As a denominational worker, I sat through countless trainings where visitation was considered a thing of the past as an outreach tool. The truth is, when a church is not held hostage by trends and theological debate, it has the…
House Republicans will pray to solve the problem they created
The House Freedom Caucus has announced a prayer meeting to seek God’s help solving a problem they created themselves. How ironic. Today’s prayer meeting was called, in part, to ask for divine intervention on the government shutdown, now in its…
Matt Queen’s return to the pastorate sends a message
In October 2024, Matt Queen pled guilty to lying to the FBI in a sexual abuse investigation, and now, just a year later, Queen has been hired as associate pastor at a prominent Southern Baptist church. At the time of his crime, Queen…
The injustice of normalizing pain in reproductive health care
Unproved medical claims, like tying autism to the use of Tylenol during pregnancy, set a dangerous precedent in pain management during pregnancy and in overall reproductive health care. “Toughing it out” isn’t an option when systemic inequities continue to contribute to higher rates of maternal…
What about anti-gospel bias?
“But when you give a party, ask the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. That is the way to find happiness, because they have no means of repaying you.” — Luke 14:14 In February 2025, President Donald…
‘Secretly they continue to live within us and through us’
In 2023, my two grandmothers died within six weeks of each other — January and February. During that time, I found out a dear friend had cancer. After Easter, she told me her cancer was terminal and she wasn’t interested…
The children are starving; God is screaming
James Talarico, a Democratic state representative in Texas, recently was interviewed on MSNBC and asked by hosts what his views are on the war in Gaza. He responded, “There’s a theologian who said, ‘I screamed at God for the starving…
Trump’s latest bundle of lies endangers trans folk the most
“No transgender for everyone,” Donald Trump declared of his second term as president in a controversial social media post Oct. 27. In an 83-word Truth Social post that boasted at least eight flagrant lies, Trump included as part of his…
A faithful response to the Wounded Knee decision
On Sept. 26, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the 20 soldiers who participated in the 1890 massacre of hundreds of Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee would retain the Medals of Honor awarded to them….
Don’t shoot the boats!
The U.S. military sank Venezuelan vessels at least six times since early September. A strike on Oct. 14 killed six people. After a strike on Oct. 17, the U.S. took survivors into custody, and the death toll from these attacks…
The American church is comfortable and lazy
One reason there is such a dissonance between the church and the culture in the United States is because the church has gotten lazy. In the early days of my time in Abilene, Texas, at Crescent Heights Baptist Church, Hardin-Simmons…
We need more faith spaces that affirm the LGBTQ communities
Earlier this month, the conservative evangelical “King’s Army” spewed homophobia at Londoners and I was transported back to being a closeted queer teenager. Hearing those same sentiments at a young age was what made me realize my childhood church was not a…