Do you remember the old camp song, “Seek Ye First”? The song was popular at the American Baptist Church I attended as a child and teenager, the floating notes of the soprano line topping the chorus, the collective notes a…
Heritage Foundation antisemitism effort recycles conspiracy theories
Project Esther, the Heritage Foundation’s campaign to battle antisemitism, plans to target Wikipedia editors it claims fuel anti-Jewish hostility. But Project Esther’s own rhetoric about battling powerful Jewish “masterminds” reinforces centuries-old conspiracy theories about Jews who have too much power…
How the Dallas Statement led to the Antioch Declaration
On Nov. 24, 2024, prominent pastors and theologians — including Joe Boot, Jeff Durbin, Andrew Sandlin, James White and Doug Wilson — issued the Antioch Declaration. It describes and denounces “anti-gospel racial categories,” which its authors, rightly, see as a threat…
Trump’s false narrative on January 6 is gaining traction
Four years after the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol, the Republican narrative that what happened was peaceful and legitimate appears to be gaining some ground. Not only because Donald Trump — widely credited as the instigator of…
Richard Bevan Hays: Poet, scholar, theologian, preacher
On Friday, Jan. 3, Richard Hays succumbed to his decade-long battle with cancer. He was 76. Richard was a devoted husband to Judy Cheek Hays and devoted father to their son Chris and daughter Sarah — all of whom are…
Amid New Orleans tragedy, Fox News and MAGA figures tell lies
When Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, plowed his truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve — killing at least 15 people — Fox News and leading MAGA politicians immediately unleashed a targeted lie: “An illegal…
My quest to find the origins of the term ‘conservative resurgence’
A few months ago, a former colleague published a video blog in which he confessed he fears he accidentally coined the term “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention. That sent me digging into the depths of the internet and…
Tucker Carlson seeing demons in his bedroom is not a good sign
Tucker Carlson claims he was “physically assaulted” by a demon in his bedroom. The deposed Fox News host made this news public in a documentary, Christianities?, hosted by John Heers and directed by Scooter Downey, an Eastern Orthodox Christian who served as…
When flat earthers and creationists find common ground
It was hyped as “The Final Experiment.” Led by pastor Will Duffy of Agape Kingdom Fellowship in Wheat Ridge, Colo., a group of people who believed in a flat earth and others who believed in a global earth traveled to Union…
Beware the billionaires who promise to make America great
The growing number of billionaires joining the Trump administration seemed humorous at first. “How many billionaires does it take to change a light bulb at the White House?” None. Billionaires don’t change light bulbs. Thirteen billionaires — a baker’s dozen…
Sing a new song: Reflections on Band Aid at 40
When it comes to Christmas music, I prefer mine sacred and sung by an English university choir. I haven’t really been “into” popular Christmas music or pop stars’ Christmas records (sacred or secular) since I was a kid — with…
Rep. Barry Loudermilk pushes democracy to the brink
A Republican-controlled subcommittee of the U.S. House Oversight Committee has unleashed an attack on the peaceful transfer of power in federal government. Led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R.-Ga., this subcommittee conducted its own investigation of the January 6 insurrection at…