“Do you believe I am unwittingly supporting the Antichrist?” Benjamin Cole asked BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield in perhaps the most contentious episode of BNG’s “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast to date. In an hour-long conversation on current politics, the…
Trump’s plan to fight antisemitism is more authoritarianism
It is a documented fact that antisemitism is on the rise not only in the United States but globally. Donald Trump has a plan to fight this: Deport university students. Amid the flurry of executive orders flying out of the…
Following Leonard Leo’s dark money in pushing America to the far right
Last summer, I did a deep dive into the organizations connected to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and the entities that fund them. In doing so, I learned much about the network of dark money shaping our shared political and…
How ‘flood-the-zone’ politics is changing democracy and ministry
The “flood-the-zone” strategy is not new, but it is wildly effective. How can we understand its effect on churches and ministers? The immediate aim of President Donald Trump’s White House is to keep journalists off balance, news and social media…
MAGA ramps up attacks on US Christian groups
Donald Trump and his allies are widening their attacks on religious groups compassionate toward immigrants, refugees, the poor and LGBTQ people. The Catholic and Episcopal churches have faced the heat from the MAGA movement for some time and are again…
Here’s what tax dollars will fund with the Texas school voucher bill
With proposed legislation to create school vouchers in Texas, a majority of taxpayer money could go to private schools that teach anti-science ideas and young-earth creationism. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made “school choice” his mission over the last few…
American values and a tale of two islands
In a move that is more publicity stunt than workable policy, President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to prepare to house tens of thousands of “criminal aliens” at the Navy base at Guantánamo Bay. “We have 30,000 beds in…
It’s time to become American Nazi hunters
There are Nazis in our midst. Not just Nazi flag-carrying, swastika-wearing, swashbuckling Nazi-saluting members of American neo-Nazi groups, but ordinary Americans who will swear they are not Nazis. It’s now obvious that MAGA has Nazi leanings. Psychologist Keith Payne, in…
Trump world throws tomatoes at Phil Vischer
To understand how viciously MAGA world — including evangelical Christians — has turned against immigrants of all kinds, consider the plight of Phil Vischer. You probably know him as the creator of the “Veggie Tales” videos for kids or maybe…
United Women in Faith and Texas Impact converge on Texas Capitol
United Women in Faith (previously known as United Methodist Women) is one of the largest denominational faith organizations for women in the United States. Since 1987, the Texas Conference of United Women in Faith has partnered with Texas Impact —…
White evangelical men weaponize the gospel against women because they don’t respect women
“Do men desperately need respect, while women desperately need love?” This was the question posed by Sheila Gregoire on a recent episode of the “Bare Marriage” podcast. “That is the thesis of a lot of bestselling books in evangelicalism like Love and…
The inevitable invisibility of aging women in the church
In a 2019 essay for The Atlantic, Akiko Busch asks, “How might a woman’s identity evolve when she can go unrecognized, when she is no longer under the gaze of others?” The essay asserts an ultimate freedom of choice: because…