Two giant questions leaped off the page as the interpreters of American religion began reading the latest data dump from Public Religion Research Institute July 8: How could this data about mainline Protestants be correct, and why is the data…
It’s past time to unearth and acknowledge our role in Native American boarding schools
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the United States will launch an initiative to search for possible burial sites at the former grounds of the federally created Native American boarding schools that forcibly removed thousands of children from their…
When it comes to shaming women, the SBC isn’t the only perpetrator among Christians
The Southern Baptist Convention has made headlines not only in Baptist circles but in secular publications in the days after this year’s annual meeting. In addition to Critical Race Theory, the media has been reporting on the SBC’s commitment to…
How churches can help encourage financial capital in nonmetro areas
This is the seventh in a series created by a partnership between Baptist News Global and the Campbell University Center for Church and Community. Each month’s columns explore one of the seven types of capital described in the Community Capitals Framework developed by…
Meet the Theobros, who want you to know they’re right about everything
In this world of spiritual warfare, theological compromise and Republicans losing the White House, there lives a group of men, mostly white, who put on their armor, saddle up and ride into the glorious battlefield known as Twitter. They alone…
America’s two largest Christian bodies continue to become more conservative
The continual shift of the Southern Baptist Convention to the right was echoed by the latest meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Last Friday, the USCCB voted to create a teaching document that could rebuke and exclude…
The role of seminaries in guiding ex-evangelicals like me through deconstruction
Over the past decade, evangelicals have had to come to terms with the fact that people are leaving the church in droves. According to a recent Gallup poll, just 47% of Americans are members of a church, falling from 70% in…
New court ruling shielding Trump officials who cleared Lafayette Square for the Bible photo op renews debate about ‘qualified immunity’
A federal judge’s June 21 ruling to protect former Trump administration officials from lawsuits stemming from their actions to forcibly clear Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, illustrates the near-impossibility of any government official being held responsible for acting in…
We need to remember the scars of our trauma in a post-pandemic world
I went to a Red Sox game a couple of weeks ago for the first time in more than a year. Fenway Park recently reopened its stadium to fans but was selling tickets to partial capacity at the time. Before…
Southern Baptists are still obsessed with Critical Race Theory
The specter of Critical Race Theory loomed large over the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting June 15-16, yet no concrete actions to address it by name were taken. That delighted Southern Baptist pastors and leaders who believe months of debate…
The power of political capital to shape communities and churches
This is the sixth in a series created by a partnership between Baptist News Global and the Campbell University Center for Church and Community. Each month’s columns explore one of the seven types of capital described in the Community Capitals Framework developed by…
When being ‘pro-life’ really isn’t: How I became a Democrat who opposes abortion
The Supreme Court is now set to hear an abortion case originating from Mississippi — a case that both sides of the abortion debate point to as a threat to the continued existence of the rule of law imposed by…