Monday, I shared the news with my classmates at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, where I am pursuing a master of divinity degree, that Baylor University had received a grant from the Baugh Foundation to “foster LGBTQ inclusion in churches,”…
Baylor rejects grant to study LGBTQ exclusion in the church
The president of Baylor University appears to have burned a final bridge with a Texas-based foundation that once was a critical funder of its Baptist identity. President Linda Livingstone has rescinded a $643,000 grant awarded to the Diana Garland School…
UMC can sue SMU over governance, Texas high court says
The Texas Supreme Court says the South Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church has legal standing to sue Southern Methodist University over changed bylaws that deprived the regional body of its right to govern the church-owned university located in…
In conversation with Katie Gaitan
This spring, graduating Baylor University English/political science major Katie Gaitan sat with me in back-to-back classes. She was smart and compassionate, always prepared and an incredible resource for me as a professor. As the semester moved toward a close, she…
Baylor and CBF announce new partnership
Baylor University and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have announced a joint venture that will place three CBF field personnel — missionaries — on campus to guide students in responding to God’s call to ministry. Baylor is a Baptist heritage university…
Baylor international students safe for now
The federal government temporarily reinstated the visas of three international Baylor University students just weeks after revoking them as part of President Donald Trump’s massive immigration crackdown, the Baylor Lariat reported. The student newspaper at the Baptist-affiliated university did not…
Mercer President Underwood will return to classroom next year
Trustees of Mercer University will begin the search for a new president, as William Underwood has announced he plans to return to his position as a tenured professor in the School of Law in 2026. Underwood has led the Baptist-affiliated…
Through it all: Baylor profs celebrate influence of Andrae Crouch
It has been 10 years since the death of Andraé Crouch. It has taken Robert F. Darden and Stephen M. Newby nine of those years to create their biography on the life of groundbreaking gospel singer and composer. Those years…
Trump’s fight against international students hits home at Baylor
The Trump administration’s unexplained revocation of international student visas hit Baylor University April 9. The Waco, Texas, school currently is among a select few faith-based private universities affected by the unannounced revocations of hundreds of study visas at 120 schools…
Baylor grad seeks to hold the line against Trump’s executive overreach
The road to opposing President Donald Trump’s executive overreach runs straight out of Waco, Texas. That’s the hometown of Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, the legal advocacy group that is leading the charge in federal court against Trump’s blizzard…
Racism is a series of lies
What precisely is so bad about racism? Part of me hopes I ask this question to a sympathetic audience who knows something is wrong with how we view race. But perhaps you can’t quite put your finger on what is…
Lawsuit between SMU and UMC is headed to court again
Southern Methodist University in Dallas is headed back to court seeking to free itself from the authority of The United Methodist Church. Most sources trace this conflict back to actions taken by the UMC in 2019, but a tug-of-war between…