When Mike Pence substituted the American flag for Jesus in his speech during last week’s Republican National Convention, he continued a long tradition of American fundamentalist Christianity, which seems to have a problem with Jesus. Pence did not misspeak. His…
Six ways ‘American Gospel’ is small-minded and abusive
I grew up so terrified of God’s wrath that I drove through a stoplight while staring at my speedometer, afraid I’d lose my salvation for breaking God’s law in Romans 13 by going 36 mph in a 35-mph zone. When…
In ‘Hamilton,’ King George has Calvin on his side
I watched “Hamilton” last night for the first time. And I was struck by the parallels in King George’s song You’ll Be Back to the Calvinistic view of God. The lyrics say: “The price of my love’s not a price…
BNG’s Top 25 of the decade
Presented here are BNG’s top 25 news and opinion articles during the past decade.
Tom Ascol, Calvinist leader and social justice critic, hospitalized after collapsing at church
Founders Ministries Executive Director Tom Ascol, who in the 1980s helped launch a movement to establish five-point Calvinism as the new orthodoxy in the Southern Baptist Convention, was hospitalized after collapsing at his church Sunday morning.
Breaking up is hard to do? Notable absences at next year’s Together for the Gospel
A lineup of speakers for the 2020 Together for the Gospel conference announced Sept. 3 excludes a number of familiar faces from past gatherings, suggesting possible rifts in the Neo-Calvinist preaching club sometimes called the young, restless and Reformed.
Weaponized Calvinism? Accused synagogue shooter spouted both racist conspiracy theories and the doctrines of grace
Revelations that the accused gunman in a deadly synagogue shooting in California was a church-going Presbyterian prompted statements from a small denomination that is part of the “young, restless and reformed” family tree.
Simmons College panel critical of Southern Seminary’s self-study on slavery and racism
A panel at a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky, said a December report on the history of slavery and racism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is meaningless as long as the school continues to perpetuate the flawed theology behind the founders’ slaveholder religion.
‘Traditionalist’ blog SBC Today says goodbye
A blog for Southern Baptists opposed to five-point Calvinism is shutting down indefinitely. An Oct. 30 posting on SBC Today, a news and opinion blog promoting what supporters call a “traditional” Southern Baptist view of predestination, announced the online forum…