When conservatives gained control of the Southern Baptist Convention in the early 1990s, leaders of state Baptist conventions paid their obeisance by upping the percentage of church offerings they sent to the national convention. Thirty years later, that well is...
Each time a new baby was born, a single red rosebud was placed on the altar in the sanctuary of my home church. My youngest child was born after I returned to serve there, and 12 years ago, her red…
Tulsa, Okla., is the home base of a relatively new organization that wants evangelical Christians to take over all levels of government and reign as “elders” anointed by God. City Elders, which now is a trademarked name, describes itself as…
“Pro-family” activists worked hard to elect Donald Trump and other GOP candidates this fall. The nonprofit Family Policy Alliance, which partners with Focus on the Family, says it mobilized voters through 12 million emails in swing states and brought 850,000…
“Tell us one interesting thing about yourself.” I’ve always disliked that “icebreaker” question, whether it occurs in a business gathering, conference breakout, Sunday school class, retreat setting or anywhere else. I always have considered my life to have been a…
Overall support for the death penalty has dropped to 1970s levels due in large part to disapproving younger adults, Gallup reported in a new study. Fewer than half the Millennial and Gen Z generations — namely all those born after…
Donald Trump isn’t even in office yet and there’s already political flak between his intended “border czar” and the mayors of Denver and Boston over Trump’s plan to deport millions of illegal immigrants. Paul Homan warned the mayor of Boston,…
Now as much as ever, people across the spectrum of faith must proclaim religious freedom to push back against conservative Christians claiming sole ownership of religion in America, rabbi and author Jill Jacobs said. “It’s really important that progressive religious…
“Gone to the fields to be lovely. Be back when I’m through blooming.” From the poem Camas Lilies by Lynn Unger As a general rule, I believe in attempting to live out of a mentality of abundance over scarcity. However,…
Last week I spent a day in Austin, Texas, to testify for the second time against the new (and newly named) “Bluebonnet Learning K-5 Reading Language Arts” curriculum. Despite significant opposition, the Bible-infused curriculum was approved, which should be unsurprising…
