With thousands of Americans showing up in 1,500 cities for “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump Saturday, I wanted to know what motivated people and what they experienced. So I did what any modern journalist would do: I posted…
Post-COVID, church-shifting has created more ideological agreement
The COVID pandemic facilitated a greater sorting of churchgoers into more ideological groups than before, according to new nationwide data from Hartford Institute for Religion Research. This is one of several key findings from the National Survey of Church Attenders…
‘All the Buried Women’ podcast weaves a story of women and abuse in the SBC
Beth Allison Barr is well-known for her two bestselling books — The Making of Biblical Womanhood and Becoming the Pastor’s Wife — but now she’s added podcaster to her resume. Baylor University students know Barr as a history professor, but…
Why won’t the SBC be more financially transparent?
Amid all the other headlines at this week’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, you might have missed an important internal debate that happened about financial transparency. To those outside the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, this may not matter. But for…
Americans United sues over Anti-Christian Bias Task Force
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is refusing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, prompting AU to sue the Trump administration. The lawsuit contends the VA is violating federal…
Here’s what didn’t happen at this year’s SBC meeting
The most notable thing about this year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting is what didn’t happen. The convention did not advance a third try at the so-called Law Amendment that would enshrine a Constitutional ban on females in any role…
Michael Tait issues ‘confession’ confirming abuse and drug reports
Contemporary Christian musician Michael Tait published a “confession” June 10 that largely corroborates accusations against him published the previous week by The Roys Report and also reported by Baptist News Global. “Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavior, including…
SBC’s attack on women as leaders is ‘historic,’ Beth Allison Barr says
The Southern Baptist Convention’s current attempt to put women in their place “is one of the harshest measures against women in ministry” in history, according to Baylor University history professor Beth Allison Barr. “If you follow church history, this is…
SBC’s 1,000-word resolution covers nine hot topics
A single resolution adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention June 10 rolls together at least nine hot topics in a single statement that was adopted without notable opposition. Resolution No. 5, titled “On Restoring Moral Clarity through God’s Design for…
Southern Baptist pastor will speak at Faith and Freedom Coalition event
Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress will join a slate of Republican politicians as a keynote speaker at an upcoming “Road to Majority” conference, billed as “the nation’s largest public policy gathering of conservative Christian activists and leaders.” Jeffress, pastor of First…
Megan Basham goes after Jennifer Lyell even in death
While evangelical leaders across the nation mourned the untimely death of Jennifer Lyell, Megan Basham took everyone to task for having too much empathy. And then she engaged positively with a conspiracy theorist who suggested — with zero evidence —…
A guide to understanding this week’s conversations about the SBC and sexual abuse
When you hear people talk about sexual abuse claims and the Southern Baptist Convention, it’s not the same as talking about the Roman Catholic Church and sexual abuse. Yes, there are clergy culprits in both religious bodies. And yes, there…