If you ask American voters to name their biggest concerns, kitchen table issues always head the list. It’s not a partisan issue. Everybody wants a good job, decent health care and affordable gas and groceries. But white conservatives have a…
Ideology, autocracy and resistance: Assessing our US situation
As the end of the summer approaches, Congress returns to Washington, and the November elections move into their stretch run, it seems a good time to try to assess where exactly we are in terms of this second Trump administration…
A clergy call to preserve our democracy
The last time I was in Minneapolis, the city was under siege. In January, I came to Minneapolis on behalf of Baptist News Global. I arrived two weeks after Renée Nicole Good — a U.S. citizen and mother of three…
NBCUSA opens advocacy center in DC
A historically Black denomination has opened an advocacy center in the heart of Washington, D.C., to protect civil rights, champion religious freedom and to be a voice for the poor and marginalized. The National Baptist Convention USA Inc., announced the…
What, to the white Christian, is America 250?
This year, the Trump administration dispatched a fleet of six Freedom Trucks, traveling across the country to promote the story of American exceptionalism on the United States’ 250th birthday. Many visitors report the exhibit champions a sanitized version of U.S….
Why Gen Z is losing faith in America
As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, our latest report, “Competing Visions of America at 250: Politics, Religion, and Identity,” surfaces a troubling signal for the future of our democracy — and it centers on the nation’s youngest citizens. Generation…
Love of neighbor is a democratic ideal
This is the sixth in a BNG series of articles on Christianity and democracy that will lead toward the July 4 celebration of America’s 250th birthday. The series has been curated by Carol McEntyre, senior minister at First Baptist Church…
Democracy as the practice of loving our neighbors
This is the third in a BNG series of articles on Christianity and democracy that will lead toward the July 4 celebration of America’s 250th birthday. The series has been curated by Carol McEntyre, senior minister at First Baptist Church…
Why I will boycott the UFC pay-per-view from the White House
A nation’s birthday should reveal what it values most. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, I find myself reflecting less on fireworks and celebrations and more on the meaning of freedom itself. That reflection has led me to a personal…
Democracy’s decline tests new United Methodist Church
No United Methodist who knows anything about the denomination’s history can feel anything but profound sadness at what’s happening to the American democratic republic. Good and bad, The United Methodist Church and its predecessors have shaped and been shaped by…
The guardrails preserving our democracy
I want to consider some good news today. The good news is that certain cultural, political and legal guardrails are holding against Donald Trump and his government right now. I am not suggesting our democracy is in the clear. I…
‘We need the moral courage to stand where Pope Leo stood this morning’
Posting an image of himself as Jesus, making apocalyptic threats against Iran and criticizing Pope Leo XIV gave faith leaders and political strategists plenty to condemn about President Donald Trump during a recent symposium hosted by Yale Divinity School. Speakers…