Social media was abuzz this week with reaction to Southern Baptist Convention leader Al Mohler appearing on a podcast with Christian nationalist Doug Wilson. The mere fact of them being in conversation is the most notable thing, because what they...
Just as my eyes fluttered open, Joanna looked over the side of my gurney and said words on which my life pivoted: “Dr. Steckler said you won’t die from this.” Even through the fog of anesthesia, I realized that brief…
In a rare example of bipartisan cooperation, the U.S. Senate advanced the Respect for Marriage Act Nov. 16, clearing the way for likely passage of a bill that would protect same-sex marriage beyond future court challenges. By a 62-to-37 vote,…
Last year my wife and I, on a trip to Maine, included our annual detour to Salem, Mass. It’s a fascinating city just outside Boston, filled with literary and pre-Colonial history. Quite an industry has grown up around the historic…
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Alyssa Aldape, to Commonwealth Baptist Church, Alexandria, Va., as minister of faith formation. Laura Ayala, to Cooperative Baptist…
Dear Baylor administration: What could possibly be so difficult about acknowledging one of your alumnae who brought great fame to your school through a national basketball championship now languishing in a Russian penal colony and who needs to be brought…
Churches cannot remain places solely dedicated to worship and congregational fellowship if they are to answer the calling to serve their neighbors, United Church of Christ minister and activist Jamesetta Ferguson said during the 2022 Coldwell Lectures at Louisville Presbyterian…
Mercer University’s board of trustees elected 10 new trustees and a new board chair during its November meeting and authorized increasing the Aspire capital campaign goal from $400 million to $500 million. Launched in 2014, Aspire, The Campaign for Mercer University already…
“We’re thankful God protected us.” When I was in seminary in the early 1990s, Mount Pinatubo erupted, devastating Luzon, the largest and most populated island in the Philippines. In the 1980s, I twice had served as a summer missionary on…
The American Civil War was “a war with a musical soundtrack,” according to Christian McWhirter. And that soundtrack continues to echo through the American church today, illustrating the different life experiences of Black and white Christians in particular, once again…
Walking into the room, I saw a 3-year-old with a cast on his leg sitting in his hospital bed surrounded by plush Hulk, Captain America and Spider-Man toys. Sitting next to the bed was a weary-looking mom, who welcomed me…
While the prospect of becoming enslaved may seem like an irrelevant question today — slavery was abolished in the United States 157 years ago with the ratification of the 13th Amendment — last week citizens in five states voted on…
The word “anointed” has made a return to politics. Evangelicals, once giddy at pulling off the incredulous claim that Donald Trump was somehow God’s anointed, are not the ones currently attempting to return the “anointing” to presidential politics. Anointing now…
