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…
Let’s keep the lights on in Georgia
A half century ago, Bobby Russell wrote a song about infidelity, murder and a messed-up legal system. The chorus summarizes the result and gives the song its now-famous name: That’s the night that the lights went out in Georgia. That’s…
This progressive church reviewed its history and discovered it hadn’t ‘shown up’ very often on racial issues
Anyone entering the sanctuary of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., for the first time will inevitably leave talking one thing above all — the beauty of the stained-glass windows on all sides of the English Gothic-style worship space. Look…
In New Hampshire, conservative moms group offers a bounty to report teachers
As the furor over Critical Race Theory continues to dominate local school board meetings from coast to coast, a group of conservative New Hampshire mothers has upped the ante. The New Hampshire chapter of Moms for Liberty announced it will…
My conversation with Vince Gill on race and country music
A few months ago, if you had told me I would be talking with Vince Gill about race, I would have laughed you out of the room. For starters, I am a huge fan of Vince and his wife, Christian…