What do you believe about the afterlife? According to the Pew Research Center, most adults in the United States believe in heaven or hell. Specifically, 73% believe in heaven and a few less, 62%, believe in hell. Three religious categories…
The truth about assimilation
Many people believe our racial problems would all go away if we all would simply focus on being “unhyphenated Americans.” This assimilation argument is wrong. In America, assimilation into the default ethnic culture means becoming white. The birth of a…
How Michael W. Smith, George W. Bush and one popular worship song expose the problem of Calvinist theology and politics
There is a reason why one of the most influential worship songs of the past quarter century expresses a truth that could turn evangelicalism upside down and yet has been repeatedly rejected and banned by conservative evangelical complementarian Calvinists. Growing…
Why can’t churches get handling abuse right?
Yet another evangelical megachurch is repenting for mishandling clergy sex abuse. Every few days, it seems, we’re hearing about a different instance of a pastor or church leader who has abused women and/or children and a church (or denomination) that…
What does complementarianism have to do with Domestic Violence Awareness Month?
“Please don’t tell my husband I said anything. These men think they can bully women into submission.” I hear statements like this from Christian women in complementarian marriages quite often. But while many of these women are aware of the…
PRRI’s Structural Racism Index attempts to quantify racist beliefs
How do you measure racism? In the contemporary American battleground of politics, culture and religion, people often call out others for being racist, and those accused often reply, “I’m not a racist.” Still others proudly wear the label “racist” as…
Defender of the Faith or Defender of Faith — a distinction informed by Baptist history
With the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8, her heir, Charles, became King Charles III. Accompanied by grief and grateful tributes from around the world, Elizabeth II’s death marks the end of a lengthy era of British history…
Richard Land says he has ‘read about’ some Christian nationalists but he doesn’t know any
“Christian nationalism” qualifies as a hot-button issue in our culture. From Baptist News Global to The Atlantic, articles proliferate about Christian nationalism. BGN has published at least 20 articles about Christian nationalism since January. This is not one more article…
Why Iran’s ‘morality police’ might seem like a good idea to some American evangelicals
A woman in Tehran, Iran, was detained by the so-called “morality police” on allegations she didn’t wear a head scarf in public. She died in police custody. Protests have ensued across Iran. Women have appeared in public with bare heads….