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…
Be not afraid: The encouragement of Revelation for our modern moment
Every time our country or the world faces a major crisis, people ask, “Is this the end of the world?” And every time a crisis occurs, Christians begin to open their Bibles to that strange and mysterious book in the…
The brutal honesty of The Book of Mormon
I’ve seen the hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon twice. Deliciously blasphemous, it is as profound as it is profane. It’s also brutally honest and theologically instructive. Written by the creators of South Park (Matt Parker and Trey Stone),…
The troubled waters of sexual diversity: Moving from reflection to action
This is the seventh and final article in a series on sexual diversity. If we were profiling you, a reader of Baptist News Global, our profile would look something like this: You are English-language literate; college-educated, probably with some graduate…
Faith communities are undergoing upheaval, awakening and maybe transformation
Something is happening in the religious and spiritual universe. Many people, if they care about religion at all, have noticed the changing face of religion and spirituality in the United States and throughout the world. Most Americans consider themselves spiritual,…
‘Radical new arrangements’: On conservative Christian radicalization in the U.S.
After a year of researching the matter rather deeply — including listening to conservative scholars, activists and politicians — it has become completely clear to me that a significant chunk of conservative Christians in the United States has moved from…
Baldwin, Bobby and the necessity of hard conversations
I’ve been engaging in hard conversations about race for the past seven years. Sometimes I’m asked if they matter, if anything can change hearts and minds. Not long ago, a friend who is a devout Christian and a person of…
What transactional sexuality could teach us about Matt Chandler’s odd leave of absence and confession
Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church north of Dallas, has recently taken an indefinite leave of absence after exchanging direct messages on Instagram with a woman who is not his wife. Although he states that the messages were not…