“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...
A church building the Southern Baptist Convention president called the Notre Dame of the denomination fell victim to a four-alarm fire Friday night, July 19. Firefighters have not yet determined the cause of the fire that took down the historic…
To understand the insidious nature of Christian nationalism, look no further than Franklin Graham’s appearance at the Republican National Convention last night. Graham already has demonstrated he knows no shame in endorsing, blessing and lionizing the most corrupt president in…
Now that headline is a mouthful, but it feels like a way forward for congregational life today. That may be too many labels. The story is told of a rancher in Texas showing a friend his huge spread which combined…
Fostering church cultures where both pastors and church musicians flourish requires discerning the perspectives and challenges of the other, Methodist pastor Andy Stoker said during a webinar about pastor-musician working relationships. “Creating a culture whereby a pastor and church musician…
To the Bureau of Prisons, Steve Bannon is inmate No. 05635-509. But to his disciples in America and Europe, he’s a true-blue hero, populist prophet, savior of Western civilization and F-bomb-spouting soldier of God. Most Americans never heard of him…
Barbara Francis stepped away from 34 years in faith-based media this summer by relinquishing production of “Transitions” and “Ministry Jobs and More” for Baptist News Global. Starting in 1990, she rose from typesetter to business manager for the Religious Herald…
Joe Biden, 81 and alarmingly feeble, refuses, at least for the moment, to pass the torch of presidential leadership to a younger Democrat. Meanwhile, the possible reelection of convicted felon Donald Trump, 78 and barely rational, looms like a doomsday…
Earlier this year, I had the great opportunity to get to know Charlie Bell, who is a forensic psychiatrist, the John Marks Fellow at Girton College Cambridge, a priest in the Church of England, and scholar in residence at the…
Many evangelical Christians who already have declared Donald Trump to be God’s anointed choice for president see his near-assassination last Saturday as further sign of God’s favor and protection. And other Christians who oppose Trump see his near-miss as a…
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that “when the message goes out constantly that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy and that the republic would end, it heats up the environment.” Johnson called for…
On July 2, I was on a Zoom gathering for a discussion of the new book by Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood: Baptizing America, How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism. During the discussion, one of the authors observed that…
The most anti-immigrant and pro-evangelical presidential candidate in modern history has chosen as his running mate a man whose wife is the daughter of immigrants and is not Christian. Donald Trump’s selection of JD Vance as his vice presidential candidate…
