“Take him out! Blow him up! Take him out! Blow him up!” the children chant during a vacation Bible school program at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky. With eerie music looming over the scene, the viral TikTok video...
One of the more infuriating and frightening aspects of Project 2025 is the audacity of its designers to openly promote the subversion of the U.S. government and Constitution, said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and…
The way pastors and pundits respond to controversy online in the heat of a cultural moment can be a window for discovering how power works in society and a reminder for where Christians can find beauty. When screenshots of the…
Like a billion other people, I recently watched the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics. The next day I saw numerous articles about evangelicals being “offended” by the event. Upon further reading, I discovered they were offended by the…
It’s the church equivalent of the star of one popular TV show making a guest appearance for a story arc on a different popular TV show. There, it’s called a “crossover.” Seldom has there been a crossover in church life…
“Teacher! Billy stuck his tongue out at me!” You’re the teacher. Take a moment to think about how you’d respond. Many folks would say, “Billy? Did you stick your tongue out at Jimmy? … Tell me the truth. … OK….
Enough with the pearl-clutching! As if many rightwing Christians have nothing better to do, on Friday they set X alight with outrage over a scene from the Paris Olympics opening celebration. Drag queens were part of a DaVinci’s Last Supper…
Vote for me this year, and you won’t have to vote ever again, Donald Trump told a group of evangelical Christians July 26. The Republican presidential nominee was speaking at The Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by Turning Point Action,…
The percentage of Americans who want immigration levels to decrease has risen sharply in the past year despite the nation’s urgent need for foreign-born workers in agricultural and other labor industries. A Gallup poll released this month found 55% of…
In every election year, pastors face the reality of political conflict and tension in their congregations. This year is that and more. For 20 years, I served as pastor of what some call a “purple” church — a mixture of…
A friend at the YMCA where I work has some struggles with his hip. Even so, he is regularly in the gym building muscle, the pain notwithstanding. He smiles on the way into the gym even though he is hurting….
As the Summer Olympics begin tomorrow, we will watch men and women who put in years of sacrifice and training, pushing their bodies to their very limits, culminating in those few moments to compete against the best of the best….
One day after being not fired by his board of trustees, Brent Leatherwood joined a select group of evangelical leaders for a private meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C. Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention…
