There is a reason we use language carefully. Words matter. They have the power to exclude others and to create hurtful categories.
American pastor in Canada doesn’t miss culture wars, church growth pressures
When U.S. pastor Justin Joplin accepted a call to a Baptist church in Canada, he found a Baptist identity free from anxiety over a decline from majority cultural status. That is liberating, he says.
2017’s top religion stories are a doozy
The year 2017 may not have been the biggest ever for religion news in the U.S. or the world, but it has to be close.
Is there a market for a Christian cryptocurrency? Christ Coin aims to find out.
Emmanuel Ogunjumo’s empathy for the world’s spiritually and financially impoverished has inspired the creation of Christ Coin, which bills itself as the world’s first Christian cryptocurrency.
Americans feeling ‘warmer’ toward Mormons and Muslims — but not evangelicals
Maybe Mitt Romney should have waited one election cycle to run for president. Romney was dogged by negative perceptions about his Mormon faith during his unsuccessful 2012 bid for the presidency. But new research shows attitudes about Mormons are warming,…
For the church, a call to be bold
The mood was incredible. I was gathered with my closest friends in the world. These were the same people I had spent 2008 with, the same people who came to my wedding earlier this year, and the same people who…
Religious liberty amidst religious pluralism
I spent Sunday with the good folk of University Heights Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo. It is a strong American Baptist Churches-Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church, and annually the congregation hosts a Baptist Heritage Sunday. Last year Dr. Neville Callam of…
A story of new neighbors: What will Muslim students in the U.S. find?
A large charter bus sat in the parking lot, exhaust brakes hissing. Several rooms in the conference center were full of large suitcases, most of them looking brand new. I knew they couldn’t have belonged to the small group of…
Our political mantra: ‘Get out of here!’
On Saturday afternoon, walking through Harvard Square on the way to my church, I saw a Muslim woman in a long black garment and niqab. As I passed her, a man suddenly emerged from the crowd, aggressively shouting, “Get out of here! I said get out!”