Last week, Donald Trump began to openly challenge and mock the pope and then posted an image of himself as Jesus Christ. Many conservative Catholics and even evangelicals who have wholeheartedly defended and supported Trump were taken aback, but not…
Letter to the Editor: Soldiers should refuse illegal military orders
In the final sermon before his assassination in 1980, Archbishop of El Salvador Oscar Romero told the soldiers in a public broadcast to refuse the orders of the violent, militaristic regime in the country. “I want to make a special…
What defines a Christian in the age of Christian nationalism?
Although different denominations will set different requirements, what it means to be a Christian often comes back to the Apostles’ Creed. It means believing in the deity of Jesus, his death and resurrection, the Trinity, and the final judgment. It’s…
The Charlotte Pentecostals inverting the slogans of Christian nationalism
I was in Charlotte and attended several protests against the presence of ICE in the city. One I went to was made up of largely left-leaning white protesters, which you would see at many Indivisible or No Kings rallies. These…
JD Vance would deny immigrants emergency care
JD Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 and went on to be critiqued by the last two popes on his stance of immigration. Vance, it seems, does not let the disapproval of the pope keep him from still claiming his…
How will your grandchildren view your role in the present struggle?
After the tragic death of Charlie Kirk, there has been a lot of discussion in the nation about whether he was a positive or negative character. I think like most people he was a mixture. He was not the epitome…
The veterans resisting the militarism in DC
Last weekend, I was in Washington, D.C., with a group of veterans pushing back against the occupation of the city by the National Guard and federal officials. As veterans, they believe it is their unique voice and responsibility to tell…
What Oscar Romero has to say about this moment of national unrest
When I was a graduate student in history, I wrote my thesis on the life of the El Salvadorian archbishop Oscar Romero. I contended he was a unique figure in that he held closely to many of the ideas of…
The American church has betrayed its southern neighbors
The weekend before Donald Trump’s inauguration, I was at a worship service. However, it was not among the privileged of society in one of the numerous American megachurches; it was with a group of asylum seekers on the Mexican side…
Trump’s new ICE policy attacks the church
Last week, the incoming Trump administration announced it will rescind a 2011 ICE policy that keeps government officials from entering sensitive locations such as schools, churches and hospitals to carry out immigration raids and deportations. The mere thought of this…
Bonhoeffer’s true vision with the growing threats to immigrant populations
Eric Metaxas is not a historian, and many theologians and historians have described his work on Dietrich Bonhoeffer as more than problematic. Metaxas ironically has tried to turn Bonhoeffer into some type of right-wing hero, even though he stood up…
The sad consequences of the end times theology and entertainment of my youth
When I was growing up in a Baptist church, I was fascinated with end times theology. It was not until later in life that I realized how ahistorical and unscholarly most of that theology was. I read the Left Behind…