When Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign’s abortion policy April 8, advocates on both sides of the issue didn’t believe him. Of course, stretching the truth is nothing new for the presumptive once-again Republican nominee. Trump got elected president in…
Portents in the heavens and signs of the times: An eclipse, Harry Potter and a scholar changing his mind all in the same week
As if it were not enough to have Anne Graham Lotz and Marjorie Taylor Greene warning of God’s judgment on America through a solar eclipse, some in the Religious Right lost their minds over the weekend in two other social…
Indiana court cites religious freedom as reason to override abortion ban
Religion won on the opposite side of an abortion case than usual April 4, part of a trend of those who favor access to abortion declaring they have a religious right to the procedure. That counters the more common narrative…
McRaney hearing explores whether there are any times courts may decide ‘religious’ matters
Imagine a Jewish family taking their eight-day-old boy to a mohel for circumcision and discovering the Jewish official is drunk and maims the child’s genitals. Would the family be able to sue the mohel and others involved in facilitating the…
Wait, make that five candidates for SBC president
With four candidates already announced for this summer’s election of a new Southern Baptist Convention president, the field expanded again April 2 with an announcement by Bruce Frank, pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in metro Asheville, N.C. Frank chaired the…
Netanyahu has turned Israel into an evil empire
The government of Israel, as led by Benjamin Netanyahu and empowered by his right-wing coalition in the Knesset, has become an evil empire. And their chief enablers are in the United States. This is a hard truth that must be…
Criswell was Truett on the outside and Norris on the inside, new biography says
W.A. Criswell was George W. Truett on the outside and J. Frank Norris on the inside, according to O.S. Hawkins, whose new biography of the legendary pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas releases today. Criswell grew up in the…
Two things can be true at the same time
In case you missed the controversy, Easter Sunday and Transgender Day of Visibility fell on the same day this year. Oh, the horrors! Conservative evangelicals — many of whom who believe transgender identity is not a real thing — saw…
Pence will speak at luncheon during SBC annual meeting
Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will speak at a luncheon during the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Indianapolis June 11. The former Indiana governor is a popular figure among many Southern Baptists, who identify among the conservative evangelical…
This is how unhinged Focus on the Family has become
Thirty years ago, when my wife and I were parents of newborn twins, James Dobson was considered the go-to expert for Christian parenting. What we didn’t know then is just how wrong some of his advice was. Dobson was required…
It’s Holy Week, and Trump is comparing himself to Jesus once again
On the second day of the Christian Holy Week, Donald Trump once again compared himself to Jesus Christ. Huffington Post reported that as Trump attended a court hearing for his upcoming criminal trial over hush money payments to porn star…
Here’s some good news on the health of America’s clergy
The mental and physical health of America’s clergy may be better than previously reported, according to new data from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. “There is no question that at this moment many clergy are stressed, exhausted and have…