Less than two years after attempting to quietly withdraw from the Southern Baptist Convention, Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church has announced a new academic partnership that steers the megachurch further toward the charismatic and Pentecostal mainstream and away from its Baptist…
He died in ICE custody and now he’s eligible for a Green Card
I am one of the clergy members who has been holding vigil outside the Dallas ICE field office since May. After a gunman opened fire at the back of the facility in September, our weekly prayer vigil transformed into a…
Are all undocumented immigrants criminals?
In the debate over U.S. immigration policy, MAGA conservatives begin with the premise that anyone who crosses the border into the U.S. without advance permission is breaking the law. Therefore, the very act of entering the country is a crime….
Hegseth plans ‘cultural shift’ for military chaplains
“I’m here to tell you about a real problem facing our nation’s military,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth began in a video with a Christmas tree and a Department of War flag behind him. “It’s one you’re probably not aware…
Conflicts of interest and ‘dual roles’ undermined SBC abuse investigation
Across four years of Southern Baptist clergy sexual abuse research, investigations and debate, one name continually rises to the surface: Rachael Denhollander. The woman who began the public accusations against USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar in 2016 has played…
Mary Sills feared ‘disaster’ in family relationship with Lyell
One of the most peculiar claims to arise out of the defamation suit brought by David and Mary Sills is that the former missions professor justified his extramarital relationship with Jennifer Lyell by saying his wife knew about it. David…
Basham was advising Sills while condemning Lyell
In May 2022, Megan Basham wrote to Texas pastor Tom Ascol as an intermediary to seek clarifying information from David Sills about his relationship with Jennifer Lyell and subsequent firing from the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. That email…
ICE and empty mangers
This week, The New York Times reported a Catholic parish on a busy street in a wealthy Boston suburb had caused a stir with its Nativity scene. All the familiar elements are there: the shepherds and angels, sheep and hay, the three wise men….
Against the grain: Rethinking the Whig interpretation of history
The Whig interpretation of history, famously critiqued by Herbert Butterfield in 1931, remains one of the most seductive frameworks in modern historical consciousness. It offers a narrative of inevitable progress — a story in which the past leads inexorably to…
Jeffress is a hypocrite testifying against Johnson Amendment
Robert Jeffress testified before the president’s Religious Liberty Commission this week how he and his downtown Dallas church have been persecuted, while failing to acknowledge his own persecution of other religious groups. The pastor of First Baptist Dallas publicized in…
Heads spin as Kirk Cameron gives up eternal conscious torment
“It’s one of the doctrines of the Bible that atheists love to point out as one of the reasons why they could never believe in the God of the Bible,” Kirk Cameron said on his podcast last week. “It’s the God who…
Understanding our imperial president’s triumphal architecture
Authoritarian regimes use architecture to reshape what the public believes by saturating public spaces with political symbols, edifices and monuments. President Donald Trump’s plan to add a Roman triumphal arch to the Washington, D.C., cityscape near the Lincoln Memorial is…