The transmogrification of the SBC: When Baptists no longer are Baptist

As the Southern Baptist Convention in its recent annual meeting has proved itself unreliably Baptist, it gives me pause to think about how quickly the transmogrification of this Baptist denomination into its ecclesiastical opposite has happened. Baptist folk often have...

Opinion H. Stephen Shoemaker

Featured

As MAGA pastors gain influence, let’s talk about peace instead of power

“Kind of disturbing” is how journalist Katie Couric described an Axios piece about how Donald Trump built an insurmountable lead in Monday’s Iowa caucus by catering to evangelical MAGA pastors. “They say obviously they embrace Trump because of the Supreme Court justices who helped…

CRT is a useful tool in analyzing Southern Baptist history on race

In 1980, legal scholar and critical race theorist Derrick Bell penned his pioneering article, “Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma” in Harvard Law Review. In it, Bell tackled a controversial and difficult question: In the wake of…

Iowa and the zombie myth about white evangelical support for Trump

Heading into the Iowa caucuses, the Republican presidential candidate standings looked to be as frozen as the snow-covered ground. The last results from the storied Iowa Poll, conducted by J. Ann Selzer from Jan. 7 to 12, showed Donald Trump with…

The ‘god’ many American Christians worship

Driving along Highway 27 in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., in mid-September 2021, motorists were surprised to see a billboard bearing a phrase from the Bible they had often heard during the Christmas season in their churches: “Unto us a son is…

Condemning Alabama for using an experimental drug to execute a prisoner misses the point, author warns

Justified condemnations of Alabama’s plan to execute a convicted killer Jan. 25 using an untested gas serve as a distraction from the ultimate need to end the death penalty altogether, Katie Owens-Murphy said during a webinar hosted by Equal Justice…

Is God the partner of racists?

I am having trouble understanding, or making sense of, what I am hearing and seeing in this country. So many white people — and plenty of non-whites as well — are fully committed to the former president. Nothing he has…

Koch-backed lawyers want Supreme Court to upend ‘administrative state’ and some religious groups are cheering them on

On the surface, the case argued before the Supreme Court Jan. 17 is about two Atlantic fisheries upset about the federal regulations that restrict them. But dive a little deeper and you’ll see the bigger issue: Decades-old battles over how…

Dixie’s Daughters, the Lost Cause and the roots of white Christian nationalism

Did you grow up hearing the Civil War was fought over states’ rights, not slavery? And how was the war referred to? Civil War? War Between the States? The War of Northern Aggression? Then you were exposed to the Lost…

Politics, faith and mission: A talk with Tim Alberta on his book and faith journey

You may have watched Tim Alberta recently on 60 Minutes, Meet the Press, Firing Line or a full house of cable news shows. His rigorously researched and painfully personal bestseller The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory is essential reading…

Trump keeps wooing evangelical voters through grievance and promises of protection

“He’s the only savior I can see,” one woman told a reporter as she explained her plans to vote for Donald Trump for the third time this fall. “I believe Trump is appointed by God — appointed-slash-anointed, however you want…

God of the specific

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Already broken them? Join the club. Odds are you’re vowing to lose weight, get more exercise, get a handle on your finances, etc. If those haven’t worked in the past, here’s a better resolution,…

Opal Lee already knows what her 99th birthday present will be

In an interview last summer, Opal Lee told BNG she would “keep on walking and talking until somebody listens” in her fight for social change. And eight months later, the now 97-year-old “Grandmother of Juneteenth” is keeping her word. Lee’s…