A few weeks ago, I had an epiphany. It sprang from an odd source: Episode 178 of a podcast called The Bible for Normal People, “Pete Ruins Isaiah.” Pete Enns is an Old Testament scholar determined to bridge the great…
Explaining mainliners and evangelicals at Bubba-Doo’s
If you’ve ever stepped into a place and gotten the feeling there were two or three people laying low for you, you’ll understand the vibe that met me the other day. I stopped by my favorite country store, Bubba-Doo’s. It’s…
The one thing that most predicts a pastor’s success
Of all the things I’ve learned through a few decades of mentoring young writers and pastors, one predictor of success stands out above all. This one thing rises above raw talent, education or privilege — all of which may play…
Thoughts on Jesse Jackson’s 80th birthday
For two years, we have been living through the age of COVID-19 which, as we all know, has spread through numerous and ongoing waves across the world. Vaccinations have made a difference. But from time to time, COVID-19 infects individuals…
The ‘conservative resurgence’ leadership in the SBC is past its expiration date
Like cottage cheese in the refrigerator, intellectual movements have a shelf life. They are born with promise and hope and often die in odious calamities. Evidence of the end of the movement often is mistaken for something else. Observers blame…
‘Leave that boy alone; he’s at Grandaddy’s house!’
At 3 a.m. in the dark of the morning of June 14, 1954, William Emmitt Newell, my grandfather, stirred from his usual sound sleep. “Is it time to go to church, Momma?” he asked his wife, Lela Kittrell Newell, mother…
Decent men of faith and sexual abuse
Before I get into this piece any further, let me admit that decency is a pretty low bar for people of faith. I find that in most churches (I cannot speak for synagogues or temples or mosques), the bar is generally set…
Lunatic, liar or lord, revisited
After writing six opinion pieces for Baptist News Global about former President Donald J. Trump, I felt his defeat signaled that I would not need to spend any more time or effort treating him as the subject of a new article. But…
Sexual harassment at 30,000 feet
I recently got on an airplane for a trip to preach at a Baptist Women in Ministry partner church despite some hesitations I had about flying. My hesitations were because of health concerns related to the current Delta variant spike,…
Saving our churches from Dylann Roof’s white Jesus
Dylann Roof, the white Christian man who murdered nine African Americans during the closing prayer of a Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015, was back in the news recently after a federal appeals court upheld his conviction…
Cathedrals of learning: A lament for the liberal arts
We built grand cathedrals. The arches and vaults reached toward heaven. Cathedrals of theology, art, literature, history, music. Cathedrals for the growing of souls. But the barbarians came with their budget officers, reducing souls to earning power. They took machetes…
Being Christian in an antediluvian age
Antediluvian: adj. of or belonging to the time before the Flood. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus had these words of warning: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man….