Politics sometimes becomes religion for people. This is a fact. It is dangerous when politics becomes religion for people. This is my conviction. This phenomenon seems most likely to happen when a culturally established religion fades to become merely politics,…
Beth Moore and a lost Southern Baptist Convention
Religion News Service reporter Bob Smietana broke the story this week that famous Bible study leader Beth Moore is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention and ending the mutually lucrative publishing relationship with their Lifeway group. She claimed that the SBC…
New surveys connect the dots between politics, race, religion and vaccination
Recent surveys of adult Americans may connect the dots between the role of politics, race and religion and attitudes about the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines. A study by Pew Research Center examined respondents’ intentions to get vaccinated, while a report…
Two words, two virtues, to help America move forward
On Inauguration Day evening, I went to bed exhausted with the mix of the day’s emotions. Joy over the beginning of a new administration; relief there had been no violence; and sorrow — sorrow over all the human lives lost…
The blasphemy of Franklin Graham
According to the newspaper in his father’s hometown of Charlotte, N.C., Franklin Graham thinks the 10 Republican congressional leaders who voted to impeach President Trump were like Judas, who betrayed Jesus. “The House Democrats impeached him because they hate him…
‘He being dead, yet speaketh’
Another new year has come, and I have a new year’s resolution — actually a rerun of 2020 that never clicked. Clean out a stack, or two, of “When I get a moment, I want to read this” newspapers, journals…
On coronavirus beliefs, ‘It’s evangelical Protestants against everyone else’
When asked in October to list their top concerns, white evangelicals listed abortion, fair presidential elections and terrorism. The coronavirus didn’t make the cut, noted Robert P. Jones, CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute. “Looking at their…
Is attacking a candidate’s sermon different than attacking a candidate’s speeches?
Attacking a political candidate for something said in a speech is different than attacking a candidate for something preached in a sermon, according to Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Tyler and BJC Director of…
Understanding Black theology, white fragility
Back in 2011, Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (and currently in a runoff for one of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats), preached a sermon drawn from the Gospel of Matthew about whether a person could serve…