Malcolm O. Tolbert had a long and varied career within Baptist religious circles, beginning as a pastor at the age of 18, missionary in Brazil, seminary professor and author of many books on the interpretation of Scripture. In 1952, Tobert…
Jason Aldean and Tyler Childers and two visions of small-town community
It doesn’t seem like it was just a couple weeks ago Jason Aldean released a music video to expand on the lyrics of his now widely popular and equally controversial hit “Try That in a Small Town.” Nor does it…
Excluding LGBTQ people is not the Muslim way
Recently, a group of Muslim Americans issued a statement asserting that same-sex relations and being transgender are forbidden in Islam. They claim that there is “universal consensus” on the issue. As a Muslim ally to the LGBTQ community, I want to…
Is worshipping online a valid substitute for in-person worship?
According to data gathered in 2021, a couple is divorced in America every 46 seconds. This means two to three divorces happen during an average wedding vow recital (2 minutes), more than 156 divorces occur during an average romantic comedy…
What explains the abiding appeal of biblical inerrancy?
It was the fall of 1975, in my class in Old Testament at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Gentle and soft-spoken, Page Kelley was explaining the plight of the biblical translator. We have the Septuagint, a Greek translation…
How many indictments will be too many?
America got dueling news regarding Donald Trump this week. We learned the 2024 presidential candidate is so far ahead in the Republican primary polls that he appears to be a shoo-in for renomination. And at the same time, we learned…
Batman going home from the Barbie movie
My wife and I were driving home from the new blockbuster movie Barbie. It is a transformative journey, a sneakily subversive movie, a women’s anthem that may help us male types too. We began to muse about it, and fanciful…
It’s time for Pastor Barbie
Before there was Barbie, there was Lilli. Lilli originated in 1952 Germany, just a few years after the end of World War II. The doll was introduced as a call girl, a comic-strip character in Bild-Zeitung, the newspaper in Hamburg,…
White reflections on racism: An interview with Frederick Allen
I sometimes tell the story about how back during the pandemic, at the height of the Black Lives Matter marches, my friend Kelly Brown Douglas schooled me on racial reconciliation. That’s the sort of thing she does. Until then, I…
A theology of ‘girl dinner’
Have you ever eaten “girl dinner” before? Chances are, you have, even if you are a boy. But according to TikTok, where the #GirlDinner trend originated, the meal is less about gender and more about how the food on a…
The Medieval Crusades, Billy Graham and American evangelicals
My earliest encounter with the term “religious crusade” probably goes back to junior high history. Still, I don’t remember the term being used much other than when Billy Graham came to town. He went from city to city, holding “crusades.”…
The voice of Sinead O’Connor
It was announced July 26 that Sinead O’Connor has died. An artist who journeyed in her own faith, struggles and personal growth right alongside us. Her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got was the first CD…