2FP Blog

Theology

The Work of Witness June 25th, 2010

A month ago at the 2010 Q gathering in Chicago, I had the privilege of joining a panel of leaders interviewed by ABC News discussing the “New Face of Evangelicalism.” This interview, which aired this past Sunday on ABC World News, shows the remarkable movement of young Christians passionate about addressing the world’s problems. (You can see a longer, though still abbreviated, version of the interview here.)
(ABC News)

ABC did a good job reporting the story of how young Christians are approaching contemporary problems.  But any hour-long conversation that’s edited down to a few minutes is going to leave something out. In this case, the film left on the cutting room floor showed what motivates the people on our panel. It’s not the delusion that we can perfect the world; American Christianity has gone down that road before, and in the end the world wasn’t fixed and we lost our focus on Jesus Christ.

Rather, what drives us is the desire to be a comprehensively faithful presence in the church, culture, and nation where God has placed us. This passion was at the heart of my conversion (I’ve written that story here, if you’re interested) and it remains a core value of the Two Futures Project mission.

Though we at the Two Futures Project are focused 100% on the elimination of nuclear weapons, we’re also proud to be a part of a greater labor: the never-ending pursuit of fidelity for the church. If you’re similarly inspired, I hope you’ll share this email with your friends.  Thanks for joining with us in this work of witness.

Yours,

Tyler

Theology and Nuclear Weapons October 16th, 2009

Tyler just gave an in-depth interview with PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly:

Tyler Wigg-Stevenson is founding director of the Two Futures Project, a Christian movement for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In Part 1, watch him talk about the nuclear threat in a post- 9/11 world and the biblical foundations for a Christian case supporting disarmament. In Part 2, he discusses what people of faith, and evangelical Christians in particular, can bring to the national conversation on nuclear weapons.

Watch the two part interview here.

A World Without Nuclear Weapons June 1st, 2009

Here’s an essay Tyler wrote for Q Ideas in 2009 with the launch of the Two Futures Project, discussing the theology of A World Without Nuclear Weapons. It’s lengthy, but worth the read — it’s also a great study guide for a groups setting.

Is it even possible? More importantly, is it sensible? Don’t the presence of nuclear weapons make the world safer and ensure they won’t be used again? And why should Christians really care about this issue to begin with? Tyler Wigg-Stevenson tackles all of the questions and concludes with a single powerful truth: the only future that Christians should envision is one without nuclear weapons.

Read the article here.

A Merciful White Flash April 29th, 2008

In an article for Christianity Today in 2008, Tyler explains his personal conversion to Christianity.

It hit me, then, in the middle of a busy hotel hallway: As the summer had proceeded, I had unconsciously distracted myself from saving the world with a more actionable to-do list. Because I couldn’t do anything about that consuming lunch-time vision, couldn’t shut Satan up, I’d focused instead on getting this speaker for the conference, cultivating that organizational partner, getting yet another signature on yet another petition. But now, all at once, I was struck with the fruitlessness of all the work that had filled my days, and would fill any foreseeable future. My contentment peeled like paint.

Emotionally and spiritually exhausted, and suddenly confronted with my personal futility, I found my way to a service stairwell, sat on a step, and broke down. I don’t know how long I was there before I heard the voice, and I don’t remember whether it was audible or mental. What I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that I wasn’t talking to myself, because it was speech that carried its own irresistible consolation.

God said: The world is not yours, not to save or damn. Only serve the One whose it is.

Read the article in its entirety here.

Spiritual Disaster Preparedness March 31st, 2008

Laying the foundations for the launch of the Two Futures Project, here’s an article that Tyler wrote back in 2008 for Christianity Today on the necessity for a Christian witness on nuclear weapons and the pending threat: “Spiritual Disaster Preparedness.

The present champions of a nuclear weapons-free world are not naïve — on the contrary, many of them witnessed firsthand the worst evils of the last century in the same global conflagration that birthed the bomb. Nevertheless, they hope; in hoping, strive; in striving, exemplify courage.

Read the article here.