In March 1886, members of Nashville’s First Baptist Church gathered for what would be their final prayer meeting inside a synagogue on South Vine Street. For nearly a year, the congregation had worshipped there while its new church building was…
SBC Resolutions Committee wades into hot topics
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Resolution Committee has offered a preemptive strike in the battle over women’s roles in the church. The committee released its report June 1, just more than a week ahead of the SBC annual meeting to be…
City of Dallas-owned Love Field being used for ICE Air deportations
Several months ago, a coalition of clergy I am part of (CLEAR DFW) was instrumental in preventing the sale of an industrial warehouse to the Department of Homeland Security for the purposes of warehousing humans. We’ve known for some time…
The curious case of Republican ‘nones’
According to a 2023 study, more than one in four Americans (27%) are religiously unaffiliated. Of that group, 5% identify as atheist, 5% as agnostic and 17% as “nothing in particular.” While an overwhelming majority (72%) of atheists, agnostics and…
Why Elon Musk thinks Christopher Nolan has ‘desecrated The Odyssey’
Lupita Nyong’o has been cast as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming historical retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey, and conservative white men are irate. Elon Musk tweeted that Nolan “desecrated The Odyssey” and claimed newly implemented representation and inclusion…
Pope Leo’s ‘evangelical’ encyclical
I read Pope Leo’s papal encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person In the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” Imagine my surprise in finding an “evangelical” Catholic diametrically opposite American MAGA evangelicals. What captured my attention was the first third…
At Rededicate 250, Chris Tomlin emerges as worship warrior
As my son and I walked through the press screening and out to the gathering space for Rededicate 250, I began having flashbacks to my years in a white evangelical megachurch. With a pre-roll video set to worship music filling…
Anti-Christian Bias report exalts Calvinism and lies as normative
It is no secret that Donald J. Trump is intent on exacting retribution on his perceived enemies. Top of his list is former President Joe Biden. While the recently released report by the Justice Department’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian…
When a Christian-based cop drama tackles immigration
As immigration remains one of America’s most divisive political issues, a new Christian-produced cop drama is attempting to bring the debate to television audiences — a move one leading advocate commends while noting it misses nuances. On April 30, Christian-backed…
Colbert’s The Late Show farewell enters final week with jokes, tears
Ten months after Stephen Colbert announced CBS was canceling his top-rated Emmy- and Peabody-award-winning late-night show, his joke- and tear-filled farewell enters its final week and its May 21 finale. Colbert is ending well. Recent shows have featured President Barack…
Here’s what Baptists said at Rededicate 250
Despite a lack of religious diversity among the speakers at the Trump administration’s “Rededicate 250” event held last Sunday on the National Mall, conservative Baptists played a prominent role. The speaker lineup for the nine-hour religious festival included two Catholics…
What I saw and heard in DC this weekend
Evangelicals flocked to Washington, D.C., over the weekend to attend the Trump administration’s “Rededicate 250” event on Sunday, which was billed as “rededicating” the country to being “one nation under God.” The night before Trump’s official event — funded by public money…