In early 2026, I was invited to participate and help facilitate a conversation with clergy from around the country as a part of a Zoom conversation hosted by Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. My breakout session was on how…
Christians don’t need louder voices but steadier ones
“Your audience probably won’t read anything I’ve written.” I hear that more often than you might expect from guests considering my podcast. It is usually said politely, almost in passing, but the assumption behind it is unmistakable. They expect hostility….
What we lose when churches stop naming themselves
I understand the appeal of the nondenominational church. In an age weary of faction, weary of institutional decline and weary of ecclesial infighting, the promise can sound fresh: No inherited baggage, no denominational machinery, no old quarrels: just Jesus, the…
What they’ve taught me
I was scrolling Facebook when I saw the post. Someone I had mentored. Someone who had reached out, who had sat in the specific loneliness of being queer and trans and faith-formed and told by that faith they were the…
Why the Turning Point Baylor rally Is un-Christian
By now, most of you know Baylor University is one of the first stops on the Turning Point USA college tour. The Baylor administration has justified the campus presence of Donald Trump Jr., Erika Kirk and “Border Czar” Tom Homan…
SBC’s roads no longer all lead back to Louisville
This week both the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary announced their perspective nominees for new leaders. The ERLC is bringing forth Evan Lenow, currently serving at Mississippi College with recent connections as…
Good Friday: Empty chairs at empty tables
The morning began the way mornings are supposed to begin. Children arrived with backpacks slung over their shoulders, voices rising and falling in the easy rhythm of laughter and routine. Classrooms filled. Lessons began. It was, in every visible way,…
3 ways churches may respond to the violence of conversion therapy
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down a Colorado law that banned conversion therapy for minors in the state. The court ruled the Colorado law a violation of therapists’ free speech. Only one justice (Ketanji Jackson) dissented, meaning the ruling…
There is no need for conversion therapy
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” is a harmful setback for LGBTQ Americans. In the 8-1 ruling, the court has failed to recognize the well-documented harm conversion therapy inflicts, especially on vulnerable LGBTQ…
Trusting God in uncertainty
There are days during Lent that feel less like prayer and more like hanging on. Days when hope feels distant, faith feels shaky and the waiting feels endless. Sometimes it’s not just our own personal lives that feel heavy —…
A very Baptist identity crisis
When I was in my late teens, the Soul Survivor summer festival craze was in full swing, and for several years I attended with friends and church groups — often also participating in the New Wine conferences to combine and…
Why Good Friday matters as much as Resurrection Sunday
Long ago, Liz was visiting a historic Roman Catholic church in Argentina when her companion paused in front of a carving of Christ on the Cross. “This is how we evangelicals are different from Catholics,” he said. “We don’t have…