The recent mass murder events help to nudge the conscience, a conscience that has been beaten senseless by the incessant beating of the anti-abortion drum and the idolatrous-like worship of the Second Amendment. The oxymoron of being both anti-abortion and…
My trip to the seamy world of horseracing
I have been looking for an excuse to wear my fedora. When friends from church invited us to the horse races, they assumed we had been before. They do not know I am still working through the list of things…
In the news this weekend: This is what it means to take God’s name in vain
Editor’s note: This article discusses gun violence and violence toward the LGBTQ community. Two news stories caught my attention this weekend. First, I saw this thread on Twitter. The reporter was live tweeting about how a white supremacist group filled…
Sympathy does not defeat white supremacy
On May 14, 2022, an 18-year-old white man killed 10 Black people and wounded three others at a TOPS supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y. He drove more than 200 miles from his home in southern New York…
What Kenobi has taught me about God
Spoiler alert: This article includes important plot information about the new series Kenobi. I’ve always considered myself a pop culture theologian. Since my earliest writings for my hometown newspaper, I would take the recent blockbuster film and compare it to…
Is ‘fascism’ the right name for the Trumpist hard right in America?
Long after it seemed dead and buried with Mussolini and Hitler, the term “fascism” has been making a comeback — not as the self-description of authoritarian politicians and parties, but as an epithet applied by their enemies, or as an…
God in three persons, blessed Trinity
Although I would not make a good Jeopardy! contestant and I seldom win at Trivial Pursuit, I tend to remember unusual things about movies. A few facts stick in my mind, like where the movie was made, whether the movie…
Bill Self in 1984: ‘Babylonian Captivity of the Convention’
Editor’s note: In 1984, the Southern Baptist Convention met in Kansas City for what was the sixth year of the so-called “conservative resurgence” that in time captured the leadership structure of the SBC and turned it rightward. The next year,…
If ‘guns don’t kill people, people do,’ how should we respond?
You probably have heard the simplistic explanation, often delivered proudly as if it is the very first time someone has thought to say it: “Guns don’t kill people, people do!” This retort is most often given after another senseless murder…
Create in me a clean heart
We cringe to see the result of hate and anger in the world: bullying, mudslinging, demeaning, plotting, scheming, lying and worse. I’ve become aware of its increasing popularity and the draining, negative effect on my spirit. It’s easy to get…
If I had the power to ‘Zap!’ people, I’d be using it a lot right now
In Naomi Alderman’s 2016 novel, The Power, a force awakens in girls and women that lets them send electrical shocks out from their hands. They begin to use this power to fight back against men and to become dominant. Under…
Here’s what’s wrong with the new Hardin Simmons Statement of Faith
As a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University’s class of 2019, I recently became aware of the board of trustees newly released Statement of Faith, which was adopted on May 19, 2022. Of particular note is the trustee’s declaration on sexuality and…