Across America this week, Baptist women are carrying a familiar weight. Some are pastors who have faithfully answered the call of God, only to watch the Southern Baptist Convention debate whether God possibly could have called them. Some are seminary…
Come on, ring those bells
It may be true that no man is an island, but the Southern Baptist Convention is working hard to isolate itself from the world. After a decade of holding back the most strident far-right forces in the convention, this year…
Listening to a bell that no longer rings
Saturday night, what was meant to be an evening of tradition and lightheartedness at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was instead interrupted by violence, reportedly the act of a lone shooter. Such an event is, in every sense, traumatic and…
Alliance urged to touch the wounds and reclaim freedom
Because “covered wounds don’t heal,” American Christians must continue to expose the truth of their harmful past, Michael Woolf told the Alliance of Baptists annual gathering. That message was echoed in a second address by Kelly Brown Douglas, visiting professor…
What we lose when churches stop naming themselves
I understand the appeal of the nondenominational church. In an age weary of faction, weary of institutional decline and weary of ecclesial infighting, the promise can sound fresh: No inherited baggage, no denominational machinery, no old quarrels: just Jesus, the…
We’ve lost one more person who could say, ‘I was there’
On Friday, our nation bid its final farewell to a Civil Rights icon. As thousands of mourners poured into House of Hope Baptist Church in Chicago to remember Jesse Jackson Sr., I was reminded of my own powerful moment with a…
Despair is attractive, but hope looks better
I don’t know about everyone else, but some days I am really challenged by trying to hang on to hope. There are days when despair is attractive. For instance, I recently was doing a bit of searching for something to…
Groups sue to block Trump from rewriting history at national parks
A coalition of conservation, history and scientific organizations is suing the Trump administration to stop its ongoing efforts to censor displays and monuments in the federal park system. The National Parks Conservation Association and Union of Concerned Scientists were among…
When history doesn’t rhyme: A look at the conservative-liberal spectrum
Modern Christianity is mindbogglingly diverse: 45,000 denominations, by one recent estimate. Christian history teaches us this is not new. From the beginning, Christians understood Jesus differently. In the United States of 2025, though, this diversity is on the wane —…
How will your grandchildren view your role in the present struggle?
After the tragic death of Charlie Kirk, there has been a lot of discussion in the nation about whether he was a positive or negative character. I think like most people he was a mixture. He was not the epitome…
Stephen Miller, we know what you’re doing
Recently, I read that in 1988, a decision was made in Russia to stop giving their more than 50 million school children history examinations because they did not wish to continue to spread the “lies” the history was spreading. When…
From Persia to provocation: A Christian nation’s look at the real Iran
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” — Hosea 4:6 Before it ever was called Iran, this storied nation was known to the world as Persia, an identity stretching back more than 3,000 years. The name “Iran” is derived…