Two hundred faith leaders, including some luminaries of progressive Christianity, have signed a new statement on Christian faith and democracy calling for renewed attention to eight key principles. “The United States confronts a crisis of democracy, and the American church…
Beth Allison Barr and Kristin Du Mez: The history of women, patriarchy, inequality and challenging conservative views
Historians, academics and authors Beth Allison Barr and Kristin Kobes Du Mez discussed the challenges and rewards of being Christian women in a male-oriented world and profession during a wide-ranging discussion at Baylor University Feb. 16. Barr, the James Vardaman…
BNG column sparks Thanksgiving Twitter war of words between complementarians and two female scholars
When David Gushee wrote his article “The Deconstruction of American Evangelicalism” for Baptist News Global, he kicked off what would become the focus of the next stage in the debate between conservative evangelical complementarians and their egalitarian counterparts. That debate took…
The deconstruction of American evangelicalism
We are witnessing at this moment the intellectual deconstruction of a religious group that has been called “evangelicalism.” Illusions about this community are being destroyed left and right. Of course, those illusions first eroded in practice, through the contradictions and…
Attacks on Critical Race Theory didn’t come out of nowhere, panelists say
Recent attacks against Critical Race Theory are simply the latest expression of the white Christian nationalism that also inspired the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill and subsequent voter-suppression efforts around the nation, writer and historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez…
Meet the Theobros, who want you to know they’re right about everything
In this world of spiritual warfare, theological compromise and Republicans losing the White House, there lives a group of men, mostly white, who put on their armor, saddle up and ride into the glorious battlefield known as Twitter. They alone…
Du Mez sees link between sexual abuse cover up and complementarian theology
The white evangelical inclination to cover up sexual abuse in churches and denominations derives in part from a complementarianism ideology, according to Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured…
‘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…