People could perhaps be forgiven for cynically receiving U2’s 2023 Super Bowl ad announcing a Las Vegas residency inaugurating The Sphere as an indication that almost five decades after their 1976 founding, the Irish rock band has arrived at semi-retired…
Resolving to ‘respect the diversity’ of the global Baptist family
Last week, Baptist News Global reported the removal from the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Interfaith Relations and another BWA commission of a gay man whose sexual orientation and same-sex marriage were known at the time of his appointment. Much…
Remembering the theologian who became pope
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on the morning of Dec. 31 at the age of 95, leaves a legacy that will be the subject of intense discussion and debate for decades to come. In the hours that followed the…
Baptists and Catholics together? Progress and promise despite a shaky start
A few years ago, I delivered a keynote address for a symposium on the Vatican II Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, held at Creighton University in connection with the 50th anniversary of its promulgation on Nov. 21, 1964. The fact…
Re-receiving the gift of inclusive liberty, with help from Pope Francis
This past weekend, I offered Baptist ecumenical reflections on Pope Francis’s most recent encyclical “On Fraternity and Social Friendship” (Fratelli Tutti) on the program of the Hearth for the Human Family conference sponsored by the Focolare Forum for Dialogue and…
In Georgia, demonizing Black Liberation Theology yet again
I am a Baptist theologian, and “professor of historical theology” is my specific job title. It is therefore of no little interest to me that a political controversy moving into the national spotlight involves a candidate who is a fellow…
‘Do you mean vote for the murder babies crowd?’
Last week I shared to Facebook a Washington Post story titled “White House directs federal agencies to cancel race-related training sessions it calls ‘un-American propaganda.’” I prefaced it with this: “At all levels of American society, we are confronted with…
The root of our inability to end gun violence is spiritual, but not in the way many think
Christians in America are unable to #ActTo EndGunViolence because we have intertwined the American story with the Myth of Redemptive Violence. We must be converted away from this pervasive myth by the nonviolent, suffering resistance to evil that is the Story of Jesus.
Seeking fresh light: Cooperative Baptists practicing theology
An ideal practice of theology by the church is one that depends on the illumination provided by various sources of light through which the Spirit helps us see and diverse voices through which the Spirit helps us hear what the mind of Christ is regarding our faith and practice for time and place.