Growing up in Southern Appalachia, I was reared on what the mountain and foothill people called Jack Tales. Stories involving a young protagonist who finds himself in a world that sounds familiar but is filled with the unfamiliar. Jack’s adventures…
Are our churches prepared for Christian autocracy?
A 1638 treatise titled A Discourse about Civil Government in a new Plantation whose design is Religion, written in response to the founding of New Haven, Conn., contained this definition of a properly Christianized government: Theocracy, or to make the…
Praying in a time of war
The intense polarization around the Israel-Hamas war reminds me of a story from another polarizing Middle East war that occurred 20 years ago. In the spring of 2003, soon after United States launched the Iraq war, a retired Army officer…
The speaker and the Bible
The Speaker of the House is a Baptist of the conservative Southern Baptist variety. In his first interview after being elected speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson told Sean Hannity: “I am a Bible-believing Christian. Someone asked me today in the media,…
Baptists were for separation of church and state before they were against it
For a Baptist to oppose separation of church and state feels like disowning one’s own mother without cause. What more could Thomas Jefferson have done for Baptists than pen the First Amendment with John Leland, a Baptist preacher, looking over…
What happens when the snow melts? Humanizing victims of the war in Gaza with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The new book and movie in the Hunger Games series, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, released Nov. 17, is currently the No. 1 movie in America. The story is a prequel to the four existing stories that take fans…
Hamas’ ‘sexual pogrom’ in Israel
Editor’s note: The following article includes extremely graphic descriptions of sexual assault and war crimes. The subject matter also is controversial in that the leadership of Hamas has denied its agents engaged in sexual assaults and other watchdog groups have…
‘Useful idiots’ won’t end the Israel-Hamas war, and neither will a cease-fire
Picture yourself at a rowdy MAGA rally: Paramilitary types sporting AR-15s and Kevlar vests roam the area, calling for the downfall of any government not led by Donald Trump, their glorious leader. Neo-Nazis spew hatred of immigrants and minorities. Other…
The blood of Advent
This is the first in a four-part series of Advent reflections by Julia Goldie Day that will run on Mondays. Ever hear the phrase, “Behind every successful man, there is a woman?” Jesus is the successful man; Mary is…
Five truths about church committees and their work
It’s that time of year again when faithful church members might receive phone calls or emails with special invitations for the year ahead: “We’d like you to serve on a church committee or ministry team.” The “we” in a traditional…
Tell me about your Christian tattoo
In the evangelical subculture I was raised in, we were taught to cover most of our bodies for the sake of modesty. I was told repeatedly, “Your body is a temple.” So you can imagine my shock when, as a…
A generational torch passes at Bubba-Doo’s
Today I sat on the other side of the Bubba-Doo’s restaurant from where I normally do. I suppose more of us are creatures of habit than we care to admit. There’s nothing wrong with the portion that I sat in…