History “has the receipts,” according to Jemar Tisby. “History is just stories, and woe to us history teachers who ever make it boring,” said the professor at Simmons College of Kentucky and author of the new book The Spirit of…
Don’t believe Trump’s claims he will be ‘great for women and their reproductive rights’
Donald Trump’s controversial claim on his Truth Social platform that he will be “great for women and their reproductive rights” doesn’t break any new ground. All it does is raise suspicions: “Here he goes lying again.” And this is not the…
How MLK’s questions became my questions too
When Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in April 1963, I was a sophomore Bible major at a church-related college in the South, studying to become a preacher. None of my professors suggested that I read…
Harris represents the ‘thorn’ in Trump’s flesh: Strong, intelligent women
Kamala Harris presents a serious challenge to Donald Trump precisely because she is a strong, intelligent woman. Strong women always have been the “thorns” in the flesh of Trump. He can’t help himself when faced with a woman with nerves…
Seeing in color
I am old enough to remember black and white television. Color TVs didn’t become affordable until the mid-1960s, and I recall getting our first one at home in 1969. Seeing actors in full color made a difference. While I can’t…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Nathaniel Jung-Chul Lee
Nathaniel Jung-Chul Lee is an Episcopal priest who studied with Stanley Hauerwas at Duke, completed a Ph.D. from Baylor and teaches at St. John’s University. We’ve had the opportunity to collaborate on issues of race and faith at the Episcopal…
Jesus will not rescue America without our help, Pavlovitz says
Prayerfully waiting for God or the “arc of the moral universe” to heal America’s political, racial and religious divisions will do nothing to alter the nation’s downward spiritual and moral trajectory, activist and author John Pavlovitz said. In fact, no…
Is God really a white man?
White supremacy has been problematic in the United States. As we celebrate AAPI Heritage during May, I am reminded of the hatred, damage and destruction that has been committed against Asian Americans by white American society throughout American history. One…
Americans are not equally divided on culture wars, Robert Jones explains in BNG webinar
The popular view that the United States is split in half on cultural, religious and political values is a fallacy propagated by the evangelical-controlled Republican Party, according to Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion Research Institute. “Two-thirds of the…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Randolph Hollerith
Randolph “Randy” Marshall Hollerith was named the 11th dean of Washington National Cathedral in 2016. Under Dean Hollerith, the “nation’s church” has shed a decades-long reputation as an unfriendly place for people of color and has leaned into its call…
What should we make of the curious case of Wendell Berry and a University of Kentucky painting?
Judge Thomas Wingate, circuit judge for the 48th judicial district in Franklin County, Ky., has dismissed a lawsuit filed by writer and Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry and his wife, Tanya. Their suit sought to stop the University of Kentucky from removing a…
The church faces a three-dimensional decision
Three cultural-biblical issues intertwine today to hold the Christian church in knots of conflict. Part of that conflict concerns whether the three cords are cut from the same cloth or not. These strands are race, gender and sexuality. From a…