“How did you come to have a passion for social justice issues?” That was one of the questions put to me this week when the tables got turned and I was the interviewee instead of the interviewer. The answer immediately…
Caldwell succeeds Anderson as chair of BNG board
Chris Caldwell of Louisville, Ky., is the new chairman of the Baptist News Global board of directors, succeeding Janice Anderson of Houston, who remains on the board but concluded a three-year term at the helm. Caldwell serves as a professor…
What we’ve lost
The losses we’ve experienced due to coronavirus are both horribly easy to count — 465,000 dead in the United States alone — and yet invisibly painful. Especially for communities of faith, the relational losses often go unreported. Yet in conversation…
Amid the hypocrisy of critiquing ‘unity,’ maybe we need a different goal: Cooperation
We need to debunk the argument that achieving “unity” means everyone will get their way. That’s not logically possible. This fallacious thinking is emerging as a primary conservative critique of the new administration in Washington, D.C. And once again, it…
Why you should cancel your in-person indoor Christmas Eve service
I’ve heard all the arguments and understand most of the data. Yes, I know there are regional differences and special circumstances from community to community. And I understand that you think your bubble is safe, that you are the exception….
In this advice, I was wrong
I was wrong in advice I gave to young ministers for many years. My intent was good, but my advice was wrong. The recent intense debate over a Wall Street Journal opinion piece has helped me clarify this. In that…
How transactional faith led evangelicals to embrace transactional politics
In an excellent Nov. 13 Washington Post column about how white evangelicals have whored themselves to support the most immoral president of our lifetime, Michael Gerson hit upon a word that jumped off the screen at me: “transactional.” He wrote:…
The first thing you think when you get COVID-19
Here’s the first thing you think when you get COVID-19: “I wish I could turn back time.” If only I hadn’t gone … or stayed … or passed by … or did whatever it was that caused me to catch…
2020 vote shows religious identity held steady with slight change among Catholics and Mormons
Religious identity trends appear to have held fairly steady in the 2020 presidential election, based on a combination of exit polling and pre-election surveys. Because of the enormous number of Americans who voted by mail or in advance this year,…