In the wake of the violence of January 6, 2021, some observers wondered why the insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol weren’t charged with domestic terrorism. The reason is simple: There is no standalone federal crime on the books for domestic...
Attorney General Ken Paxton is attacking religious freedom in the entire state of Texas, according to an attorney for Annunciation House in El Paso. Paxton, a prominent member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, has been after the Catholic…
The Southern Baptist Convention didn’t actually vote to ban IVF, Focus on the Family says in a June 13 article posted to its Daily Citizens newsletter site. The comment comes in response to a resolution adopted by messengers to the…
Cries of “Bullshit!” “Bullshit” rang out at a packed Phoenix megachurch June 6 as Donald Trump held his first campaign rally since his conviction on 34 felonies in New York. Trump said the charges against him were “made up” and…
If Southern Baptists have saints, there are only two and they are both women. Each are revered for their dedication to ministry and circumspect way of living. Neither was flashy or given to being the life of the party. This…
As my social media feed filled this week with posts and updates in the face of yet another gathering of Southern Baptists hell-bent on stripping away any leadership opportunities for women in ministry, I found myself angry and disheartened. While…
Sunday before last in worship, we read from Genesis 3:8, a passage that says in the NRSV English translation: “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and…
The far right dedicated 2023 to fine-tuning and expanding hate-spreading tactics to fuel one of the most bitter and dangerous presidential contests in U.S. history, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Extremists and those opposing…
I am a cultural anthropologist, and I was doing a study in Cabbagetown, a predominantly white, evangelical neighborhood of Atlanta, in the 1970s when I began to hear local pastors talking about taking America back for Jesus. They argued the…
The formal death notice of Herman Paul Pressler III, a former Texas state appellate judge and the chief strategist behind a now 45-year rightward shift in the 14 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, hit me like a brick. For months, I…
Nathaniel Jung-Chul Lee is an Episcopal priest who studied with Stanley Hauerwas at Duke, completed a Ph.D. from Baylor and teaches at St. John’s University. We’ve had the opportunity to collaborate on issues of race and faith at the Episcopal…
January 30, 2022, will forever be etched into the mind of April Simpkins. She continues to grieve the loss of her daughter, Cheslie Kryst, who by all outside appearances had been living a perfect life. Cheslie was Miss USA in…
Herman Paul Pressler III of Houston died June 7, four days before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, where nothing was said about his passing. Pressler, who had just turned 94, was the co-architect of the so-called “conservative resurgence” in…
