A Southern Baptist Convention seminary president apologized March 11 for his “unwise words” in a tweet about Texas Tech University football coach Mark Adams. The apology tweet was graciously received by many in the SBC and beyond, but it was…
Tennessee representative who proposed execution by ‘hanging by a tree’ needs a history lesson
There’s more than the usual political craziness attached to the recent remark by Tennessee Rep. Paul Sherrell to bring back “hanging by a tree” as an amendment to a firing squad bill. There’s a denial of horrible history. This is…
Three hate groups drove spike in antisemitism and racist propaganda last year
Incidents of racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ propaganda increased substantially in 2022 as major white supremacist groups boosted disinformation campaigns in numerous U.S. states, according to new research by the Anti-Defamation League. The March 8 report documented spikes in the distribution…
Sometimes it’s not a good idea to quote the Bible
Just because you’re quoting the Bible doesn’t mean you’re not embracing racism. That’s a lesson Coach Mark Adams of Texas Tech University learned the hard way last week. While the comments that got him fired were discouraging and inappropriate, what’s…
Paved A Way: Why we need to relearn the history of infrastructure
“You rarely change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” —Buckminster Fuller Learning to tie your shoes in a new knot is really difficult. We spend years learning…
Woke, awake or unfaithful? Racism in the white church
Feb. 16-18 at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary, we convened our second national conversation about racism in the white church, “Time to Wake Up.” Although those attending were passionate about the program and online and social media comments before, during and…
Failure to love neighbor leads to racism and sexism, Houston pastor tells Baylor conference
The church’s failure to care for all people with the compassion Christ commanded fuels white supremacy and racial injustice, Sean Palmer said during a Baylor University conference on racism and faith. “It’s the failure to love neighbor that has always…
What I learned from meeting Martin Luther King in Louisville and Josie in Hopkinsville
I watched a movie one night recently called Selma. It was about the 1965 freedom march in Selma, Ala., led by Martin Luther King Jr. Given all of the turmoil now roiling our country regarding Black Lives Matter, I wanted…
The Black resistance tradition and its fight for U.S. democracy
Black America flipped the script on a racialized democratic state to make it more perfect. It is Black people’s fight that makes the United States exceptional. —Randal Jelks (2022) Many of us are profoundly worried about the health of…
Ron DeSantis: The anti-woke prophet of evangelicals
It’s no secret that Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida plans to ride an anti-wokeness wave to the White House. To get there, he has turned his sights increasingly on higher education — specifically “woke” professors. Whatever “wokeness” means, for DeSantis…
New survey: Republicans and white evangelicals are outliers in fear of immigrants invading U.S.
The gap between Americans on immigration is steadily widening as conservatives increasingly embrace anti-immigrant attitudes that include a belief that migrants are invading the United States to displace white citizens, according to new research by Public Religion Research Institute. The…
Where God is: Preaching the hard truths about change
Last fall on the second Sunday of Advent, I preached a sermon at the American Cathedral in Paris on change, our fear of change, the difficulties of change. And on race. It was a pretty typical sermon for Advent, that…