“You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman, “for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” I always have found the story in…
Matt Gaetz is a Southern Baptist who appears to get a free pass
One of President-elect Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominees is a Southern Baptist. Matt Gaetz, who abruptly resigned his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives last week just days before a House Ethics Committee was to release its investigation…
AI ‘deep fakes’ are creating a new way of violating women’s privacy on the internet
Most people know of AI as a tool that will write papers, complete assignments or generate streams of content at the click of a button, like ChatGPT. Debates about the pros and cons of AI have been in conversation for…
Christ is now a threat to radicalized Christians, Gushee warns in new book
Christ has become quite the nuisance to Christians bent on overthrowing U.S. democracy to establish a white-led Christian nation, Mercer University ethicist David Gushee said during a Sept. 6 webinar hosted by Baptist News Global. “Jesus is a great inconvenience…
Preserving a sense of the ultimate
I want to make the modest proposal that there is a dimension of religion, including Christianity, that properly transcends world affairs to focus on the state of individual character and the health of the soul. I speak of the inner…
As you watch the new movie Oppenheimer, remember Glen Stassen
It was 1989 and I had taken a class called Just Peacemaking taught by Glenn H. Stassen. For those of you not familiar with Stassen, he was a nuclear physicist turned theologian turned ethics professor at the Southern Baptist Theological…
The one thing that unites the world’s religions
The world’s religions intrigue me. This fascination is a benefit of my having lived on the island of Java for a quarter century, immersed in a culture enriched by religious pluralism. My appreciation for religious difference also is tied to…
Should ‘real’ Christians really vote Republican today?
Numerous conservative pastors and commentators have declared to their flocks that true Christians must vote Republican if they are faithful. Chief among those is Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who told a conservative political action group this…
The moral and ethical difference between the life and ministry of Jesus and the life and career of Donald Trump
In view of Donald Trump’s mounting legal issues — and especially the prospect that he may be charged with criminal conduct — we should ponder his continued popularity with people who call themselves “evangelical” followers of Jesus, or to be…