Note: This article discusses suicide, child sexual abuse and domestic violence. It may be distressing for some readers. On June 30, child liberation theologian and abuse survivor advocate Ryan Stollar died by suicide, following a lengthy struggle with his...
While Millennials are less churched than most generations, data has shown they are no less spiritual. So why aren’t they in our pews? The longer I have examined this question, the more I’ve been convinced it is the wrong one….
You know what they say on Easter afternoon in my line of work: “Christ is risen; the pastor is dead.” It sounds funny and perhaps it was, 19 years ago when I was first ordained. It might be age that…
Church consultants have been saying it so long they almost sound like a broken record: congregations are closing at appalling rates and most are too afraid to face it. That’s certainly nothing new to congregational coaches like Eddie Hammett, president…
The Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm has voiced support of a controversial Mississippi religious freedom bill being decried as anti-gay. The SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission published an article April 1 titled “Will Mississippi Lead the Way?” The…
Recently some colleagues of mine and I hosted a four-part series on Baylor University’s campus for survivors of sexual assault and their advocates. We created a space for lament, then silence, next anger, and finally hope. We acknowledged in each…
Very seldom do you hear governors wax theological. But Nathan Deal’s veto message last week was a solid blow struck in the fight over what it means to be a Baptist in the South.
“Do you consider yourself a first responder?” The question seemed odd at first, but it was sincere. The person who asked had not mistaken me for a firefighter or a police officer or a paramedic. Something different was meant. Not…
On the anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., dozens of faith leaders are calling for the U.S. presidential candidates to include a “living wage” for low-income workers in their political agendas.
Cruz’s defense of life is hard to reconcile with his calls to carpet-bomb and “annihilate” ISIS. How does one reconcile the defense of human dignity with these policy proposals?
When Bobby Catt, minister of students at First Baptist Church in San Angelo, Texas, discovered a student mission trip opportunity in Wimberley in the Texas Hill Country, he knew he had to sign up his youth group right away. Catt…
We’ve been reminded that the whirling galaxies, the energy and the matter, the space and the time, the quarks and the stars, the waves and the wind are all part of One, grand and unifying Spirit. I was surprised when…
A Southern Baptist church in Oklahoma is reportedly working internally to address a controversy involving a deacon whose company is working on a building that will be used to perform abortions. An online petition with more than 500 signatures and…
