There is a growing trend among Southern Baptist churches to adopt an elder-based model over the traditional congregational model. In Baptist churches, the concept of elder-led polity refers to a specific form of church governance where elders play a central role in decision-making and…
The dangers of minority rule
America is a nation being held hostage by fundamentalism. In our recent BNG webinar with Robert P. Jones and Greg Garrett and Timothy Peoples, the single thing that stuck with me most is a comment by Jones, who is among…
Democracy dies in darkness?
Democracy dies in darkness. Sure enough: in the absence of a free press to throw light on the actions and decisions of our political leaders, we the people are left in the dark. We don’t know what they decided, what…
Jai Shri Ram, or else: Hindu nationalism strangles India’s democracy
The world’s largest exercise in democracy begins April 19 in India — an enterprise so vast as to boggle the mind. Encompassing a million separate polling stations, employing 15 million election workers, spread over six weeks, the national parliamentary elections…
The Christian case for democracy
For most of my life, American Christians were cheerleaders for democracy. That’s when we were in charge of the democracy. Today, oddly, many conservative Christians no longer believe in or support democracy. They seem to favor a kind of theocracy…
Thinking biblically about government in an election year
I begin by saying the obvious: We enter an election year in a time of great political and cultural division in our country. That could have been said every four years since 1968. But today we also can add that…
Defeating authoritarian impulses requires a broad coalition, strategist says
It will take a broad coalition of Americans willing to set aside political and cultural differences to defeat the growing authoritarian movement bent on undermining constitutional freedoms, pro-democracy activist Chris Crawford said on the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty’s…
‘A failure of imagination would be fatal to democracy’
On Jan. 6, 2021, “a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked” by ground forces loyal to then-President Donald Trump. They interrupted the constitutionally required certification of electoral votes from the…
Calmly navigate this election year with strategy, not emotion
Now that the Twelve Days of Christmas are behind us and the confetti we tossed to usher in the new year has been swept up, we finally can be honest: 2024 is going to be a dumpster fire. Perhaps you…