Across America this week, Baptist women are carrying a familiar weight. Some are pastors who have faithfully answered the call of God, only to watch the Southern Baptist Convention debate whether God possibly could have called them. Some are seminary...
Interfaith Alliance launched a cross-country bus tour Oct. 28 to remind Americans voting is a civic and holy undertaking. “I’m kicking off this moment to declare that the vote is sacred, and not just for some people in this country,…
If your pastor were to stand in the pulpit this Sunday and explicitly tell you to vote for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris for president, would your church be in legal jeopardy? Technically, yes. Realistically, no. The potential peril…
Last Sunday, on my way to a neighboring church, I was struck by the sea of political signs lining the road — billboards and bumper stickers promoting candidates for every conceivable office. It’s that time of year again — campaign…
The trickster stirred the pot and knew what was about to happen. Esau was hangry (hunger that makes you angry). Maybe it was merely his unsuccessful hunt for food. Maybe he was upset by the high cost of groceries. Who…
A Canadian Baptist church and association ordained two ministers from the United Kingdom Oct. 27 because they could not be ordained in the Baptist Union of Great Britain. First Baptist Church of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Association for…
Evangelicals supporting Donald Trump gathered at an Atlanta charismatic megachurch Monday afternoon for a National Faith Summit organized by his faith adviser and decades-long friend, Paula White Cain, who lobbed softball questions before an audience she claimed included “thousands of…
On Oct. 5, I attended the memorial service for my friend of 46 years, Floyd Craig, in Nashville, Tenn. The memorial service was led by our mutual friend, David Sapp. All three of us met in 1978 when I started…
Two weeks ago, I received a press release from a PR firm inquiring about my interest in interviewing pastor and New York Times bestselling author David Platt. The request struck me as unusual, as Platt typically only grants interviews coinciding…
Watching Donald Trump take over the American political church months ago in Iowa on the holiday that celebrates Martin Luther King, it became clear how far the church has fallen from the teachings of Jesus Christ. In King, the American…
My life, like so many others, is a journey of seemingly unrelated worlds merging in joyous, messy, difficult, lovely ways that defy easy explanations. My experience in the arena of professional clergy intersects with the domestic sphere as a wife…
When you come across something in your history that is wrong, “the thing to do is to confess and seek forgiveness,” Richard Hays told a large gathering of LGBTQ Christians and allies Oct. 25. Hays, a New Testament scholar who…
Note: This story was updated Oct. 29 with additional comments from church leaders. One of the most prominent Baptist churches in Texas quietly quit the Southern Baptist Convention Oct. 27 — part of an unnoticed trend that’s hard to…
