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...
Here’s the thing: The parents are not all right.
We’ve been at this unprecedented pandemic-parenting for more than five months, and there is no visible nightlight at the end of this dark and uncertain tunnel.
Sex scandals are nothing new to American politics and yet have an uncanny ability to rouse the American public. Religious studies scholar Leslie Dorrough Smith’s recent work, Compromising Positions: Sex Scandals, Politics, and American Christianity, argues that this phenomenon is…
As students of all ages stream back to school — whether virtually or in person — Baptist universities are among the institutions implementing new strategies due to COVID-19. Mercer University in Macon, Ga., invested about $750,000 to create an on-campus…
Back during the heated battle for control of the Southern Baptist Convention, Ed Young once chided the denominational press for seeking information about a fundamentalist leader who had done something untoward. I can’t remember who had committed the sin or…
Los Angeles County has asked that Pastor John MacArthur and his Grace Community Church be held in contempt of court for violating a court order not to hold indoor worship services on Sunday, Aug. 16. A hearing is set on…
There’s a lot going on in global ministry in response to the coronavirus outbreak, and that means there’s a lot going on at the Baptist World Alliance. The Falls Church, Va.-based international ministry is responding spiritually and financially to the…
Sioux City, like most towns in the rural Midwest, went heavily for Trump in 2016. It was there that the Republican candidate claimed he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue without losing votes. Many of the Sioux Center residents interviewed…
In the New York Times on Ash Wednesday, February 26, 2020, an op-ed appeared by historian Jon Meacham which he titled, “Jesus May Be the Best Hope Against an Amoral President,” and he observed “history suggests that religiously inspired activism may hold the best hope for those in resistance to the prevailing Trumpian order.”
I never have had a tattoo on my body, although every time we go down to Daytona Beach on vacation, I tell my wife I think it’s about time. There are parlors everywhere and “it would be discreet,” I say. I’m not…
In my little town in Oregon, I saw a car with two Confederate flags and a bumper sticker that said, “Powered by Haters.” My shock at the blatant declaration did not translate into any direct action, and I wondered what,…
The idea that Millennials are attracted mostly to contemporary worship services is largely an outdated stereotype — at least in moderate and progressive Baptist settings, say ministers who serve young adults and youth. Instead, young adults are hungry for churches…
The untimely death of a visionary African bishop and the disclosure of a traditionalist faction’s plans for a new denomination have reset the playing field for the United Methodist Church’s future. With that reset have come allegations of neocolonialism and…
