Intersex people always have lived among us, but shame and societal expectations have kept them living largely in the shadows. The June 30 nationwide release of the documentary Every Body, available in theaters and for streaming, is just the latest…
President Biden establishes the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi and Illinois
This week, I had the privilege of attending a reception held at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., to celebrate President Joe Biden’s signing of a proclamation establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi…
America isn’t the only one with a declaration of independence
Over the July 4 weekend, hundreds of museum-goers waited in line several hours to get a glimpse of one of the Western world’s foundational political documents. The fragile sheet, written in an elegant hand, tells the story of a people…
What’s really happening with the ‘never attenders’ and what does Donald Trump have to do with it?
I haven’t attended church in almost four years and can’t imagine going back. I don’t share this lightly. I was so dedicated to the church that I structured my entire career spanning two decades cleaning restrooms and floors in order to have…
Given opportunity to affirm women in ministry, BGCT punts
The Baptist General Convention of Texas — once considered a supporter of women in ministry — declined to give full blessing to the idea when presented the opportunity at its annual meeting July 18. Motions affirming women in ministry and…
2023 was the year the evangelical obsession with Pride month turned violent
I toted my brood of children through Target, as Kevin DeYoung suggested, when suddenly I noticed the display of Pride T-shirts. At first, I thought it was nice that my LGBTQ neighbors would receive kind messages like “Free Mom Hugs” and “You…
What really happened at that meeting with the Oklahoma superintendent of schools is worse than you’ve heard
My husband and I both grew up in Norman, Okla. Until last year, July 2022 to be exact, we had been Texas residents for 17 years. What brought us back home to Norman was a traumatic event with the public…
More people are ‘detransitioning’ from church than from transgender identity
Pose is a TV drama series about New York City’s ball culture, an LGBTQ subculture in the African American and Latino communities throughout the 1980s and 1990s. One of the characters is Pray Tell (a gay Black man). He cries, “Ronald Reagan will not say the word AIDS….
Critics say this SBC missions agency appears to be in the real estate business
Rob Wilton may not be a household name to Southern Baptists. But he’s been given nine houses by a Southern Baptist Convention mission board, as documented by public records. Wilton comes from a legacy family within the SBC, which might…