It has been a long 16 months, and I think we can all agree we’d like to move on with our lives. This past year has challenged not only our health and safety, but also our jobs, our finances, our…
I’m pro-life, but I can’t support this
Let me start by saying this: I am pro-life. I am pro-life for the unborn. I am pro-life for the migrant children flooding our borders seeking refuge from the atrocities in their own countries. I am pro-life for their parents…
On Father’s Day, lessons from home, from church, from the SBC — and a better way to be a parent
My father and I are estranged and have been for several years now. I don’t mean for this to sound dramatic, because it isn’t. But just because something isn’t dramatic doesn’t mean there isn’t still pain. Especially around Father’s Day….
The pastor as chief encourager
Clergy have been called many things through the ages. We are the “chief among sinners,” after all. In some ways my own ordained ministry has been guided by the wisdom of my graduate advisor at Duke Divinity School, Bishop Will…
My story and the Southern Baptist Convention
Some will question the veracity of the fact that I feel bad about what is happening to the Southern Baptist Convention in light of the story I am telling for the first time in such a public forum. If ever…
If Critical Race Theory really were about what my state representative says it is, I’d oppose it too
Rep. Jeremy Faison, chairman of the Tennessee House of Representatives Republican Caucus, recently wrote his “Viewpoint” regarding House Bill 580, outlawing Critical Race Theory in Tennesse schools. And it was published in the Newport Plain Talk, a local newspaper. He…
Just because you believe the Bible ‘says it’ doesn’t ‘settle it’
Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, “The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it!” On the brink of the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, it appears that Baptists continue to wrestle with diverse perspectives on how to read,…
Why Critical Race Theory could be good news for ‘nice white people’
A bedrock theological concept of my formation as a white American evangelical was the idea, best articulated by Paul in Romans 14-20, that there is a war going on within all of us between those things that are good and…
Editing our narratives has the power to heal future generations
There’s a common thread to much of the social conflict we’re seeing in church and society these days, and it has to do with our willingness to edit our own stories. Let’s call it a hardening of the narratives. One…
For universities, when it comes to LGBTQ issues, focus on student well-being
Let’s say you are on the trustee board of a Christian-affiliated university and you are trying to figure out what your school should do about its policies related to LGBTQ students. You have two conservative voices in your ears, one…
Mike Stone and Ronnie Floyd should step down
When I pulled into the seven-figure neighborhood outside Dallas, I began to wonder to myself why a former seminary president would be living in a mansion in this posh suburb near Plano. Then as I pulled up to the door,…
A Palestinian Christian’s cry for justice
As a professor of missions and theology at Logsdon Seminary for 18 years, I was committed to introducing my students to fascinating, significant people whose challenging ideas would instruct and inspire, helping to create more engaged and equipped young adult…