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…
MAGA followers are not stupid
The stupid epidemic has arrived. Entire Christian denominations insist there is only one way to read the Bible, and they expel anyone daring to dissent. Politicians and the media reach for the accusation of “stupid” out of the intractable arguments….
Lessons from Cicero on America’s 247th birthday
I am reading the Roman statesman-philosopher Cicero these days. You might ask why in the world that dusty old personage should be occupying my thoughts. The answer is that, as part of the preparation of my new book on democracy,…
You can’t mandate colorblindness: Why the Supreme Court ruling is both wrong and immoral
A year and a half back, I was invited by Jake Owensby, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Louisiana and chancellor of the University of the South, to speak with his clergy about racism and white supremacy. That Saturday…
Why I’m investing my inheritance in women in ministry
Eleven years ago, when I became senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Columbia, Mo., my cousin wrote on my Facebook page, “You have shamed our family.” I wasn’t really surprised by her reaction. After all, my extended family was…