George Lakoff has given the world one of the most helpful and depressing models of understanding the differences between liberals and conservatives and how we think — what he calls the moral mind. His book Moral Politics: How Liberals and…
Why children are behaving differently at church after the pandemic
It is now June 2024, and we are four years away from the beginning of the COVID-19 experience in the United States. But the ripple effects of the pandemic are still being felt in church children’s ministries. As an educator…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Starlette Thomas
Starlette Thomas is a preacher, an associate editor and the director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative at Good Faith Media and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church. We had…
How low will they go?
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Just when I think the so-called “Christian” enablers of Trump can’t go any lower, they do. It makes me wonder if there is any bottom to the cesspool of their devotion to…
The sad consequences of the end times theology and entertainment of my youth
When I was growing up in a Baptist church, I was fascinated with end times theology. It was not until later in life that I realized how ahistorical and unscholarly most of that theology was. I read the Left Behind…
Trump the totem
Last week’s historic verdict is worth rehearsing. On May 30, Donald J. Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a crime. Twelve ordinary citizens unanimously found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in…
Witch hunt finds Trump guilty
My children gleefully learned about labeling women “witches” from the movie The Princess Bride. In an infamous scene, while attempting to heal the mostly dead Westley, Miracle Max is accosted by his wife, Valerie. He responds with, “Get back, witch!”…
A conversation with Jason Carter, grandson of Jimmy Carter
We’re all amazed that President Carter has been on hospice for so long. I know this was an intentional decision on his part. What kind of response have he and the family gotten to his public praise for hospice? His…
No, Mr. Trump, America is not going to hell
After Donald Trump’s conviction in his Manhattan trial, he said, “Our whole country is being rigged” and “has gone to hell.” Then he added, “We’re a nation in decline, serious decline. Millions and millions of people, pouring into our country…