On Nov. 30, 2022, 7-year-old Athena Strand was kidnapped and murdered by FedEx driver Tanner Horner. Horner was at Strand’s house delivering a package when he instead abducted and then later murdered the young girl. When arrested by police, he…
Young Daniel and his three friends would like a word
We’ve seen it, the gold-plated 22-foot statue erected at the Trump Doral Golf Club, blessed by one of his court priests, evangelical pastor Mark Burns, paid for by the Presidents Crypto Bros. The pose is his defiant hand raised at…
The Republican Party’s Blackout
History has a strange way of repeating itself, especially when America refuses to learn from it. In 2026, the Republican Party is facing a political mirror it can no longer avoid. Every Black Republican currently serving in the U.S. House…
Letting go of our ‘wish dream’ for the church
From the very beginning, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings centered around the life of the church. The church, its calling and welfare, was his passion. As a young doctoral student, he wrote two dissertations. One was titled, “Christ Existing as Community.” As…
A life-giving alternative to Religious Right religion
A reader recently emailed me, “If I had to choose between religious-right Christianity or atheism, I would have to choose atheism.” This reader hasn’t lost faith in Jesus. But he’s deeply troubled that American religion (at least a large segment of…
Proof that I was worth the trouble: A story of my mother
Sitting in the car with my mother, I kept quiet. I’d already said enough. It was Thursday. My project on the state of North Carolina was due Monday. My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Ballard, had made that clear months ago….
When the shepherd grows weary
Pastoral ministry rarely pauses long enough for leaders to notice the weight they carry. The work does not begin on Sunday morning or end when the sanctuary grows quiet. In our counseling practice, we sit with pastors who describe a…
Voting rights and the ancestral voices of the African diaspora
Let me tell you what just happened: The U.S. Supreme Court effectively dismantled the Voting Rights Act. The very legislation for which John Lewis bled on that bridge, for which Fannie Lou Hamer was beaten in a Mississippi jail, for…
Ted Turner: The maverick who changed the world
There are few Americans in modern history who can say they fundamentally changed how the world watches television, experiences sports, consumes news and thinks about philanthropy. Ted Turner is one of those rare figures. Whether people agreed with his politics,…
In conversation with Jim Somerville
For 18 years, Jim Somerville has done something many pastors talk about but far fewer actually attempt. He has led a historic congregation to change. This change isn’t merely cosmetic or programmatic but rather the kind that presses on identity…
What I learned from a month of MAGA immersion
Are you living in a filter-bubble? Of course you are. Whether you receive most of your information from Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Truth Social or X, you are getting filtered content. The almighty algorithm learns how you think, what you like,…
Ben Sasse’s courage, grace and metastasized Calvinism
Two tensions can be true at the same time. We can admire a person’s courage and grace without blindly accepting their well-intentioned but dangerous beliefs. Many Christians recently shared on social media a segment of Scott Pelley’s 60 Minutes interview…