Editor’s note: This article discusses research about domestic violence and suicide. Each time a major sporting event occurs, like the recent World Cup tournament, I see posts on social media about domestic violence. Did you know domestic violence rates…
Don’t look away: ICE and CBP are getting away with murder
I grew up in a suburb of Dallas. I don’t know how many of my classmates were undocumented — we never thought to ask. It was the late 1980s and early ’90s, after all. A few years later, I was…
Who is the domestic terrorist?
In the wake of the violence of January 6, 2021, some observers wondered why the insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol weren’t charged with domestic terrorism. The reason is simple: There is no standalone federal crime on the books for domestic…
Update on proposed human warehouse in Texas
Ever since the Washington Post broke the story on Christmas Eve that the Trump administration is converting warehouse spaces across the country into literal human warehouses, the towns named in the story have been playing catch up. Last Friday, the…
What Kristi Noem and DHS won’t admit about clergy-led protests
Last Thursday night, I had dinner at the home of Baptist pastor Michael Woolf, his wife, Anna Piela, and their young daughter. We ate lasagna that Woolf had cooked. The next morning, a Reuters photo of Woolf’s arrest at a…
What I witnessed in Chicago: Day 1
When my editor called me Friday and asked if I’d like to fly to Chicago to cover what’s happening here, I, of course, said yes. News had just broken that a Presbyterian pastor had been shot in the head with…
In Dallas, more questions than answers after ICE facility shooting
I have some unanswered questions about the Dallas ICE facility shooting. In addition to writing for Baptist News Global, I also serve as justice and advocacy minister at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas. In that role, I joined a…
When will Texas Republicans value the lives of all children?
Anyone with a soul is devastated when children die under tragic circumstances. It doesn’t matter how those children die — the morally and spiritually virtuous among us want to ensure whatever can be done to prevent the tragic loss of…
The Ten Commandments and the tyranny of minority rule
George Orwell, in his classic novel 1984, highlights an important aspect of full-blown authoritarianism: the presentation of lies as truth. In the first few pages of Orwell’s book, readers are introduced to the ironically named “Ministry of Truth” which features…
I’m still haunted by stories from the first Trump term
In 2019, I was running an award-winning teen theater company in Dallas. We’d made our mark by creating original plays from first-person interviews on particular issues. In 2019, there was no more pressing issue than the border crisis. That spring,…
A visual guide to the elected officials who fly Christian nationalist flags at the Capitol
Earlier this month I attended the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Advocacy in Action in Washington, D.C. On the fourth day of the gathering we headed to Capitol Hill to meet with our various representatives. On the walk to the six buildings…
What I learned at CBF’s Advocacy in Action
I got to tag along with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship on its Advocacy in Action trip to Washington, D.C., last week. Having participated in several similar advocacy trainings and trips with various groups, I thought I knew what to expect. The…