In January 2015, seminarians in a 12-day January course on Appalachian religion sponsored by Wake Forest University Divinity School heard the “testimony” of a twenty-something Burnsville, N.C., resident named Adam who recounted a life of youthful “screw-ups” — cooking meth,…
Beyond birthright and body type: How to be Christian in America
Every summer, my brothers and I would attend vacation Bible school. We all marched into the sanctuary for opening assembly led by a processional of children holding the American flag, Christian flag and the Bible. In unison we recited the…
When perception overtakes reality
Marjorie Taylor Greene has photoshopped an image of herself in a military vehicle and “toting” a high-velocity rifle as she rolls into the United States Capitol. Has she any sense of the perception she has created of January 6, 2021?…
Get ready for a third Baptist alternative to emerge
A tsunami of change is coming to the Baptist family of congregations. With the hard-right pivot of the Southern Baptist Convention in June, a significant number of centrist SBC congregations are facing a difficult decision about their future. These churches…
Will Christians embrace a ‘Holy Ambition’ for the environment?
I recently attended the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Atlanta. This came on the heels of the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in New Orleans and initiating a process to kick out Saddleback Church in California, and others…
Ways to care for God’s creation this summer
Summer made its welcome arrival, marking a pleasant shift in our everyday habits. Some of us bid adieu to early morning alarms, rigid timetables, homework assignments and daily commutes. All of us may greet the comforting winds, tart lemonade and…
A word of thanks for associate pastors
I never assume people know who I am, even though I’m more well-known than I deserve in the circles we travel in. That’s not entirely new to this role as executive director of Baptist News Global. In my previous life,…
On women, aliens and when power usurps love
Then turning toward the woman, (Jesus) said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?” — Luke 7:44 My mother-in-law and her brother often use a repeating trope: “When the aliens come” we’ll be ready or not ready because we…
7 reasons religious liberty matters
Religious liberty, the freedom to practice one’s faith without intimidation or persecution, is a cornerstone of democratic societies around the world. Our Baptists ancestors were among the many who contended for this liberty for people of all faiths or no…
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is wrong about Martin Luther King and affirmative action
After the Supreme Court of the United States struck down affirmative action admission programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued the following post on Twitter. As Martin Luther King Jr said,…
Maybe there’s a hidden message in Fall Out Boy’s cover of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’
Fans are offering mixed reviews of pop-punk band Fall Out Boy’s new cover of Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” which dropped last Wednesday. Originally released in September 1989, Joel’s song offers a chronological crash course of notable…
Embracing a queer spirituality would have freed me from years of anguish, self-doubt and self-loathing
I was a junior in college, studying religion and serving as a youth minister when I first encountered the Southern Baptist Convention’s vitriol against women. Although a Southern Baptist church employed me, a not-yet-out queer woman, as a youth minister…