The conflict over acceptance of LGBTQ persons in The United Methodist Church has become a three-way fight — with even more contenders likely waiting to turn the bout into a battle royal between opposing American forces and the rest of…
Cain and Abel: A metaphor for the sin of casteism
In his 2016 landmark book, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America, Jim Wallis reveals: “The most controversial sentence I ever wrote was not about abortion, gay marriage, the wars in Vietnam or Iraq, elections, or…
This year’s electorate is different — and fewer are white Christians
The United States electorate — defined as those who are eligible to vote and registered to vote — changes some from year to year but changed significantly over the span of a few years. A compilation of data from Pew…
Why herd immunity is worse than other potential ethical concerns about a COVID-19 vaccine
The ethical issues surrounding development of a COVID-19 vaccine are complex but pale in comparison to the deaths that would be necessary to reach so-called “herd immunity” in the United States. Questions get raised about the feared use of fetal tissue from…
Diaper need: The silent crisis intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic
Before the pandemic, 1 in 3 families across the U.S. struggled to afford diapers. Now, with more than 56 million families with children losing their household income since March of this year, diaper banks trying desperately to assuage escalating demands…
My journey from being a young-earth Creationist, Dispensationalist Republican to seeing my neighbor as worthy of my vote
My body was tense as I sat in the white-walled classroom of my Baptist high school in Middle Georgia. With the sounds of pretend canons firing at the Civil War reenactment across the street, I listened to my teacher tell…
This will be on the test: What’s the difference between ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’ education?
“Secularism” often functions as a catch-all bugaboo for religious circles in the United States, and concerns that culture is becoming increasingly secular raise fears among American Christians in particular. In the case of public education, there remains a myth that…
Pope Francis calls for elimination of death penalty, and that’s only part of what he wants
On Oct. 4, Pope Francis published his third papal encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. Like all titles, Fratelli Tutti is revealing. Not only does it allude to the writings of the Pope’s namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, it also previews the themes…
The complicated story of Trump’s COVID treatment, stem cells and abortion politics
The irony cannot be missed: A Rose Garden event to announce the nomination of a Supreme Court justice widely expected to tilt the court toward limiting access to abortion became a super-spreader event for coronavirus, which infected many of the…