Welcome to the home page of the Theological Education Institute (TEI), Rev. John C. Rankin, President (click here for background), and also host of the Mars Hill Forum series. The menu bar on your left directs you to various features, and/or you can click on some features detailed below.

The TEI celebrates the unalienable rights given by God to all people equally, as rooted in the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. On this basis, religious, political and economic liberty flourish, and the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah can be most clearly lived and shared, especially in the face of the most divisive issues in culture today.

  • If you want to order a DVD or VHS of Mars Hill Forum #80 at Smith College, Northampton, MA, February 5, 2004, send a check for $20.00 to: TEI, 750 Main Street, Suite 1300, Hartford, CT 06103, made payable to TEI, and specify your request. The topic was: Is Same-Sex Marriage Good for the Nation?, addressed by John Rankin alongside Amy Hunt, a lead lesbian activist in Massachusetts. With an audience of some 500 people, a majority of whom were lesbian, this is a good example of First the Gospel, Then Politics..., where speaking the truth in love, in the face of hostility, happens.

  • A four DVD set is available for $70.00 (tax and ppd.): Marriage, Biblical Ethics and Homosexuality (MBEH). Just write the TEI with a check or money order, and ask for MBEH. The first DVD is the Mars Hill Forum on same-sex marriage at Smith College. The second is Mars Hill Forum #81 on March 13, 2004 at the First Cathedral in Bloomfield, CT, with Professor Rhonda Garelick of Connecticut College: How Should Men Treat Women? The third is John Rankin's sermon at Calvary Evangelical Free Church in Trumbull, CT, May 23, 2004, from Matthew 21:1-17: "Jesus, in the Face of His Enemies." It outlines the biblical strategy for addressing human politics with the ethics of the kingdom of God. Also part of this DVD is an evening seminar on same-sex marriage, with questions and answers. Fourth is Mars Hill Forum #84 at the Unitarian Church in Rutland, VT, June 7, 2004: "Is Homosexuality a Gift of God," with Rev. Steven Kindle of Clergy United for the Equality of Homosexuals.

  • Thus, these 4 DVDs address an important issue with biblical ethics in four contexts: 1) hospitality to a skeptic in a church setting; 2) dialogue concerning how to interpret the Bible with a clergyman who twists the Scripture; 3) preaching and teaching in an evangelical church; and 4) politics on a skeptical college campus.

  • www.onehundredthousandministers.com builds on the Connecticut Ministers Affirmation on Marriage, a full page advertisement which appeared in the Hartford Courant on February 24, 2003, signed on short notice by 200 ministers. It is a bold Affirmation purposed to speak the truth in love: Yes to Man and Woman in Marriage: No to Same-Sex Marriage. In Connecticut where elitist support for homosexuality is overwhelming, a curious thing has happened: Not one member of the news media, not one legislator, not one clergy person, not one academic and not one homosexual advocate has criticized one word of it. Perhaps we have succeeded in our goal. In view of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada, the June 26 U.S. Supreme Court Lawrence et al. v. Texas decision (TEI Update #87 gives brief commentary), and in view of other variables, the need has come to make this a national project. We can secure over 100,000 signatories, publish it in newspapers nationwide, and file a brief but powerful amicus before the U.S. Supreme Court when and if that need arises.

  • www.teiburdensharing.com. We are soon starting the process of TEI Burden Sharing, an alternative to the health insurance industry, based on covenants of trust, not legal contracts. It promises to cuts costs in half, and eventually free participating physicians from malpractice insurance.

  • The Mars Hill Forum series is where John Rankin interacts with leading skeptics, mostly in university settings, but also in churches and other venues. The goal is not to win debates per se (that is easy), but to win honest relationships in the face of debates that divide people, all in service to the Gospel. If you or your church are involved in campus ministry, and would like to host a Mars Hill Forum, just contact the TEI.

  • Under Commentary, John Rankin writes various papers, one of which is entitled: The Politics of Jesus: To Silence the Foe and the Avenger. It is also available on CD and audiotape. Jesus came to extend mercy to all who seek it, but in the face of his sworn enemies, he invites them to a level playing field of public debate, catalyzes the power and moral innocence of childlikeness in the face of their power of pretense, and they end up silencing themselves due to their hypocrisies. Thus, their self-censorship reduces the static that would otherwise interfere with people who want to hear the Gospel more clearly. In the debate over same-sex marriage in Connecticut, the foe and the avenger of the Gospel have thus far silenced themselves.

  • Under TEI Political Alliance, the content and some specific strategies for making it First the Gospel, Then Politics... is in place.

  • John Rankin published Volume 1 of his trilogy, First the Gospel, Then Politics... in 1999: Only Genesis. Volume 2 is now on track to be published in 2004: Political Ethics. And Volume 3, Spiritual Territory, will be published simultaneously. Under TEI Background, if you scroll down a little, you will see that the Introduction and Chapter Ten from Volume 1 are published; and the whole series is gradually being put on CD and audiotape (click here for CD and audiotape listings).

  • If your church would like to have John preach, speak or teach, under Seminars and Classes you will find material of interest, especially the frequently taught Love of Hard Questions Seminars.