An influential Southern Baptist pastor stood Wednesday (Aug. 19) in the headquarters of the world’s largest military and, with no sense of irony, preached a message of hope for Pentagon leaders by pointing to multiple biblical passages where God miraculously…
Department of Homeland Security Spied on Churches in the Twin Cities
According to documents filed in federal court this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent undercover agents into church buildings to track activists attending events at Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopal, and Universalist churches in Minnesota’s Twin Cities (and an event…
Flunk Those Who Want a Religious Test for Office
The Republican lieutenant governor of Indiana wants to change his state’s Constitution to bar non-Christians from holding public office. A Christian Nationalist pastor who won his spot as part of the gubernatorial ticket with then-U.S. Sen. Mike Braun in 2024,…
Hegseth continues to apply Isaiah 6:8 to US warfare
Once again, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has conscripted Scripture to his military cause, making the faith of Jews and Christians synonymous with fighting for the United States military. On May 23, during a commencement address at the U.S….
Cooperative Baptists Challenge Christian Nationalism, Advocate for Loving Neighbors
Earlier this month, the Southern Baptist Convention met in Orlando, Florida, and again voted against women in ministry. The next week, some Baptists met a couple hours north in Jacksonville for their own annual gathering. And you don’t have to look very…
BJC speakers inspire with tales of fighting authoritarianism
Fighting authoritarianism doesn’t require being violently forced to the ground and handcuffed by police outside an immigration detention center, said Michael Woolf, a Chicago-area Baptist pastor, author and activist who experienced that very thing. “There’s something for everybody to do,…
Rededicating to the Wrong Example
This Sunday (May 17), the administration led by a guy who hasn’t attended a Sunday worship service in 4.5 years will put on a “worship” service on the National Mall. Called “Rededicate 250,” the event is supposedly part of the…
Review & Giveaway: Becoming Neighbors
The concept of “neighbor” is a pretty big deal within the Christian faith. In summarizing God’s law and his teachings, Jesus basically says love God with everything you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39). It’s ironic that…
Baptist journalist broke the story of Hegseth’s Pulp Fiction prayer
A Baptist journalist is responsible for identifying Pete Hegseth’s prayer as cribbed from Pulp Fiction, and his attention to detail has gone around the world. It was Brian Kaylor, editor of Word&Way, who broke the news of last Wednesday’s Pentagon worship…
Pete Hegseth’s War Prayer
Standing in the Pentagon for a monthly worship service on March 25, the man who likes to call himself the “secretary of war” prayed for God to pour out righteous wrath in the Iran conflict by helping “break the teeth” and kill…
Trump and Hegseth defy evangelical theology at Prayer Breakfast
Much attention has been paid to the remarks of President Donald Trump at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast, but the real story is what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said, according to Brian Kaylor. Kaylor, editor of Word&Way, writes a Substack…
Christian nationalism is a power grab, Kaylor says in new book
There’s a simple reason Christian nationalists are willing to abandon long-held values and rewrite, redact and reinterpret the Bible as needed to support Donald Trump, Brian Kaylor says. “They want power,” said Kaylor, a Baptist minister, editor-in-chief of Word&Way and…