One year ago, I wrote about how Texas Gov. Greg Abbott amplified a racist, Islamophobic tweet to further a conspiracy theory about a North Texas Muslim community. The conspiracy was that the planned community, EPIC City, was going to enact…
What Putin’s Altar Boy offers American Christians
Juha Meriläinen, church historian at the University of Helsinki, has written a forthcoming book titled Putin’s Altar Boy. In it, he sounds a warning about the dangers of a church under the influence of the state. Patriarch Kiril, the head…
End-times prophets say we’re about to find out aliens are demons
“The rumors are real,” pastor Mike Signorelli wrote on X. “I was brought into a private briefing with other pastors. No phones, no cameras, no recordings. We were told plainly: Disclosure is coming, and what follows will shake the faith…
Something awful is happening in Sudan, and you don’t know it
The largest humanitarian crisis in the world isn’t happening in Ukraine, or in Gaza, but in Sudan. There, 33.7 million people (out of a total population of 55 million) are in dire need of aid, and the world has forgotten…
A constitutional republic, if you can keep it
Too often, when I hear or read political pundits, both conservative and liberal, refer to the United States as a “democracy,” I want to scream, “We are a constitutional republic, not a democracy!” and a few choice other words directed…
Our own personal Jesus
For $1.99 per minute, you can speak directly with Jesus Christ — or, at least, an imagined AI approximation. Just Like Me, the brainchild of Chris Breed, bills itself as a “groundbreaking AI platform that lets anyone talk face-to-face with…
What it means: SBC membership shrinks as US population grows
Although the Southern Baptist Convention remains the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, only about 3.6% of the 342 million Americans were members of SBC churches in 2025. Not only has membership in SBC churches been on the decline…
Newsboys lawsuit exposes underlying finances of CCM business
In the summer of 2001, I risked getting expelled by Bob Jones University for the chance to watch Michael W. Smith in concert at a Franklin Graham crusade at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. This was just one year removed…
The answer to who should control Palestine was obvious
“I hate Mr. Balfour’s pronouncement. … To my mind it’s a wholly artificial scheme divorced from all relation to facts, and I wish it the ill success that it deserves.” — Gertrude Bell One of the many entirely valid…
United Methodism two years after 25% of churches disaffiliated
The United Methodist Church’s experience with the disaffiliations of a number of its congregations has received widespread coverage in church media and in some secular media outlets. Because the polity of the UMC differs from that of many other denominations,…
How bad theology has set us up for sexualized AI deepfakes
Given the research I conduct for writing, the ads my algorithm sends me can be all over the map. Nothing ever surprises me. But after looking into the recent story about 62 million visits to a website that contained instructions…
In new book, Oord makes theology about God’s love
When I hear the words “systematic theology,” I can’t help but think of Wayne Grudem — an altogether unpleasant association. Maybe a different systematic theology book comes to mind for you, but Iʼd bet it has the same driving force:…