Forrest Gump was a good man with personal morals, integrity and a love for others, especially Lieutenant Dan and Bubba. But he had a low I.Q. and other people often called him stupid. He always responded with what his mother…
Samford, how long will you remain silent?
It is difficult to fathom the ineptitude that would cause a top-tier Christian university to become so blinded to its rightwing constituency that it throws away decades of ecumenical goodwill and then doesn’t even have the wherewithal to acknowledge what…
Seeing whitewashed history for the pale reality it is
On a recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg and Richmond, Va., I saw things from a different point of view. As I looked into racial minority issues, predominantly those of Africans, I was shocked at how melanin became evil. It is…
King Charles should abolish the term ‘Defender of the Faith’
As soon as the dust settles and Charles realizes he really is king, among the first things he should do is repudiate the moniker “Defender of the Faith.” He probably wil not, but people bearing prophetic messages don’t keep silent…
Instead of honking for Jesus, maybe we should pause and lament over predatory pastors
Before we get started, this isn’t a movie review, and I will not spoil the movie Honk for Jesus for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. Honk for Jesus was shot in my hometown of Atlanta and stars actors Regina…
Drag queens reading books to children are not the problem
Seriously, Christian folks have got to lighten up about Drag Queen Story Hour. We have an epidemic of predatory pastors, but, yeah, let’s worry about drag queens reading books to children at the local library. Drag is a performance, part…
The monarchy Christians
Mark Wingfield posted a query on Facebook that deserves a deeper look. He wondered about the evangelical response to the death of Queen Elizabeth. And he asked the simple journalistic question: Why? I venture a partial response. The evangelical support…
Womanhood, white Christian nationalism and Queen Elizabeth
On Thursday evening, church bells began to chime in Oxford, where I am living for much of this fall while on research leave from Baylor University. I’d planned a long writing day, but I simply sat, my front door open,…
Dear Tucker Carlson: Women are not afraid, we are angry
Last week, a young mother named Eliza Fletcher was abducted and murdered in Memphis, Tenn., not too far from where I live. Liza was a beloved preschool teacher at a local private school. Her husband reported her missing after she…
What the color chart teaches us about surviving in a ‘purple’ church
What follows is a real-life, real-time text report coming to me last Sunday morning from a young adult I know who was in attendance at one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in America. Please keep in mind, this was…
‘If you don’t want to protect LGBTQ people from becoming HIV positive through a truly miraculous medication, you don’t love your neighbor’
On Wednesday, Sept. 7, a federal judge in Texas ruled that requiring insurance companies to cover PrEP, the HIV prevention medication used primarily by gay men, violates the insurance companies’ rights “on religious grounds.” More simply put, the judge suggested…
On the anniversary of 9/11: Terrorism, heroism and the unholy myth of redemptive violence
With a prayer still hanging in the air — a prayer asking for their God’s protection and proclaiming their God’s blessing on their mission — young men boarded planes and launched themselves into history, killing thousands in cold blood who did not happen to…