Politics sometimes becomes religion for people. This is a fact. It is dangerous when politics becomes religion for people. This is my conviction. This phenomenon seems most likely to happen when a culturally established religion fades to become merely politics,…
A Holy Week reflection on justice and the Cross
On Palm Sunday in my Bible study class at First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga., I was slated to teach this parable of Jesus. It is one of my favorites. Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to…
Beth Moore and a lost Southern Baptist Convention
Religion News Service reporter Bob Smietana broke the story this week that famous Bible study leader Beth Moore is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention and ending the mutually lucrative publishing relationship with their Lifeway group. She claimed that the SBC…
One year later: Some musings on post-COVID culture and social ethics
When this column appears, it will be exactly one year since my last trip to the airport. One year since I lectured outside my own home or university. Just under one year since my Mercer classes went to Zoom for…
LGBTQ inclusion and clergy sexual abuse treated equally in SBC expulsions
Four churches were expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention Feb. 23 in a joint action that gave the appearance of equating LGBTQ inclusion with predatory sexual behavior. Among the four churches expelled, two were removed due to welcoming LGBTQ Christians…
Whatever happened to the white conservative American Christian Republican soul?
I drive back and forth from Atlanta to Macon every Tuesday and Thursday. That’s 190 miles round trip — plenty of time to listen to live coverage of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial during this past week. Plenty of time…
Truth Decay: Christians are supposed to tell the truth
“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look around and take note! Search its squares and see if you can find one person who acts justly and seeks truth — so that I may pardon Jerusalem.” – Jeremiah 5:1 America’s…
Truth Decay: How lies prepare the way for evil
“They bend their tongues like bows; they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the Lord.” — Jeremiah 9:3 Every fall semester at…
Truth Decay: When truth stumbles in the public square
“Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth stumbles in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.” — Isaiah 59:14-15 I said in my last post…