As a Baptist and Faith and Freedom Fellow with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Tennessee, I have observed how Christian nationalism is reshaping American churches, often blurring the lines between faith and political power. This poses a significant risk to our values…
6 ways to gain credibility in our gospel witness
The gospel message itself always has been a big ask for much of the world to accept: an unmarried virgin’s conception, Jesus’ myriad supra-science miracles, the atoning death, the bodily resurrection. It is for this very reason the Apostle Paul…
Letter to the Editor: More on Keith Parks
Dear Editor: BNG published a wonderful article on the death of Keith Parks. There is one item you would not have had information about. I was the national networking coordinator when Keith was hired at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Cecil Sherman was…
Do Lifeway’s trustees even have a pulse?
Just imagine you are an elected trustee of a $300 million denominational entity whose outgoing president lobs verbal grenades toward the trustees and corporate culture on his way out the door. And then you show up a week later for…
The sin of sloth takes a deadly turn
One of the seven deadly sins of Western Christianity is the sin of sloth. It often is characterized as “laziness,” which some aim at certain racial or economic groups using terms like “lazy” or “shiftless” to characterize their character. In…
When citizenship becomes a test and the tester is morally bankrupt
In August, journalist Mirandaa Jeyaretnam of TIME reported the Trump administration had expanded its definition of “good moral character” for citizenship applicants. The new policy directs U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to apply a “holistic” standard that screens not just…
The ‘crackers’ are cracking up over Cracker Barrel rebrand
The uber-sensitive MAGA universe thinks Cracker Barrel, the country food chain restaurant dotting America’s interstates, has gone woke. According to my MAGA sources, the problem lies with the corporate executives changing the Cracker Barrel logo. I used the disparaging word…
Deliberately inciting rebellion: The GOP’s latest power play
Earlier this summer I wrote a piece titled “We Are in Dangerous, Uncharted Waters.” It addressed the Los Angeles ICE raids and the military deployment in response to the ensuing protests. I cautioned that the language used by the Trump…
This is what we should be doing, now
If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to read Heather Cox Richardson’s Aug. 25 Substack. If you don’t already know it, what Richardson wrote about is that the United States has been taken over by a white supremacist…
Stephen Miller, we know what you’re doing
Recently, I read that in 1988, a decision was made in Russia to stop giving their more than 50 million school children history examinations because they did not wish to continue to spread the “lies” the history was spreading. When…
In conversation with Joash Thomas
Joash Thomas is a descendant of the St. Thomas tradition of Christianity on the Indian subcontinent, a former Southern conservative political consultant and a theologian always pushing the church to listen to the voices of the marginalized, whether immigrants, indigenous…
Get in the water
I dream of one day gliding through the clear waters of a pool, with its abundantly chlorinated surface reflecting light like a beacon of sanctification. Against all odds, I envision myself as Michael Phelps’ significantly shorter, less talented, but far…