In 2003, the Coen brothers released their romantic comedy Intolerable Cruelty. The movie wasn’t great. In fact, it’s entirely forgettable, which is why I was surprised I remembered it at all. After reading the news lately, though, I’m now convinced…
Letter to the Editor: A response to Laura Ellis on abortion and Christian Realism
Letter to the Editor May 17, 2022 Dear Editor: We all have a right to be wrong. Laura Ellis’s article, “Why I am a Pro-Choice Christian and Believe You Should Be Too” — while carefully constructed — simply fails basic…
Roe v. Wade, the great divider
It’s perversely fitting, I suppose, that Roe v. Wade, the most divisive Supreme Court ruling of the past 50 years, will likely be overturned at the most divisive national moment since it was issued, promising even deeper division. Justice Samuel…
Secular revolutions and religious counterrevolutions
In 2015, highly esteemed Princeton political philosopher Michael Walzer published The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions. The title itself immediately arrested me, as it crystallized a current intuition of mine. I believe the United States and several…
SBC presidential candidate wants ERLC leader fired for joining 75 other pro-life leaders in urging compassion for women who have abortions
A pastor campaigning to become president of the Southern Baptist Convention has called for the interim leader of an SBC ethics agency to be fired because he signed onto a letter urging compassion for women who have abortions. Tom Ascol,…
The tangled web of evangelical opposition to abortion while believing in original sin, eternal conscious torment and the mysterious age of accountability
Few topics enflame conservative evangelicalism’s self-righteous ire like the topic of abortion. We’ve all seen social media posts from friends that depict or describe abortion procedures in the most graphically violent ways in order to shock us. Who could possibly…
Why I’m a pro-choice Christian and believe you should be too
The Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a leaked first draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. As an early draft, this opinion is not an official decision from the court, and abortion remains…
The Supreme Court’s politicized decision on abortion will do nothing to help churches thrive
As if the American church isn’t divided enough, it appears we’re about to roll back the clock 50 years on abortion rights and throw more jet fuel on the culture war bonfires consuming our congregations. For some churches and pastors,…
Alito and public opinion reveal the link between Roe and a broader white Christian nationalist agenda
Like many of you, I’m still taking in the bombshell news — broken by Politico Monday night — that the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that affirmed a constitutional right…