For the last three months, I have been part of a weekly clergy and faith leader’s prayer vigil that holds space and bears witness to the plight of our immigrant neighbors. The vigil takes place outside of the Dallas Immigration…
Fundamentalism and biblical inerrancy lite in the Global Methodist Church
When, on May 1, 2022, the Global Methodist Church announced itself to the world, more than 2,000 churches already had taken advantage of the disaffiliation process to break with the United Methodist Church. At the time of the announcement, I…
Be like the Little Hummingbird
There is a children’s picture book called The Little Hummingbird that I absolutely love. It’s based on a fable by the Quechuan people of South America and tells the story of a forest ravaged by fire and the response of…
Intellectual virtue as the antidote for this moment
Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the…
The Trump administration is using the arts to rewrite history
I’ve written elsewhere about the role the arts have played in both creating and confronting shared identity and ethics across time. Art is a powerful medium. It has the potential to both reflect and to shape collective memory — which…
Where does Sean Feucht’s money come from?
In recent years, Sean Feucht has been everywhere: Singing in Washington, D.C.; engaging in “worship warfare” at every state Capitol and becoming the guitar-strumming frontman for Christian nationalism. What Franklin Graham and Jack Graham and Robert Jeffress have done for…
Patriot Mobile’s Leigh Wambsganss and the duplicity of Christian nationalist women
Anyone who has been tracking the rise of Christian nationalism should know of Patriot Mobile and its chief communications officer, Leigh Wambsganss. She, the company she represents and that company’s political action committee each had starring roles in investigative journalist…
Texas Gov. Abbott is spreading a conspiracy theory that attacks Muslims
North Texas is a religiously diverse place. Not only are there numerous Protestant megachurches, there also are Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and more. Many, like myself, consider the religious diversity one of the draws of the area….
The Ten Commandments and the tyranny of minority rule
George Orwell, in his classic novel 1984, highlights an important aspect of full-blown authoritarianism: the presentation of lies as truth. In the first few pages of Orwell’s book, readers are introduced to the ironically named “Ministry of Truth” which features…
I’m still haunted by stories from the first Trump term
In 2019, I was running an award-winning teen theater company in Dallas. We’d made our mark by creating original plays from first-person interviews on particular issues. In 2019, there was no more pressing issue than the border crisis. That spring,…
How Charlie Kirk went from college dropout to Trump influencer
From BNG’s coverage earlier this year, first published April 15, 2025: It seems Charlie Kirk — the Millennial founder of the Christian nationalist powerhouse Turning Point USA — is everywhere these days. He was part of a handful of…
A visual guide to the elected officials who fly Christian nationalist flags at the Capitol
Earlier this month I attended the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Advocacy in Action in Washington, D.C. On the fourth day of the gathering we headed to Capitol Hill to meet with our various representatives. On the walk to the six buildings…