Samford University and Ouachita Baptist University, two Baptist-affiliated schools, are safe places for conservative students to attend, according to the Heritage Foundation, progenitor of Project 2025. The conservative think tank — that has taken a sharp turn to the further…
Stop threatening HBCUs
This week, as Black History Month began, numerous Historically Black Colleges and Universities were terrorized with bomb threats. This infuriates me. Black people are creations of God and loved by God. That should mean something to people of faith. This…
HBCUs urge Congress to see infrastructure funding as a justice issue
The president of a historically Black college with deep Baptist roots has joined an array of HBCU leaders to demand their under-funded institutions receive a bigger slice of the federal budget currently being drafted by Congress. Kevin Cosby of Louisville-based…
Biden Education Department hopes to reverse last-minute Trump allowance of campus discrimination based on religious beliefs
The U.S. Department of Education announced Aug. 19 that it anticipates rescinding parts of a rule enacted by the Trump administration that forces universities to financially support religious student groups that discriminate. This November 2020 reinterpretation of the Free Inquiry Rule…
For universities, when it comes to LGBTQ issues, focus on student well-being
Let’s say you are on the trustee board of a Christian-affiliated university and you are trying to figure out what your school should do about its policies related to LGBTQ students. You have two conservative voices in your ears, one…
Southwestern Seminary changes name of its undergraduate college
A Southern Baptist seminary in Texas has changed the name of its undergraduate college for the second time since its founding in 2005. The new name, Texas Baptist College, carries a state feel to it, yet neither Southwestern Baptist Theological…
What to do if you unearth a history of slavery in your church, college or institution?
With increasing attention to the roots of American slavery in religious life, more churches and faith-based ministries that existed prior to the Civil War are unearthing truths they wish weren’t true. Then the hard questions arise: How should a church,…
What should it cost a denomination to control governance of a university?
How much money should a denominational body have to give to a university in return for the ability to control that university’s governance? Turns out, not much in many cases. As state, regional and national denominational bodies have faced declining…
This kind of denomination IS dead
Anyone who has followed my lifelong trek through the maze of denominational staff service, and consulting and coaching with denominational organizations, knows that I believe in denominations. I also believe they have a future that respects their past and present….