December 6, 2023 Dear Editor: On November 28, 2023, Erich Bridges wrote an opinion piece in Baptist News Global arguing one should not participate in any demonstration calling for a cease-fire or an end to the Hamas-Israel war because, in…
Letter to the Editor: I was there when CBF was created, and I disagree with BNG analysis
December 5, 2023 Dear Editor: I was troubled and offended by Andrew Gardner’s article “On the SBC, Alliance and CBF and Other Lost Causes.” It was clearly an opinion article and he is entitled to his opinion, but some of his opinions…
The Toxic Evangelical Variant
It’s not an exaggeration to say the evangelical church saved me in every way a person can be saved. They introduced me to Jesus. They became the family my childhood family could not be. They loved and affirmed me. They…
Thank you, Jack
It is with deep sorrow that I received news that Jack Causey had died. Jack was a friend in the deepest sense of the word. He was my mentor, my pastoral supervisor in my doctor of ministry program, and was…
Devouring beasts: Advent and the 2024 election
In the Christian calendar, the new year begins with the first Sunday of Advent. That is the Sunday just past. Happy Christian New Year, everyone! If one is thinking in terms of the Christian calendar, then, the new year began…
If the Sinner’s Prayer is the only way to salvation, why isn’t it in the Bible?
One night recently, I was speaking by phone with the adult son of a man whose funeral I would officiate a few days later. While getting to know the family and the deceased in preparation for these “pick up” funerals…
I asked for awe: The gift of awe and the path of radical amazement
The great Rabbi Abraham Heschel, a spiritual genius, suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1972. A friend came to visit him in his New York City apartment. Heschel said, “Sam, when I regained consciousness, my first feelings were not of…
Still a high and holy calling
I want to say a word on behalf of a sometimes overlooked category of ministry. I refer to the Baptist pastor who maintains a sense of God’s calling to ministry and serves God and people faithfully, month by month, year…
The pain of advent
This is the second of a four-part series in which we seek to see anew the incarnation of Jesus through the eyes and body of a woman, Mary the mother of Jesus. For Jesus to become flesh, word incarnate,…
‘It was futile … nothing will change’
“Apology.” That was the subject heading. It was an email from a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Task Force, the committee that was created in the summer of 2021 and given a one-year term to oversee a…
Big ideas at human size: An interview with Carrie Newcomer
Carrie Newcomer may be the holiest person I’ve ever met. The Quaker singer-songwriter embodies the peace and universal love that characterize Quakerism, and it comes across clearly in her songs, which are peopled with characters who are flawed, searching, quirky,…
What I learned teaching incarcerated white students about structural racism
Note: This is the final in a three-part series by Chris Caldwell about his work in Kentucky prisons. The course I taught this summer in two Kentucky prisons was one I created a couple years ago at our HBCU:…