Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. I first discovered Monty Python’s Flying Circus on PBS in college.
The placebo effect
A prisoner was sentenced to death by hanging, but a group of scientists wanted to test the limits of human belief and the power of the mind. They told him that instead of a hanging, he would be killed by a venomous snakebite. To make it more convincing, they showed him a large, terrifying cobra. The prisoner, filled with fear, was then blindfolded. Unbeknownst to him, the scientists used a sharp needle to prick his hand in the same spot where a snake’s fangs would strike, simulating a snakebite.
What am I missing?
I used to think I was a Christian. I was raised in a Christian home. After a few meandering spiritual wilderness years, I attended a United Methodist college, a seminary, and then became a Christian pastor, and have served in Christian churches for most of the past 45 years of my life. I’ve read and studied and preached the Scriptures extensively, led community Bible studies, retreats and mission trips and ministered in tiny rural chapels and urban churches.
To all, as any had need
“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 4: 32-35) One of the hallmarks of the early church was their concern for one another and all. That all are entitled to what they need, justice in the distribution of the world’s wealth, is a central biblical theme.
The abolition of humanity
In 1943, C.S. Lewis published a book entitled, “The Abolition of Man.” The main argument is that the natural law of morality, what Chinese philosophy refers to as the Tao, should be included as instruction in the educational system. Although teaching the arts and sciences are paramount, when we forsake teaching about truth and beauty, a major void is left in regard to our understanding of our existence in relation to the rest of the universe.
Bound for the Promised Land
This week I want to reflect a bit on a small nameless article that was in the April 30 Hampshire Review about the old Romney Colored School by one Jane Ailes. Jane also gave a public presentation earlier about how a once enslaved people became emancipated, purchased local land and in many ways founded the black community of Romney. That school was just the beginning. There soon were businesses, a church, a cemetery and much else.
Franciscus
We have lost Pope Francis, a man who lived a long and, some would say, miraculous life. Few modern popes have had his heart for the poor and marginalized. Hopefully, his good work will follow him. We all pray that a pope of such character and moral grounding will follow him as well. But, in this politically charged world, anything is possible. A couple of months back, I saw the film, Conclave, a fictional account based on fact, of what goes on when a new pope is elected.
Everything happens for a reason
That phrase… We’ve all received it personally gift-wrapped by well-meaning friends, caring loved ones, and kind strangers. It usually comes delivered with the most beautiful of intentions: an intended buffer of hope raised in the face of unimaginable pain or loss. It’s a desperate lifeline thrown out to us when all other words fail. I’ve never had a tremendous amount of peace with the sentiment.
Antichrist
I know some people think the term ‘antichrist’ refers to some fantastical single figure from biblical apocalyptic literature. But I think this is not only unbiblical, but it also diminishes the import and potency of this term. For something to be ‘anti-Christ’ is for something to be contrary to the way of Jesus, lacking empathy, compassion, grace, forgiveness, human dignity and value. To be anti-Christ is to be dishonest, untrustworthy, lacking in mercy, legalistic at the expense of human care.
What forgiveness is not
My favorite thing about Christianity is also my least favorite thing about Christianity: forgiveness. When Jesus wasn’t too busy casting out demons or healing folks of every ailment…except missing limbs (ever notice that?), he was always pontificating on something. Jesus basically says, “Be kind to those you meet, give food to those in need, love your enemies, and if you do all that I ask, then you will be brutalized and persecuted in the same manner as I soon will be for following my teachings.
Just show up
So many people have said they feel powerless these days. I get it. Believe me, I do. As a retired senior, it would be easy to think of myself as powerless—but I am not. In fact, I have a wonderful superpower: I show up. I show up in emails and on the voicemail of my elected officials weekly. I show up to the Board of Education and Town Council meetings. I show up to feed local hungry families at our food pantry two mornings a week.
I’m with her
The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde stepped into her pulpit in the National Cathedral on Jan. 21 and addressed President Trump and his friends and family at a post-inaugural prayer service. It’s her remarks at the end of that service that have received a great deal of attention. She spoke directly to the President and reminded him that many people in America are frightened right now. She spoke of how many undocumented immigrants are people who live and work in our communities and are our neighbors.
The New Year Challenge
We are celebrating the new year, 2025. Sounds ominous, especially to those of us who see each advancing year as one less year we have left! I have noticed more general anxiety amongst my friends and family members when it comes to the new year. No doubt, some of it is based on the incoming administration in Washington, D.C., and the changes that are ahead for the country. I too believe that we have plenty of reasons to be concerned.
The power of song
“After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.’ As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.” (2 Chronicles 20:21-22) The overflow of singing praises amid great difficulties has tremendous spiritual...
Love came down at Christmas
At the beginning of Advent, I put out on social media an opinion poll asking what is your favorite Christmas carol/hymn. It was a fun post with a variety of responses. One carol was mentioned that I had almost forgotten. The Christmas carol “Love Came Down at Christmas” (Christina Rossetti, 1885) says that Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love Divine. Love was born at Christmas, Star and Angels gave the sign. Worship we the Godhead, Love Incarnate, Love Divine.
We’ll have to wait and see
Every day we are gradually altered by the world; by what we see or experience, by the people we cross paths with, by the pain and goodness we bear witness to. We are the ever-changing sum total of the moments we log here on the planet, always slightly shifting, forever in transition, never quite finished. And because of this, invariably we are going to find ourselves at times disagreeing with our former selves, no longer certain of things we believed in our core to be unquestionably true.
Christ the King Sunday
One of my favorite days in the Christian liturgical year happened this past Sunday: Christ the King Sunday. It reminds us that God and the state are not the same thing; the state does not have ultimate power; and we Christians must resist falling in love with the state or its power. Christ the King Sunday? Yes, it’s grossly archaic, sexist, patriarchal, and repressive. It’s hardly improved by calling it The Reign of Christ Sunday as many do. God’s commonwealth brooks no hierarchy of status.
For such a time as this
With the election having been a week ago, I feel a mixture of sorrow and joy as I write this column today. Though I am sickened by the language and narcissism of President-elect Trump, I am more disheartened by the majority of us who voted for him. Is this really who we want to be as a country?
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