Last weekend I was fortunate to attend a stop on “The Stories God Tells” tour featuring Jonathan Merritt (award-winning columnist at The Atlantic, and now children’s book author) and Matthew Paul Turner (New York Times bestselling author of several beloved…
Conservative Baptist Network launches attack on James Merritt for saying something nice about his son
One of the groups aiming to take the Southern Baptist Convention in a more conservative direction continues to sound the alarm about liberalism in the nation’s largest non-Catholic Christian denomination and now has attacked one of the icons of the…
‘Postcards from Babylon’ documentary tells a better story
White conservative evangelicalism had just survived its perceived nightmare of the Obama presidency. They were certain that contraception mandates, cake-baking mandates, transgender people being free to use the restroom for their gender identity, and ultimately the legalization of same-sex-marriage were…
Five qualities of good evangelism and good evangelists
When Brian McLaren poses the question, “What if evangelism is one of the things that our world needs most?” he shows himself to be out of step with many Christians — especially those occupying the broad swath in the middle…
Columnist Jonathan Merritt latest departure from RNS
Jonathan Merritt, an award-winning religion writer who contributes regularly to national publications including The Atlantic and The Week, has stepped down as senior columnist for Religion News Service, citing “irreconcilable differences” with his publisher and interim editor-in-chief. Merritt, son of…
UPDATED: Evangelical author’s support for marriage equality draws fire from opponents
Southern Baptist fans of Eugene Peterson are questioning his salvation after he said in an interview he thinks it is possible to be both Christian and gay and, if asked, he would be willing to officiate a same-sex wedding. The next day the author retracted his statement.
Southern Baptist leaders defend Trump’s pick to lead EPA
Four dozen Southern Baptist leaders voiced support for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, under scrutiny for his views on climate change, in an open letter Dec. 16. The current and 12 past Southern Baptist Convention presidents,…
The book that revolutionized ‘Christian manhood’: 15 years after ‘Wild at Heart’
Critics said the book promoted an antiquated fairy tale version of gender, but the message resonated with millions and sparked a “Christian manhood” cottage industry.
Why Rachel Held Evans is not that controversial
Just as we had finished imposing ashes on the foreheads of worshipers, my friend and fellow pastor David Bennett turned to me and said, “Alan, remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” And with those words, David…