Mark Wingfield

Tucker Carlson undermined COVID vaccines 99% of the time his show discussed them

The old adage that “sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt you” has been proved false yet again in an analysis by the media watchdog group Media Matters. Watching Fox News — and Tucker Carlson…

SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force gives update at halfway mark in its mandated timeline

Five days before Christmas, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Task Force released an update on its work, right at the halfway mark in the 12-month timeline between its creation and its required report to the 2022 SBC annual meeting….

Five ways to help your pastor this year

At the dawn of a new year, many churches are adopting new budgets and making plans for whatever will come in this third year of COVID-influenced ministry. There are lots of decisions to be made, and not always enough information…

John MacArthur rallies pastors to preach against government bans on conversion therapy Jan. 16

Government bans on the discredited practice of conversion therapy amount to persecution of evangelical Christians and an “attack on the word of God,” according to influential California pastor John MacArthur. The pastor who famously defied county and state authorities to…

Donald Trump Jr. tells young conservatives that following Jesus’ command to ‘turn the other cheek’ has ‘gotten us nothing’

Donald Trump Jr., one of the nation’s foremost apologists for the win-at-all-costs politics of his father, told an evangelical Christian crowd Dec. 19 that they’ve spent half a century turning the other cheek as Jesus taught and it hasn’t worked…

Everything that’s wrong with the world explained in one brief column

We do love simplicity. We love the idea that complex issues can be distilled into easy sound bites, that nuanced conversations can be summarized as “he said/she said” and that internet memes and bumper stickers offer plenty of space to…

Why have so few U.S. congregations experienced even a single COVID death?

With more than 800,000 lives lost to COVID-19 in America alone, observers might wonder why some U.S. congregations have taken a seemingly cavalier approach to fighting the pandemic. One possible answer emerged this week from new survey data released by…

Survey says: More than half of U.S. congregations started new ministries during COVID

Here’s one more silver lining to the dark cloud of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic: “The level of new and intensified social outreach and community ministry undertaken by the nation’s churches is monumental.” So reports the Hartford Institute for Religion Research…

What does the rise of the ‘nones’ have to do with the future of the Republican Party?

America’s shifting demographics portend doom for the modern-day philosophy of the Republican Party, according to a leading social researcher. But democracy still could be “doomed” while waiting for those demographic shifts, according to a national columnist reflecting on the data….