This is the ninth in a BNG series of articles on Christianity and democracy that will lead toward the July 4 celebration of America’s 250th birthday. The series has been curated by Carol McEntyre, senior minister at First Baptist Church of...
Our Lord seemingly can’t catch the proverbial break from certain evangelical theologians these days, and it doesn’t seem he’ll be getting one anytime soon. Nearly a year after my initial piece on attempts to diminish Jesus Christ’s divinity, power and…
From time to time, I like to revisit a sermon by Jeremiah Wright, pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, titled, “The Audacity to Hope.” I always find inspiration from Wright’s words and particularly I find solace…
Disagreement over the Gaza war among evangelicals is no surprise given the complicated history in Israel/Palestine and Christians’ deep engagement with the Holy Land. Christianity Today, a flagship evangelical publication, has covered the situation in the Holy Land since its…
Author David Greenberg knew he had a tough assignment ahead of him six years ago when he accepted the challenge of writing a biography of John Lewis. The result is John Lewis: A Life, which draws on interviews with Lewis…
Dismissing anti-racism and racial reconciliation efforts as anti-American and subversive ignores and twists the teachings of Jesus, justice advocate Latasha Morrison said during a Dec. 4 webinar hosted by Equal Justice USA. That cynical attitude is embraced not only by…
After calling 86 descendants of Dietrich Bonhoeffer “pro-Hamas, Jew-hating lunatics,” Eric Metaxas issued something of an apology Dec. 4. Metaxas, who wrote a controversial biography of Bonhoeffer and is a well-known Christian nationalist and 2020 election denier, used part of…
Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., and its present and former leaders are named defendants in two lawsuits filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court Dec. 3. The Southern Baptist church has made headlines for more than a year now,…
The Trump administration is expected to export worldwide its Christian nationalist views on abortion, gender inequity and sexual rights, a reproductive health care expert said during a recent Brookings Institution podcast. Transforming U.S. foreign policy into an instrument for global…
Duane Thomas died Oct. 29. You likely never heard of him, but he was one of my treasured friends. Charlotte and I moved to Siloam Springs, Ark., when I became pastor of First Baptist Church there in March of 1968, at…
Political party leaders around the globe, including Donald Trump, are openly flirting with fascism to consolidate power by exploiting economic and cultural conflicts. When considering how to respond to these troubling developments, many Christians rightly turn to the example of…
I’m not sure if Esther Burroughs and Joy Fenner knew each other, but I suspect they must have. Both were trailblazing women in Southern Baptist life. Now they have died within four days of each other, causing an old-timer like…
During Thanksgiving week, I watched two movies: Wicked and Gladiator II. Both movies reminded me of evangelicals up to their television satellites and steeples in secular politics. I watched the citizens of Oz pour into the streets, singing, “The wicked…
