Note: This article discusses suicide, child sexual abuse and domestic violence. It may be distressing for some readers. On June 30, child liberation theologian and abuse survivor advocate Ryan Stollar died by suicide, following a lengthy struggle with his...
I am no longer a teacher, but I often speak and write about biblical justice and immigration. In this context I often hear people say that immigrants do not assimilate. As a good advocate, I am supposed to say, “Yes,…
“Each person will be loved unconditionally” but Samford University “will continue to stand on God’s word” and will not “celebrate and advocate for other expressions of sexuality than those historically supported” by the Baptist school, President Beck Taylor told students…
Recently, Eli Manning did a segment on his ESPN show, “Eli’s Places,” where he wanted to see what it’s like to be a walk-on for a college football powerhouse. He chose Penn State, the home of the Nittany Lions. However,…
Letter to the Editor September 30, 2022 Dear Editor: As a 2014 graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I am closely monitoring events at my beloved alma mater with a great deal of disappointment and sadness. There is an unparalleled…
Life in The United Methodist Church these days is like riding a seesaw: one moment up and the next down. Sometimes the players bump on the dirt; sometimes they slide off the high end. However, United Methodists from bishops through…
Do you think God must hate you? You’re not alone. Anger toward God can occur for a multitude of reasons and is usually experienced after suffering a setback a person perceives is unfair, most often when that suffering is very…
Have you ever been walking along and lost your balance, one part of the body out of sync with the other parts, and you weren’t sure where you might land? The church in America is there. The lack of balance…
It was the late 1960s. Musical variety shows were all the rage, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was selling millions of records and appearing often on television. That’s when three leaders at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Radio and Television Commission…
It’s no news flash that the presence — or sudden absence — of memorials to the Confederacy is a symbol of America’s divided politics today. Yet a new national study by Public Religion Research Institute puts some hard numbers on…
I didn’t hear the term “the Bible Belt” until early in my adult years. When I asked what it meant, the response was somewhat unsatisfactory. All I got was that it had something to do with the South. Growing up…
Bishop William J. Barber brought his Poor People’s Campaign and Moral Mondays to Jackson, Miss., Sept. 26 to protest a notoriously neglected and broken water system that has generated hundreds of boil advisories in the last two years alone and…
“And let us not be weary in well doing,” the Apostle Paul advised in his letter to the Galatians, “for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Sometimes, well doing may mean just hanging on. Even Paul,…
