“We can’t know whether Bluey will one day go the woke way of Peppa,” The Gospel Coalition’s Brett McCracken wrote two years ago in response to the cartoon Peppa Pig introducing “a character with ‘two mummies.’” According to McCracken, “Pressure is immense and relentless for…
What a debater thought about the vice presidential debate
Debates always get my attention. I was a high school and college debate student. I have studied argumentation for decades. While the format of the political debates is artificial and not really an actual debate, I will take what I…
Matthew Taylor’s new book explores how ‘the fringe became the carpet’
Matthew Taylor’s timely and disturbing new book, The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy, explores the politicization of America’s independent charismatics and neo-Pentecostals and the resulting “charismaticization of right-wing politics.” Taylor bids farewell to…
One nation under God: How liberal religion dominated mid-century America
In the decade following the Second World War, the United States experienced an unprecedented religious revival. In 1958, more than 50% of Americans claimed to have attended a worship service in the previous week. By every conventional measure, the nation…
The far right is building ‘aligned communities’ while looking for a Red Caesar
My father is Tennessee’s unofficial welcoming committee. A Virginia native who retired with my mother to her home state, he enjoys swapping stories with other newcomers at the lake near his home in Lenoir City. Lately, he’s been meeting a…
Gladys the Baptist paved a way for women
Perhaps the greatest moniker Gladys Lewis ever was given was when the comedian Grady Nutt called her “Gladys the Baptist.” This Oklahoma City woman is not someone most contemporary Southern Baptists and Cooperative Baptists have heard of, but she helped…
Donald Trump and the story of the magical phone app for immigrants
Donald Trump wants everyone to believe immigrants are bad. The formula is simplistic, misleading and false, but it is the sum total of his immigration policy. The simplicity, the impulsivity, and the emotionalism make Trump so tempting: Immigrants are bad….
How the party of business came to embrace anti-immigrant policies bad for business
Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies have so reshaped the Republican Party that the party once known as being driven by business interests nearly wholeheartedly favors a policy that would wreck the U.S. economy. That policy is mass deportation of immigrants living…
For Our Daughters tells the stories of clergy sexual abuse survivors in their own words
“Nothing draws fire like drawing attention to sexual abuse and coverups in white evangelical churches. Nothing even comes close.” These are the words Kristin Du Mez chose to reflect on as she prepared herself on the eve of the release…
What your faith community needs to know for Suicide Awareness Month
This article discusses suicide and suicidal ideation. If you are in crisis, call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You know someone, even if you don’t know it. You work with someone. Go to school with someone….
How the numbers connect declining birth rates and fear of immigrants
Al Mohler is obsessed with declining birth rates, and Donald Trump is obsessed with villainizing immigrants. It turns out there’s a connection between these two ideas. New research from Statista, reported by Katharina Buchholz, illustrates that without immigration, a dozen…
Steve Lawson preached fire and brimstone except for himself
“Megachurch pastors in Dallas are starting to drop like flies,” I wrote back on June 25 after Tony Evans and Robert Morris stepped away from ministry at prominent megachurches. Apparently “starting” was the keyword because over the next three months, the number…