Predicting the future is a fool’s game. Right in my wheelhouse, in other words. Fools and pundits rush in where wiser souls fear to tread. With that boulder-sized grain of salt in mind, here are my predictions for 2023: Let’s…
Faith groups cautiously optimistic about Biden’s announcement on immigration
The United States will widen its use of rapid deportations under Title 42 for immigrants who enter the nation illegally while simultaneously streamlining the asylum and parole application processes to help reduce illegal crossings at the Southwest border, President Joe…
As Americans celebrate release of Brittney Griner, some conservatives openly criticize her freedom
Former Baylor University basketball superstar Brittney Griner has been released from captivity in Russia in a prisoner swap involving a Russian arms dealer, President Joe Biden announced Dec. 8. “She’s safe. She’s on a plane. She’s on her way home…
Quakers join the applause for Biden’s federal pardon of simple marijuana possession
The Quakers joined other proponents of criminal justice reform to welcome President Joe Biden’s recent announcement that he will grant pardons to thousands of Americans convicted on federal charges of simple marijuana possession. While many conservative Christian denominations typically support…
What’s wrong with the ‘you’re being divisive’ argument
Pastors, of all people, should recognize this deflection for what it is. It’s a dirty trick they suffer from all the time. The pastor gets up the courage to speak actual truth about some situation — most likely a sermon…
How Putin’s picture in a fictitious dictionary challenges all of us
Do you remember your child’s pictorial dictionary? The very first ones contain images of people, places or things that can be named: girl, father, doctor, astronaut, church, mountain, house, playground, ball, hat, Teddy bear, night light. Picture dictionaries for older…
Where are the good Republicans?
Even with frequent emotional appeals for the passage of two voting rights bills — the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act — Senate Republicans, along with Democratic holdouts Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, defeated the…
Why is anybody still giving money to Franklin Graham?
On the anniversary of the greatest single domestic threat to American democracy since the Civil War, what would you expect a respected religious leader to say? After the president of the United States calls out his predecessor’s perpetually expanding web…
Dear Robert Jeffress: You’ve called the wrong U.S. president ‘ungodly’
Robert Jeffress used his Dec. 5 sermon to claim that President Joe Biden has the most “ungodly” administration in American history. “The Biden administration is ungodly! I don’t care how many rosary beads they rub, they’re ungodly,” he intoned. “This…