Three cultural-biblical issues intertwine today to hold the Christian church in knots of conflict. Part of that conflict concerns whether the three cords are cut from the same cloth or not. These strands are race, gender and sexuality. From a…
God, sex, gender and politics
A redlight recently stopped my progress through snow falling heavily on the smalltown equivalent of Times Square. Gold letters across the courthouse façade proclaimed, “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Trusting both God and my all-wheel-drive Subaru, I felt awe and excitement…
American belief in fixed binary gender is growing
The percentage of Americans who believe only two fixed genders exist is steadily increasing, and more than a quarter claim young people are being coerced into being transgender, according to new polling data from Public Religion Research Institute. Faced with…
What was I made for? Not to be pretty or skinny
Analysis of Google search data by online fitness resource Total Shape has revealed that searches for “Margot Robbie diet” have exploded by 1364% in the United States, following the release of the Barbie movie on July 21. The Barbie movie has…
Can Barbie help us create justice?
I remember the moment I got my first Barbie. It was 1993, I was about to turn 4, and I was waking up from my third ear tube surgery. My reward for such bravery was a Bedtime Barbie whose eyes…
What if even a profane message carries truth at its core?
Editor’s note: This article is about profanity and therefore necessarily includes some profanity and substitutes for profanity. A graduate assistant at Louisiana State University, Marcus Venable, has become a casualty in the unending “culture wars.” He has been fired…
Beyond birthright and body type: How to be Christian in America
Every summer, my brothers and I would attend vacation Bible school. We all marched into the sanctuary for opening assembly led by a processional of children holding the American flag, Christian flag and the Bible. In unison we recited the…
There is no way to be against racism and ethnic discrimination but remain in support of sexism and gender discrimination
Christine A. Smith calls sexism in the church’s ongoing life “the stained-glass ceiling” — the invisible but often impenetrable limits imposed upon female clergy. The stained-glass ceiling takes many forms. Among the most common are differences in salary between men…
Complementarianism harms men and women both
What no one seems to be talking about is the harm the Southern Baptist Convention is doing to both women and men. Demands to define a strict gender binary and assign specific roles by gender are causing harm to every…