Imagine my excitement the other night when I got advance notice about a personal appearance Oct. 3 by Rob Wittman, my U.S. House representative, only a mile or so from my house. Could it be real? I’d heard of Wittman…
SBC president is siding with Trump over Jesus on immigration
The Southern Baptist Convention appears to be returning to its deeply oppressive and problematic roots. This past week, the new president of the SBC, Willy Rice, in an interview with Fox News, encouraged people to go out and vote. And…
Gee, Wally, I don’t think we oughta
In 1960, an episode of the sitcom Leave it to Beaver aired in which Beaver befriends a new student named Kenneth who showers him with gifts, hoping to buy his friendship. His teacher, Miss Landers, learns that items are disappearing…
What leadership loses in the Age of Visibility
Imagine a young man recording a 60-second video in his bedroom. By the next evening, 2 million people have watched it. Invitations follow. A publisher calls. Somewhere along the way, people begin describing him as a leader. Perhaps he is….
What kind of church exists when the sermon is done?
Seven years ago, I sat in Noel Schoonmaker’s office at Second Baptist Church in Richmond and told him I was struggling to worship with white people. This is not hyperbole. I was struggling. There already had been moments at Second…
What should we make of Dennis Hastert’s life?
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert died over the weekend at age 84. His death closes the life of a man who occupied one of the most powerful offices in the United States and whose public reputation collided catastrophically with…
Christa Pike and the moral case for ending the death penalty
When I worked in death-penalty communications, words such as “execution,” “death warrant,” “clemency” and “lethal injection” began to sound like the ordinary vocabulary of public policy. There is nothing ordinary about what those words mean. Last week’s failed execution of…
What could your church do with $122 million?
Follow the money. That’s one of journalism’s most fundamental maxims. So what does it mean for voters who try to follow Jesus’ teachings in their civic lives that the Republican Party has poured $122 million into advertising on behalf of…
‘Bye bitch’ and other Bible Belt reactions to execution news
My arm jolted in pain as the needle slid into a vein in my right arm. It momentarily interrupted my response to the other nurse on the left of my gurney in a surgical suite at a Christian hospital in…
Guess who hasn’t said anything about the Cornell Seven
While most Americans have opinions on the Cornell Seven — the frat boys accused of rape and sexual assault at Cornell University — you know who hasn’t said a darned word publicly about any of this? Russell Moore, Beth Moore,…
Are we in another ‘Golden Calf’ moment?
These days, in the land of the free and the home of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, the story of the Golden Calf as described in Exodus 32 and Deuteronomy 9 keeps coming to mind. Exodus says: The Lord said to Moses,…
Do not become numb to the cruelty of this administration
Another day and another news report of Trump administration cruelty related to immigrants and immigration policies. Yesterday it was 2-year-olds left to represent themselves before immigration judges. Today it was another hard-working immigrant legally living in the United States snatched…