Judge Thomas Wingate, circuit judge for the 48th judicial district in Franklin County, Ky., has dismissed a lawsuit filed by writer and Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry and his wife, Tanya. Their suit sought to stop the University of Kentucky from removing a…
Top issues for United Methodists’ Global Assembly taking shape
Delegates to United Methodists’ first worldwide legislative assembly in five years will consider three major issues known as “the three Rs” — regionalization, Revised Social Principles and removal of “harmful language” against homosexuality. This General Conference — technically considered the…
Criswell was Truett on the outside and Norris on the inside, new biography says
W.A. Criswell was George W. Truett on the outside and J. Frank Norris on the inside, according to O.S. Hawkins, whose new biography of the legendary pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas releases today. Criswell grew up in the…
Pastor’s wedding night advice to women opens a conversation on harmful evangelical teaching on sex
On your wedding night, “stand where he tells you to stand, wear what he tells you to wear, and do what he tells you to do.” This is the advice Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Josh Howerton gave the women of his…
The federal appeals court that just ruled a father can control his daughters’ access to birth control is part of an intentional network strategically advancing conservative causes
On March 12, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that gave a Texas father the right to deny his daughters access to birth control made available through the federal government’s Title X free contraception…
Evangelical John Thune wants to succeed Mitch McConnell as Senate GOP leader
John Thune, the evangelical Christian elected to the U.S. Senate 20 years ago from South Dakota with the help of James Dobson, announced he wants to succeed Mitch McConnell as Senate GOP leader after McConnell retires later this year. McConnell…
Jai Shri Ram, or else: Hindu nationalism strangles India’s democracy
The world’s largest exercise in democracy begins April 19 in India — an enterprise so vast as to boggle the mind. Encompassing a million separate polling stations, employing 15 million election workers, spread over six weeks, the national parliamentary elections…
Can’t a solar eclipse just be a solar eclipse?
With echoes of “You’re so vain; you probably think the Bible’s about you,” today’s conservative American conspiracy theorists are raising money for Christian broadcasters by claiming the upcoming solar eclipse is a prophetic word from God revealed in the stars…
Here comes a progressive response to demagogic and authoritarian politics
As the 2024 election looms over us like a dark cloud, many Americans are fearful of the outcome. Will Donald Trump win a second term? Even asking the question has driven me to my Bible and my bourbon (Pappy Van…