“They stole $77,000. And that was all of my savings.” Her voice was so soft I (Doug) had to lean in to hear her. “I’ve talked with the local police, the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission. The money is...
Baptist Women in Ministry will expand its advocacy efforts in light of actions taken and not taken by the Baptist General Convention of Texas last week, according to Meredith Stone. Stone, BWIM’s executive director, was one of two messengers to…
A small radio rested in my grandmother’s kitchen — one of those gadgets stained by time and the touch of hands that saw a day’s labor before sunrise. On it played nothing but Country Gold. As pintos simmered on the…
Americans deeply value the First Amendment, but increasing numbers of people don’t understand the protections and limits of the doctrine, according to new research by the Freedom Forum. And while support for the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment…
Editor’s note: This article is about profanity and therefore necessarily includes some profanity and substitutes for profanity. A graduate assistant at Louisiana State University, Marcus Venable, has become a casualty in the unending “culture wars.” He has been fired…
Paulos Do Manuere, a staunch Catholic, doesn’t forget the Thursday in 2013 when he received a fully funded scholarship from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to study civil engineering at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. “I was astonished to…
The growing complexity and pervasiveness of digital devices and social media is diminishing our capacity to relate authentically to others and to God, author and cultural sociologist Felicia Wu Song said. “Research is showing (that technology) is creating an inability…
You’ve tithed all your life to a church, dutifully giving that 10% “back to God” as you were taught. But then something happened. A loved one came out. Or you came out. Or Trump got elected. Or the pandemic happened….
I haven’t attended church in almost four years and can’t imagine going back. I don’t share this lightly. I was so dedicated to the church that I structured my entire career spanning two decades cleaning restrooms and floors in order to have…
The largest evangelical megachurch in Alabama just spent $4.5 million to open a center for pastoral restoration. The center provides counseling and support for pastors working through issues that cost them their jobs — issues like marital infidelity and sexual…
It was 1989 and I had taken a class called Just Peacemaking taught by Glenn H. Stassen. For those of you not familiar with Stassen, he was a nuclear physicist turned theologian turned ethics professor at the Southern Baptist Theological…
Love him or hate him, James MacDonald is one thing for sure: A larger-than-life symbol of the stress and perils of leading a gigachurch — a role he now believes is impossible. Among evangelical pastors, MacDonald is both revered and…
Last Friday, the leading Republican candidates for president (sans Trump) showed up in Des Moines, Iowa, to campaign among approximately 2,000 overwhelmingly white evangelicals. The forum was sponsored by an evangelical organization called the Family Leader, an organization with a mission…
