A summer meals program created by the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty has transitioned from a demonstration project into a full-blown federal strategy to combat childhood hunger. Meals-To-You was included in the 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill signed into law…
This year, view your church through the lens of a newcomer
A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a friend seeking a reference for a place for him and his family to worship. His family is living in a suburb about half an hour from the capital city…
‘We’re so blessed!’
This is the first in a November series produced by BNG on what it means to be “blessed,” a word so flippantly used that it often loses meaning. Before I tell you this story, I need to explain about the…
Concern for our nation at Bubba-Doo’s
“Pastor, I just don’t understand how we got here.” Now if you feel like you just dropped in on a conversation that had already started, that’s understandable. Let me catch you up on a fascinating chat I participated in the…
On social media, the Bible verses are flying in a debate over student loan forgiveness
Within hours of its announcement, the new White House plan to forgive $10,000 to $20,000 per person in student loan debt became a theological dividing line as much as a political one. Critics of the debt forgiveness initiative turned to…
I’ve been unaware of my privilege, and if you are a man, you probably have, too
In this time of increased, and justified, attention to gender inequities, I have been thinking about my own life. It occurs to me that while I have supported women colleagues, female students and girls within my circle of family and…
When a teenager gets kicked to the curb by Christian parents
Editor’s note: This launches a series of opinion pieces over the coming weeks that will address the problems created by “ex-gay” ministries and those who continue to practice or advocate for the now-discredited forms of conversion therapy. The following column…
No one else is coming, so do something
Dear church, Today I write to you from three places in my soul: parent, prophet and pastor. Like many Texas parents, I had a momentary flash of panic last Tuesday. I opened my news app on the way to pick…
Here’s how to make Mother’s Day more honest at church
As I sat around a table with a group of women, all of whom were either clergy or clergy wives, we began discussing the difficulties of creating a life around ministry. We all had different stories, different moments in our…
Please pay attention to the plight of transgender children and their families
Here’s something I’ve learned along the way: Good people are too busy with their lives and the pandemic and watching the war in Ukraine to get involved in the plight of transgender children and their families under attack right now….
I’m aiming for a kind of fresh resolve to no longer continue producing solutions for the future based on problems from the past
It isn’t at all novel to admit this to you, dear reader, but New Year’s resolutions are gratingly unbearable; even under the best conditions. But I must say that this year, there is a uniquely hollow and darkly comedic quality…
Congress must invest in American families and communities
The United States Congress is currently considering a series of bold investments in American families and communities that will better enable all of us to pursue our God-given potential while protecting the most vulnerable in our society. As a Baptist pastor and as…