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...
In September 2021, a massive billboard promoting Donald Trump loomed high above Highway 27 in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., with the words of Isaiah 9:6, a biblical text long cherished by Christians, emblazoned over an American flag: “Unto us a son…
Among the many failings of capital punishment is its disproportionate use against people of color, its failure to deter violent crime and the spiritual and emotional trauma it inflicts on families, jurors and prison guards, death penalty abolitionist Michael Stone…
The horror of death and destruction now crippling the Middle East, euphemistically known as “The Holy Land,” finds me constantly defaulting to one overriding emotion: Gratitude. And no, that is not a typo. I’m grateful my late sister, Nancie Wingo,…
At 17, Blake Chastain decided he would become an evangelical pastor. A quarter century later, he’s an unofficial chaplain-activist for those who’ve left evangelicalism behind. His new book, Exvangelical and Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That’s…
Invocation. “Come Ye Disconsolate,” Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway § § § § Today, in the United States (and selected outposts of our nation’s allies and opponents), there is a gluttony of emotive expression prompted by our nation’s electoral conclusions. As…
Nearly a month after pleading guilty to a felony charge of providing false information to law enforcement, Matthew Queen has resigned as pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C. Queen, former evangelism professor and interim provost at Southwestern…
Donald Trump’s victory last Tuesday prompted embattled Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters to prepare parents there for elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. On Thursday, Nov. 7 — two days after the presidential election — Walters sent…
Donald Trump’s return to the White House is “the absolute worst case scenario,” according to religion scholar Matthew Taylor. “We’re in an epochal shift in American history of the worst sort, and while it does not spell the absolute end…
The last time this happened, I met with two other ministers in a bottle shop. The owner opened up early for us. We filed in with bags under our eyes, proof we stayed awake too late watching news outlets and…
As I drove my children to school the day after the election, my middle school daughter began to ask questions. Days, weeks and months leading up to the election, there were questions from both of my daughters. They could see…
As I reflect on Donald Trump being elected to a second term as president, I sit here at a Cracker Barrel in the Louisville, Ky., area with a mixture of country and contemporary Christian music playing in the background. Patriotic…
Voters in Colorado, Kentucky and Nebraska rejected taxpayer-supported voucher programs for private schools. The 2024 “no” votes may represent the most significant speed bump for “school freedom” since the movement launched in 1990. Red-state legislators support vouchers, which remain unpopular…
