Note: This post is an excerpt from a chapter titled “Juneteenth” in the author’s forthcoming book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy, which will be published September 8 and is now available for pre-order....
I remember well the day I heard the word “woke” for the very first time. It came from the mouth of a Black scholar addressing a conference on “Public Theology and Racial Justice” at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville. It…
In 1976, the bicentennial year celebrating the birth of our nation with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Republican President Gerald Ford became the first president to recognize February as Black History Month. In a short presidential message, Ford recognized the…
As each day since the presidential inauguration has passed, I’ve found myself wondering more and more, “What’s wrong with straight white men?”* I feel like we’re living some version of “Revenge of the Straight White Men” because they are so…
In January, several bills were proposed across different states relating to child sexual abuse — many addressing statutes of limitations, nondisclosure agreements or settlement payouts. Legislators said they hope these changes will make it easier for child sexual abuse victims…
Baptist News Global’s podcast series “Stuck in the Middle with You” is back with two special episodes that introduce a second season of the show. Co-hosts Mark Wingfield and Benjamin Cole intend to devote most of season two to interviews…
In a move that is more publicity stunt than workable policy, President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to prepare to house tens of thousands of “criminal aliens” at the Navy base at Guantánamo Bay. “We have 30,000 beds in…
Vice President JD Vance is getting schooled by theologians over his inverted theology expressed in a Jan. 29 interview on Fox News. What Vance said: “There’s this old school — and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the…
Greg Jarrell is a writer, ordained minister, jazz musician, and BNG contributor living in the intentional QC Family Tree community in Charlotte, N.C.’s, Enderly Park region — which one Reddit thread describes as noisy because of airplanes and gunshots. But…
“Don’t Call Him Evangelical — How to Remember Jimmy Carter’s Faith, And How Not To” was the title of the article in my email inbox. As a native Georgian, cradle roll Baptist and proud former partner in President Carter’s work…
Bob Jaeger and his team at Partners for Sacred Places want struggling American congregations to know there are numerous ways to preserve and use aging facilities beyond just seeing them become pieces of commercial real estate. But doing so requires…
Truth be told, we as a nation, in our rage against immigrants, no longer trust in the great “I AM,” the Lord God who sponsored the Hebrews’ extrication from Pharaoh’s Egyptian servitude. We as a nation have become inhabited by…
I have often sat with my older LGBTQ friends and heard their stories of terror and loss during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ’90s. This disease spread throughout the LGBTQ community like wildfire, while many leaders in both…
