A trip home to be with family in the face of an illness gave an interesting lens to the dynamics of return. Then on the heels of that, the memorial service of a formative ministry figure called the writer also…
In response to Uvalde, the church can learn from the murder of George Floyd
May 25 was the two-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. It’s a date that can easily slip our minds, especially with the more recent stories of horror that have captivated our attention. In the month leading up to…
My story of being trans and the conservative Baptist school that made me that way
Catchy headline, right? You may be asking how it was possible that a trans person could even begin to thank a conservative Christian university. No, this is not another piece on how conservative evangelical Christianity made my life so bad…
Letter to the Editor: SBC should not repeat the mistake of the 1997 Disney boycott
June 7, 2022 Letter to the Editor Dear Editor: As a Southern Baptist minister for 40-plus years, I have been privileged to align myself with the beliefs, doctrines and cultural mandates for all Southern Baptists and Christians living in today’s…
There are many more sexual abuse stories to be told from the SBC, and this is one of them
Note: The following opinion piece includes detailed descriptions of sexual assault. These past two weeks have been, to borrow a phrase from Russell Moore, an “apocalypse” for the Southern Baptist Convention. On May 22, an independent Sexual Abuse Task Force…
What Southern Baptists must do now to address clergy sex abuse
Editor’s note: After this article was published, the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force pulled its June 1 set of recommendations from the website. Those recommendations eventually were replaced by an updated document June 8 that now exists in the same…
Meet the Mama Bears, who give away hugs and hope
A new documentary titled Mama Bears directed by Daresha Kyi has started sweeping the nation. Premiering at film festivals from coast to coast (and winning many awards along the way) this 90-minute film features three stories that encapsulate the heart…
No, there are not two equally valid sides to some issues
In the 1980s and ’90s, while I was teaching English, I also was a debate coach. High school debate is a lot of fun, primarily because the drama of teenagers is just as present there as it is on the…
No one else is coming, so do something
Dear church, Today I write to you from three places in my soul: parent, prophet and pastor. Like many Texas parents, I had a momentary flash of panic last Tuesday. I opened my news app on the way to pick…
The three wise men of the Southern Baptist Convention
I love Christmas and usually start playing Christmas music during the end of summer. One of my favorite parts of the Christmas story is that of the three wise men. I love that these men were courageous enough to follow…
‘Un-friendly’ fire in the Southern Baptist Convention unearths layers of deceit, resurfaces old wounds
The bombshell investigative report of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee by Guidepost Solutions comes as no surprise, given each of the items mentioned is hardly new. What is new is that these items have been “objectively” considered by a…
Have the fundamentalists won? And the future of liberal Christianity
One hundred years ago, May 21, 1922, Harry Emerson Fosdick preached his most famous sermon, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” He was at the time the preaching minister of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City. The Presbyterian denomination along…