In Florida, a state Senate committee wants to make it illegal to cause discomfort to white people. This bill, which reads like a scene from 1984, is a doozy. You can, and should, read the full text of it here. The bill…
America’s conscience: Moral bankruptcy and communal decay
For if the disinherited get such a new center as patriotism, for instance — liberty within the framework of a sense of country or nation, then the aim of not being killed is swallowed up by a larger and more…
Are you sleeping through the revolution?
In the last chapter of the last book he wrote titled, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, Martin Luther King recalled the Washington Irving story of Rip Van Winkle who fell asleep for 20 years on a…
The ‘MAGA faction’ could be a hindrance for multiracial congregations
One of the prized goals of evangelical and mainline churches in America today is to create multiethnic congregations. But the same political trends that are making life difficult for pastors also bode ill for multicultural churches. New research published Jan….
Everything that’s wrong with the world explained in one brief column
We do love simplicity. We love the idea that complex issues can be distilled into easy sound bites, that nuanced conversations can be summarized as “he said/she said” and that internet memes and bumper stickers offer plenty of space to…
Why have so few U.S. congregations experienced even a single COVID death?
With more than 800,000 lives lost to COVID-19 in America alone, observers might wonder why some U.S. congregations have taken a seemingly cavalier approach to fighting the pandemic. One possible answer emerged this week from new survey data released by…
Tim Tebow and Demaryius Thomas and the world we see
After having what will one day be recognized as a Hall of Fame NFL career, Demaryius Thomas died unexpectedly of what police are calling “a medical issue” in his Georgia home on Dec. 9, 2021. He would have turned 34…
‘Thank you, bell hooks, for your biblical vision of love’
Editor’s note: Author and activist bell hooks died Wednesday, Dec. 15, at her home in Berea, Ky. This is a tribute to her influence. I first heard bell hooks when she spoke at a graduate school event in 1999. She…
Ungodly? That all depends on what God you serve
Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, has long been an ardent public supporter of Donald Trump. He recently preached that the Biden administration was “the ungodliest administration in the history of our country,” a continuation of ongoing…
A few notes on Kenny G, the history of jazz and being tone deaf to how we got here
“John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, their technique was phenomenal, but that music was never heartfelt for me, so, when I went out and gigged, it wasn’t anything that I wanted to emulate.” So said Kenneth Gorelick, the much-beloved, and much-maligned,…
‘Bindergate’ story shows the behind-the-scenes struggle for unity versus strict orthodoxy in SBC
Southern Baptists were early to the cultural war over Critical Race Theory, but documents obtained by the Nashville Tennessean show the tightrope denominational leaders have walked trying to placate white ultra-conservatives while not running off Black conservatives. A Dec. 8…
What comes after the pulpit swaps and cultural awareness dinners?
The biblical command to welcome the stranger must be applied not only to immigrants and refugees but also to the way church members relate to demographically diverse people in their own congregations and communities, according to Daynette Snead Perez. Her…