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…
What does JD Vance think Christian ‘moral principles’ are?
Maybe like me you missed this zinger back in April. Amid the dispute between the White House and the Vatican, Vice President JD Vance posted on X April 18: “Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will…
How many more signs do you need?
Every week, I get emails from readers accusing us at BNG of being the Devil’s agents for publishing articles critical of Donald Trump. Inevitably, these writers think we just don’t understand the Bible or politics or culture. They know it…