Imagine, if you will, an enormous wooden horse encamped outside the Southern Baptist Convention headquarters. Downtown Nashville’s bachelorettes, bar hoppers and backup singers stop and stare at the giant horse with “Center for Baptist Leadership” emblazoned on its barrel. William…
How to talk about polarizing topics at church
Churches can talk about polarizing topics — even politics — if they enter those conversations seeking transformation rather than conformity, church consultant Matt Cook told participants at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in St. Louis June 26. Cook, director…
Our increasingly gendered politics
To say gender has become far more performative in today’s politics is hardly an understatement. While last year’s presidential election saw the Trump campaign double down on masculine tropes, his administration in 2025 is seeking public policies that reinforce gender…
JD Vance should listen to Pope Leo
Vice President JD Vance is in a curious position now that Pope Leo XIV has assumed office, since Vance is both a Catholic in good standing and a figure who regularly clashes with Catholic leadership. On Jan. 29, the newly…
Firing Holocaust Memorial board members is about changing history’s story
When Donald Trump abruptly fired Doug Emhoff and other Biden appointees from the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, it wasn’t just a petty political maneuver — it was a warning flare about how empire behaves when it fears truth-tellers. This is…
What advice would my grandfather give a pastor today?
My grandfather Stigall was a walking quote. A man who, by intention or by divine gift, could lay down a zinger with little effort. His thoughts and expressions came out in eruptions. Held in for as long as he could,…
America’s strange contentment with political extremes
Reason does not always lead to the best decisions, but it is our best hope for avoiding the worst. — Al Gore At the beginning of each new month, I receive an email from the manufacturer of my thermostat providing…
Wisconsin shows Democrats need more than mere victories
When I moved to Wisconsin 16 months ago to assist with a family member’s hospice, I wouldn’t have guessed I was entering a new and unique sort of hell. I’ve lived my entire life in single-party states — Illinois and…
Did Jesus really say that?
During some of the hardest days of racial tension in in the 1960s, a Mississippi Delta white pastor in his frustration one day asked one of his stalwart members what she thought Jesus would do if Black people came to…
What I found hiding in my church library
Some of my former fellow seminarians reminded me on social media at the beginning of this week that 31 years ago on March 9, 1994, Russell Dilday was fired by trustees as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary after ultraconservatives…
Turns out, we have partisan brains — but there’s hope
It’s no secret politics divides America. The growing hostility between Republicans who support Donald Trump and the Democrats who oppose him is fracturing friendships, families and churches. Each side wonders at the rationale of the other: “How can they possibly…
Get angry, church
There’s a powerful quote buried halfway through Madeleine L’Engle’s children’s novel, A Wrinkle in Time: “’Stay angry, little Meg,’ Mrs. Whatsit whispered. ‘You will need all your anger now.’” Just as Meg Murry, Charles Wallace Murry and Calvin O’Keefe are…