A few weeks ago, I sat with a Baptist leader who described himself as a “moderate Baptist.” He meant it as a compliment, and most people in our circles would receive it that way. After all, “moderate” is one of...
Robert Jeffress, after seven years of supporting a politician who routinely breaks most of the Ten Commandments, now wants to speak a word in favor of the commandments. In a Fox News opinion piece, “God’s Cure for the World’s Chaos…
Transgender and nonbinary people must familiarize themselves with anti-trans theologies and dialogue with religious conservatives to counter growing transphobic narratives, trans author and speaker Joy Ladin said. Those with alternative sexual and gender identities also must see the religious and…
While U.S. annual conferences are going through the throes of more painful disaffiliations through the end of 2023, one regional unit’s board of trustees has set up a way for churches that have left to rejoin The United Methodist Church….
We first met her nearly two decades ago as a neatly wrapped character named Shannon Hendrickson in a bestselling “Boy Meets Girl” book written by her ex-husband about his theology of courtship after kissing dating goodbye. The character we were…
“The first part of the book was great, but then why did you have to go there?” I was talking to my brother-in-law’s book club, a group of Lutherans who call themselves the Churchies. (I don’t think they’ve registered that…
Amy Butler’s new book, Beautiful and Terrible Things, is an effort to expose her own struggles as a woman, a mother, a Christian and a high-profile pastor without shining too bright a light on the failings of others, she said….
I’m sure you’ve noticed the proliferation of profanity on television. The ubiquity of the f-word on dramas like Succession is stunning. The queen of all cuss words crops up so frequently that I started counting. I shouldn’t have bothered, somebody…
The first national gathering of Fresh Expressions United Methodist has moved its site from Florida to North Carolina after potential attendees raised concerns they would not feel safe in the “anti-woke” atmosphere of the Sunshine State. Michael Beck, director Fresh…
Thematic use of a minor 7th chord is one of the secrets to the enduring success of the 1970s-era youth musical Celebrate Life, according to a musician who helped facilitate a Carnegie Hall revival this summer. In musical terms, a…
The powerful Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom has defended more than half a dozen businesses in lawsuits protecting them from having to serve partners in same-sex weddings. But a recent exploration of ADF’s work suggests some of its cases…
On Sept. 10, 2017, I sat in Washington National Cathedral as Dean Randolph Hollerith announced that after almost two years of discussion, prayer and discernment, the Cathedral Chapter had decided to remove a set of stained-glass windows donated by the…
Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” has been more destructive to Black Americans than slavery or Jim Crow or segregation, according to the only Black Republican running for president. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., made the statement during the Sept. 27 GOP…
