Baptist News Global’s leading opinion pieces this year revealed readers’ deep interest in issues ranging from religion and politics, religious freedom, evangelical reactions to the summer Olympics and all things Donald Trump.
John MacArthur, the Los Angeles pastor known for his staunch patriarchal, racist, anti-vaccine and other controversial teachings, makes his annual return as the focus of two most-read columns.
Seven of BNG’s 15 most-read opinion pieces in 2024 were published in prior years: Four were published in 2023, two in 2022 and one in 2020.
Presented here is BNG’s Top 15 list of most-read opinion pieces in 2024:
- “What your pastor can’t tell you but really wants you to know,” by Mark Tidsworth, Aug. 14, 2024 — Church members’ spiritual lives and understanding of leadership would be greatly enhanced by the very transparency that can also get a pastor into hot water, thanks to a decline in Christian participation that has made ministry more challenging than ever, Tidsworth explains.
- “I kissed John MacArthur goodbye,” by Lee Enochs, May 5, 2024 — The controversial expository preacher and pastor exemplifies dysfunctional leadership and its detrimental effect on congregations and individual Christians. Enochs knows firsthand, leaving the church after three long years of condemnation and wrath.
- “An oft-quoted biblical scholar changes his mind on LGBTQ inclusion in the church,” by Anna Sieges, April 6, 2024 — “It’s about darn time,” Sieges writes, that New Testament scholar Richard B. Hays realized his conservative views about the Bible, human sexuality and LGBTQ inclusion were wrong and led to an apology for a chapter in his textbook acclaimed by evangelical theologians and ethicists who consider homosexuality to be immoral.
- “Franklin Graham is the poster child for Christian nationalism — and he’s a liar,” by Mark Wingfield, July 19, 2024 — Graham’s head-long embrace of Christian nationalism was glaringly apparent in his pro-Trump speech at the Republican National Convention, his claim God spared the former president’s life from assassination and his belief religious freedom applies only to him and his political base, Wingfield observes.
- “I imagine Jesus saying to Trump: ‘Not everyone posting a sketch of me with them will enter the kingdom of heaven,’” by Rodney Kennedy, Oct. 22, 2023 — Trump’s social media post of a sketch of him and Jesus together in a courtroom shows how being in trouble inspires identification with Christ, how comfortable conservatives have become using Jesus as a prop and how Americans can no longer spot idolatry when they see it, Kennedy notes.
- “Evangelicals upset about the Olympics are pearl-clutching hypocrites,” by Susan M. Shaw, July 27, 2024 — Conservative Christians express outrage at the inclusion of drag queens in a Last Supper re-enactment at the opening of the Paris Olympics, yet fail to focus on feeding the poor, clothing the naked and other compassionate actions Jesus commanded God’s people should do, Shaw says.
- “John MacArthur is wrong about so much more than keeping women in abusive marriages,” by Mark Wingfield, Feb. 14, 2023 — The pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles is wrong about many things, including religious liberty, the pandemic, racism, American history, women in ministry, the nature of salvation and Catholicism, Wingfield argues. And MacArthur is grievously wrong in urging women to remain with the men who hit and rape them and abuse their children, he says.
- “Save this column and don’t say we didn’t warn you,” by Mark Wingfield, Nov. 6, 2024 — Trump supporters no longer can preach about the importance of truth-telling after voting for a convicted felon, rapist and business fraud who now promises a mass deportation of the immigrants who harvest America’s food, Wingfield writes.
- “A Christian response to the war in Israel/Palestine,” by Brandan Robertson, Oct. 15, 2023 — Israel’s campaign of retaliation and destruction in Gaza in its war with Hamas calls Christians to be “slow to speak and quick to listen” and to follow Christ’s example of not using position and privilege for personal gain Robertson urges.
- “The death and resurrection of Donald Trump: A warning,” by Brandan Robertson, April 14, 2023 — Trump not only survives charges of falsifying records and playing off a porn star but emerges with stronger backing from evangelicals who believe him to be a falsely accused messiah who will restore their privilege.
- “Plagiarism is the least thing to worry about with Voddie Baucham, who is a threat to children, women and daughters,” by Rick Pidcock, March 7, 2022 — Pidcock says Baucham is a warrior for ignorance and violent patriarchy who needs repentance and therapy, not support for his Theo Bros-backed nomination as president of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference.
- “Can you hear him now?” By Mark Wingfield, March 17, 2024 — The more outrageous and dangerous Trump’s comments are, the less many Americans hear them or, Wingfield adds, believe he isn’t being serious and will not act upon them once in office.
- “Maybe non-Christians prefer drag queens to tattletales,” by Brad Bull, July 27, 2024 — Many Christians reacted from fear, anger and unrighteous indignation to what they assumed was a reenactment of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper during the opening of the summer Olympics in Paris, and they were baffled that secular people were being secular, the column contends.
- “This is how unhinged Focus on the Family has become,” by Mark Wingfield, March 27, 2024 — The conservative ministry should be disciplined for distributing parenting advice and transgender-conspiracy messaging rooted in the belief in a punishing God and motivated by a lust for political power and cultural influence, Wingfield writes.
- “My quest to find the word ‘homosexual’ in the Bible,” by Ed Oxford, Aug. 10, 2020 — Learning the word “homosexual” did not appear in the Bible until 1946 and that happened due to a translation error opened the author’s eyes.
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Rick Warren’s letter to the SBC was BNG’s most-read opinion piece in 2023
BNG’s Top 15 most-read opinion pieces covered gender, sexuality and theology