There’s a video circulating of Al Mohler speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., where something critical happens to him that stops him from speaking without explanation. The audience there and those who watch the video can hear him...
In March 1886, members of Nashville’s First Baptist Church gathered for what would be their final prayer meeting inside a synagogue on South Vine Street. For nearly a year, the congregation had worshipped there while its new church building was…
The influence of the Religious Right may overpower and obscure that of other faith groups, but a veteran religion sociologist says progressive believers promoting peace, justice and social reform have been an active and surprisingly effective force in the 21st…
Understanding the nation’s founding requires insight into the religious context in which the framers lived and worked, political scientist Mark Hall said during a webinar hosted by Religion News Service. “In the late 18th century, about 98% of Americans of…
I’ve been tired, and I know I’m not alone in that. People are tired. Not inconvenienced. Not stressed but tired, bone tired as the seasoned saints used to say. Wars are waging in the Congo, Iran and Palestine while cable…
After Easter worship several years ago, I spoke briefly with a pastor standing alone near the back of the sanctuary while the congregation drifted toward fellowship hour. Children were running through the hallways. People were laughing, hugging and talking about…
On Sunday mornings across America, many Black pastors stand behind pulpits carrying far more than sermon notes. Some are preaching only days after burying another teenager lost to gun violence. Some are trying to comfort congregations anxious about layoffs, housing…
Growing up in rural South Georgia, my only exposure to New Orleans was Greasing of the Poles on the national news, on Mardi Gras day. It was so scandalous, these revelers sliding their bodies and props on poles in the…
America did not merely criminalize a plant. It criminalized a people. Before “marijuana” became America’s most politically weaponized slang term, the plant was widely known as cannabis — used in medicine, industrial hemp and natural remedies. But in the 1930s,…
There’s a video circulating of Al Mohler speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., where something critical happens to him that stops him from speaking without explanation. The audience there and those who watch the video can hear him…
Our neighboring city, Frisco, Texas, appears to be a test site for the next manufactured culture war bogeyman. Remember when it was the immigrant caravan? And then wokeism and DEI corrupting public ed? And then trans people just … existing?…
Living into its new identity, The United Methodist Church has a prime opportunity to liberate Wesleyan theology from past conflicts to become a vital framework for today’s world, says one of Methodism’s most noted theologians. Joerg Rieger hopes two of…
Tennessee news has my stomach churning. To comply with the legislature’s newly mandated guidelines, Knox County Schools recently banned several books including Alex Haley’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Roots, which depicts the horrors of enslavement. Two weeks later, the county…
