The Trump administration must prove to a federal judge that its surveillance of a Baptist church and other congregations did not violate an injunction barring the government’s clandestine efforts. U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor in Massachusetts scheduled a Sept. 4…
Undercover ICE agent spies on Baptist church
Leaders and members of a Minnesota Baptist church were stunned and angered to learn recently that an undercover immigration agent entered their facilities to spy on the congregation in May. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer reportedly entered University Baptist…
In conversation with Art Wright
Drive into Williamsburg, Va., from the west and you will see it before you see the church. A rainbow-striped banner. Designed by a pastor who cannot fully explain why he made it, only that it needed to say something true…
The GOP has a transgender fixation, and Democrats aren’t helping
While the man in charge of the most powerful military in world history threatened to blow an entire civilization into oblivion, “never to be brought back again,” many of us wondered how his Christian followers would respond. Back in 2016,…
3 ways churches may respond to the violence of conversion therapy
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down a Colorado law that banned conversion therapy for minors in the state. The court ruled the Colorado law a violation of therapists’ free speech. Only one justice (Ketanji Jackson) dissented, meaning the ruling…
What your pastor says this Sunday matters very much
I’m not usually one to say, “If your pastor doesn’t say X about Y this Sunday, then you should leave your church.” I usually encourage talking with your pastor, helping your pastor and fellow layfolks see the perspective you’re bringing…
If you’re uncertain how to approach Israel and Gaza, start with grief
I’ve known churches that have been on the frontlines of every concern of justice, congregations in which you could well assume nearly everyone is voting for the same candidate at the top of the ticket, churches in which no controversial…
I left the pastorate while still loving it
Leaving the pastorate of my congregation in June was the hardest vocational decision I’ve yet had to make. After reading Alexander Lang’s recent article, “Departure: Why I Left the Church,” I wanted to write about leaving my church while still…
Here’s something to try on for size: Talk about things that are ‘more-than-human’
In our world of ecological precarity, I’ve been exploring what it would mean to move beyond doing environmental justice, to living in a different relationship with beings beyond the human. I think about this relationship both with those beings we…
‘Will it come like this, the moment of my death?’ Living and dying in a COVID-19 world
This global pandemic requires us to confront the possibility of death – not fearfully or obsessively, but with intentionality born of the reality of the present moment, longing for Easter as Gethsemane and Golgotha linger.
CBF & LGBTQ Baptists: Thanks for the Illumination
Illumination makes things clearer for those willing to look where the light is shining. And these are a few lessons I’ve learned from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Illumination Project.
More evidence religion is declining — and that’s OK with these pastors
A computer scientist who crunched the numbers on American religion says the decline of faith will accelerate during the next 20 years. But is decreasing religiosity and increasing secularization such a bad thing? Some clergy don’t think so.