Ever since the forced integration of public schools, white evangelical Christians have led the charge to “protect” their children from social issues they’re not willing to face up to at home. Sadly, they expect that protection to come by means…
That time I went to the school board meeting to speak against banning books
This week, I found someone who has it rougher than pastors in handling dissent generated from right-wing conspiracy theories and fear of the LGBTQ community: Public school administrators. I had no idea how bad this is, and yet I should…
25 faith-based schools named in LGBTQ discrimination case against Department of Education
Three Baptist universities are among 25 faith-based schools named in a class-action lawsuit filed March 29 against the U.S. Department of Education, with claims of unlawful discrimination against LGBTQ students. The suit, filed in U.S District Court in Eugene, Ore.,…
Arkansas allows medical providers to deny service based on a provider’s own ethics or religious beliefs
Personal conscience now outranks the responsibility to provide medical care to all people equally in Arkansas, according to a bill passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Asa Hutchinson March 26. Senate Bill 289, also known…
Pope Francis practices Orwellian doublethink
Despite having declared in 2013, “Who am I to judge gay people?” (to the dismay of conservative Christians and the hope of much of the Western world) Pope Francis did just that in supporting a recent ruling by the Vatican’s…
Meet Sally Gary, the Churches of Christ advocate for gay Christians
In the past year, Sally Gary survived a global pandemic, helped start a church, wrote a book, and came out publicly to her Churches of Christ network as not only affirming the reality of same-sex attraction but also of same-sex…
Even a majority of white evangelical Protestants now favors discrimination protections for LGBTQ persons
Significant majorities of U.S. religious groups favor nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans, including well more than half of white evangelicals, according to a new report from Public Religion Research Institute. The study was released March 23 as the U.S. Senate…
My journey toward LGBTQ inclusion: God still speaks
As a cisgendered heterosexual male, my own sexuality was not a problem in the Southern Baptist faith of my youth and young adulthood. Having come of age with the Moral Majority, though, I cannot remember a time when the question…
Letter to the Editor: Say it ain’t so, Al
Read our latest Letter to the Editor from John Dye of Louisville, Ky., about the Southern Baptist Convention’s expulsion of his church. He writes: “I have been a Baptist for over 50 years, but I finally got the ax at…