A veteran leader of the “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention has publicly challenged Al Mohler’s Christian nationalism. Richard Land is the former head of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He was a foot soldier in the...
One of my favorite episodes of The West Wing involves a fictional practice known as Big Block of Cheese Day. Based on Andrew Jackson’s tradition of inviting anybody and everybody to the White House for conversation and to enjoy part…
A veteran leader of the “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention has publicly challenged Al Mohler’s Christian nationalism. Richard Land is the former head of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He was a foot soldier in the…
The Trump administration appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court Sept. 8 seeking clearance to implement a database it wants to use to purge voter rolls leading into the midterm elections. The move came just four days after a federal…
Robert P. Jones is founder and president of Public Religion Research Institute, a vital resource for anyone interested in religion, race, politics and justice, and also the New York Times bestselling author of a new book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith…
Twenty-five years ago, America was attacked. On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed after al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes, striking the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pa. America awakened the next morning…
Forty years ago, a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The consequences of this largest technological disaster in history — environmental contamination, ecological catastrophe and socio-economic losses — will continue to affect us for many decades. But the…
I often reminded my students that there’s no such thing as small talk. All talk is big talk! Why? Because with our daily outpouring of talk, we create the social worlds we then inhabit. It’s sometime referred to as “the…
New York steals your soul — sensory overload, hyper-competition and financial pressure. Constant noise, crowded streets and concrete surroundings are disheartening. My hometown is overpriced, overcrowded and overbearing. On bad days, the city chips away at your spirit. New Yorkers…
It puzzles me that there are Christians who are unwilling to accept people who, for one reason or another, are inherently different from themselves. I have been a Christian for more than seven decades and an ordained minister, missionary, professor…
Every year I’ve been on Facebook — for nearly 20 years — I’ve posted the same message on September 11: Every year on this day, I wake up remembering the clear blue sky. It was a perfect September day in…
The legal action against Second Baptist Church of Houston isn’t dead yet — although it is hanging by a thread. Jeremiah Counsel, the group of church members who filed suit against the leadership of the megachurch over governance changes, has…
A second Southern Baptist church in South Carolina has made headlines recently for allowing a registered sex offender to participate in congregational ministry. Ministry Watch reported Aug. 31 that Brookwood Church in Simpsonville recently disqualified an adult male from serving…
