What does the manga character Ino have to do with the fake trans mailers in the Texas midterms? My hunch is quite a lot. But first, some background: In case you missed the most recent fake transgender mailer controversy, BNG…
‘We don’t mind the killing; we just don’t want to watch it’
Donald Trump has cancelled the planned public livestream of Nidal Hasan’s execution. The decision comes a few days after Trump began privately expressing doubts about the decision, which was spearheaded by self-styled Secretary of War and Crusader wannabe Pete Hegseth….
The mercy of Christ versus the wrath of God
In a Bible class I attended recently, the discussion centered on Romans 5. Verse 8 is a familiar and often memorized promise about God’s compassion: “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ…
Fake trans mailers and texts aim to scare Texans to vote for Paxton
In an apparent attempt to stoke anti-trans sentiment leading up to midterm elections, Texas is being inundated with purposefully inflammatory trans rights flyers from an unknown sender. The flyers purport to help transgender minors in unsupportive homes find support but…
3 reasons all churches should pay attention to HPUMC right now
Why is a Baptist-affiliated news service spending so much time writing about the Methodists these days? The answer is simple: Because the legal battle between Highland Park United Methodist Church and The United Methodist Church has implications for all churches…
White supremacy 101: From Ilhan Omar to refugees to asylum seekers
Will any Republican in Congress challenge the Trump administration’s illegal and unconstitutional assault on a sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives? For the past 20 months, the silence of Republicans in Congress — and evangelical pastors in pulpits…
‘Socialism’ is everywhere, nowhere, somewhere
President Donald Trump and MAGA are in a meltdown over socialism. While Trump has made his political fortune fomenting fear, now he and MAGA are afraid of losing the midterms. One of the shibboleths they’re raising in response is “socialism.”…
Here’s what a Baptist sees in the HPUMC legal dispute
Here’s how this looks to a Baptist outsider with more than average knowledge of The United Methodist Church: The denomination’s second-largest church intentionally changed its governing documents to allow the possibility of withdrawing from the UMC. And once the denomination…
Are white evangelicals really that ignorant?
Perhaps the oddest defense of white evangelicalism in recent weeks has been to acknowledge much of the harm they’ve caused while claiming it’s not due to their theology, but due to their ignorance. During this second Trump administration, patriarchal Christianity…
Pete Hegseth’s gospel of violence
The last widely recognized public execution in the United States took place on Aug. 14, 1936, in Owensboro, Ky. Rainey Bethea, a 22-year-old Black man, was hanged before an estimated crowd of 20,000 people. Bethea had been accused of raping…
Marco Rubio’s incomplete view of Western Civilization
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a speech while standing in front of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. His address was a call for America and its European allies to unite in the renewal and defense of a…
Here’s why oil and religion mix in the Texas Senate race
In Texas, the 2026 midterm election is a fight between two poorly understood brands of religion filtered through the oil business. Texas is a solidly red state. In 2024, Donald Trump won the state by 13.7 points. In 2022, Republican Gov….