These days, you’ve got to stand in line to quote the late German pastor Martin Niemöller, referencing (and repenting for) his early support for Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. Remember how it ends? Then they came for me — and there…
7 things to do to oppose MAGA authoritarianism
“Time heals all wounds.” That’s the most galactically stupid saying in the English language. It’s like saying, “Time hits all baseballs.” While it takes time for a baseball to get from mound to plate, time doesn’t hit the ball. We…
Why I’m glad DEI is being dismantled
I am glad DEI is being dismantled. I hope all the attempts to soft-pedal systemic racism in this country without calling its name will be dismantled. Many people have found ways to water down this work, which is a part…
A Baptist boy’s journey toward faith, freedom and authenticity
When I was 5 years old, I believed I could be nothing but a Southern Baptist. My friends were Southern Baptists, my family was Southern Baptist, and my Appalachian community likewise was Southern Baptist. We worshiped in a small brick…
Yes, violence is not the answer
Three days ago, as I arrived at the Nashville airport, I watched ICE agents detain a well-dressed Hispanic young man and disappear him through a side door as masses of travelers streamed by, no one stopping to notice what was…
A timely new podcast episode with Jodi Chapman
When Ben Cole and I sat down with Jodi Chapman in Nashville two days ago, we did not realize the incredible timing of what was about to take place. We were recording a new episode of our “Stuck in the…
How not to be a ‘brood of vipers’
“We have to stop demonizing people by calling them whitewashed tombs and vipers.” That might have been a quote in the AD 30 Jerusalem News when a scribe or Pharisee complained about the language Jesus used to describe them. But…
Enough: A Christian response to weaponizing our faith
The assassination of Charlie Kirk has shaken the country, both because of the horror of political violence and because of what the aftermath is revealing about the spiritual bankruptcy of our political culture. The headlines and hot takes were swift:…
Death, politics and the private faith of public power
The decision by Utah prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Tyler Robinson, accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has transformed a tragic act into something more than a criminal case. It has become a litmus test for politics,…
Why Trump proudly hates his enemies
Sunday’s memorial for the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk certainly was an interesting spectacle. The five-hour event in Glendale, Ariz., attended by thousands of supporters spread across two arenas, was hardly a somber funeral so much as a combined tent…
Reflections on a five-hour memorial service
I must report a grievous theft. God’s sacred gifts to me, my words, have been stolen. They have been filched and deceptively redefined, their time-honored meanings scrapped and their hollowed sounds marshalled for cheap tricks. This switcharoo is not my…
Mississippi’s ‘strange fruit’ harvested again
Apparently strange fruit is still being harvested. That’s the chilling metaphor of Black bodies hanging from trees in the American South. Mississippi long has been the epicenter of America’s most brutal racial domestic terrorisms, lynchings. Between 1877 and 1950, according…