The data post from Ryan Burge caught my eye — as usual. But one of the comments below the post really got my attention. “Let’s be real, non-denoms are basically Baptists,” the commenter said. This was in response to Burge’s…
Does Methodist connectionalism serve large and small churches equally?
The battle between Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas and its regional governing body in The United Methodist Church may boil down to whether large and small churches in the denomination can continue to operate by the same governing…
Our words matter but our lives matter more
I recently read Jordann McMahan’s powerful opinion piece at BNG about her experience as a queer student at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. Jordann writes with remarkable vulnerability about an experience that is complicated. She does not paint every professor, student…
When the abused become abusive
Here’s what happens when you dare to ask questions about the common narrative of the clergy sexual abuse survivor community. You get lambasted online with comments like these made against me over the weekend: “Mariah Kerry (not Carey) commented on…
Why do we keep sounding the alarm?
A common criticism I get here at BNG and that some of my progressive clergy friends get in their congregations is this: “Why do you have to keep talking about Donald Trump and Christian nationalism all the time? Could you…
3 views on Donald Trump held by American Christians
There is a divide among Christians in the United States about how to respond to the urgency of our present crisis. Leaving aside for a moment those who claim the name of Christ but gleefully support an immoral president doing…
Matthew Vines sets off a debate over what it means to be ‘queer’
One of the leading apologists for gay Christians has created a firestorm of controversy among Christians in the LGBTQ community with a column published in The New York Times June 30. Matthew Vines is the author of the op-ed headlined,…
Dear Mike Johnson, be careful what you ask for
For decades, political conservatives have been clamoring for “originalist” and “textualist” interpretations of the U.S. Constitution because they want to conserve the frozen-in-time ideals of the Founders. This is why they loved former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was…
Insufficient
The concept of scriptural sufficiency as taught by modern-day Calvinists is untenable and dangerous. In sum, the Bible is not “sufficient” for all truth as too many neo-Calvinists contend. The Bible is, in fact, insufficient in many ways. And that’s…
Purple churches and ‘moderate’ Baptists: A theological response
In recent weeks, BNG published two pieces that emerge from a similar progressive theological position. The first is Mark Wingfield’s “Here’s What I Hear When You Say You’re A ‘Purple’ Church.” The second is Braxton Wade’s “Why Are We Still…
Here’s what I hear when you say you’re a ‘purple’ church
A fair number of churches these days are proud of being called “purple” churches, meaning they welcome and celebrate both Republicans and Democrats among their members. That may have been fine in 1990 but means something entirely different today. Now,…
A trans man and his Baptist pastor reflect on a decade of friendship
Ten years ago today, BNG published an article by Mark that opened the door to a friendship between us that spans a decade of tremendous change in American culture and politics. On May 13, 2016, BNG published Mark’s opinion piece…