Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” LGBTQ inclusion in faith spaces is no exception to that. It’s a slow, arduous journey, and we’ve seen many more setbacks than…
Farming is ministry: 5 ways your congregation can start today
Two years out of seminary and a year into the pandemic, I walked away from my full-time nonprofit position and onto a farm. Far from walking away from ministry, I found farming to be a ministry. One that embodies unique…
Marjorie Taylor Greene says we can ignore Trump’s bad news because God ‘has plans’
Don’t worry about Donald Trump’s third criminal indictment, Marjorie Taylor Greene told Republicans Aug. 2, because “God has plans.” The controversial U.S. representative from Georgia appeared on the far-right cable network Real America’s Voice to talk about Trump’s latest legal…
American Idolatry: How Christian nationalism betrays the gospel and threatens the church
This week, I’m sharing a conversation with my friend Andrew Whitehead, who helps us understand the MAGA movement, the insurrection on January 6, and their disturbing religious underpinnings. His important new book, American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel…
If CRT is a LIE, why are some people still illustrating its REALITY?
In 2023, in the land of the free and the home of the unreported perks of Supreme Court justices, the American Culture War seems to find a new front to defend or invade every day or so. At least it…
The unnecessary that
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…