First Baptist Church of Pasadena, Calif., is succeeding by doing everything wrong. Wrong, at least, by conventional standards of what leads to church growth and health today. The church has no social media presence, intentionally. Video of Sunday morning worship…
If your pastor hasn’t had a pay increase in several years, now is the time to make it right
On multiple occasions in the last few weeks, I’ve had conversations with pastor friends who have said in passing, “I’ve not had a salary increase since I got here.” These pastor friends are not bitter, and they weren’t complaining. They…
It’s not your imagination: Polling data confirm conservatives’ flip on morality in candidates, and Herschel Walker is Exhibit B
That conservative evangelicals appear to be turning a blind eye to Herschel Walker’s documented moral failures illustrates the flip-flop on valuing moral behavior found within the Republican Party over the past 20 years, according to research by journalist Aaron Blake…
SBC president appears on ’60 Minutes,’ tells Anderson Cooper he couldn’t be a good Christian and Southern Baptist as a gay man
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention sat for an interview with an openly gay journalist and told him on national TV Oct. 9 that he could not be a good Christian and Southern Baptist. On the CBS program “60…
Separate filings accuse two SBC agencies of misleading courts to delay trial and avoid scrutiny
It hasn’t been a good week for Southern Baptist Convention entities defending themselves against lawsuits. Court filings in the two most prominent such cases have accused SBC leadership of intentionally misleading the court and, in one case, committing perjury. The…
With court’s blessing, Texas pastor touches, prays over inmate as he is executed
The Texas Baptist pastor who found himself at the center of a Supreme Court case on religious liberty for Death Row inmates was able to fulfill that inmate’s wishes as he was put to death by the State of Texas…
Time is running out for DACA, and immigration advocates say it’s immoral for Congress not to act
The need for Congress to end its decades-long failure to address immigration reform took on immediate urgency Oct. 5 when the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals deemed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy illegal. For Dreamers who have lived…
Advocacy group names 20 ‘false prophets’ of Christian nationalism
A group battling Christian nationalism has released a list of 20 “false prophets” it claims “routinely hijack faith for political purposes.” The new effort by Faithful America doesn’t deal in generalisms but names names. The list is published online at AmericanFalseProphets.org,…
PRRI’s Structural Racism Index attempts to quantify racist beliefs
How do you measure racism? In the contemporary American battleground of politics, culture and religion, people often call out others for being racist, and those accused often reply, “I’m not a racist.” Still others proudly wear the label “racist” as…