The headlines each year going into the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting seem to focus on Southern Baptists’ latest attempts to put women in their place and keep them there. Whether they were voting to remove Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church…
Understanding Al Mohler’s case against women
The so-called Mohler Amendment to prohibit women from functioning as pastors in Southern Baptist churches is being hailed by his minions as “critical for us at this juncture.” According to Brian Arnold, pastor of First Baptist Church Paducah, Ky.: “In…
In conversation with Meredith Stone about Mohler’s amendment
As Southern Baptists prepare to consider Al Mohler’s so called “Truth and Unity Amendment” at their annual meeting in Orlando next month, many Baptist women are becoming weary of Southern Baptist men defining “unity” as joining together to silence women….
At Rededicate 250, Chris Tomlin emerges as worship warrior
As my son and I walked through the press screening and out to the gathering space for Rededicate 250, I began having flashbacks to my years in a white evangelical megachurch. With a pre-roll video set to worship music filling…
Here’s what Baptists said at Rededicate 250
Despite a lack of religious diversity among the speakers at the Trump administration’s “Rededicate 250” event held last Sunday on the National Mall, conservative Baptists played a prominent role. The speaker lineup for the nine-hour religious festival included two Catholics…
What I saw and heard in DC this weekend
Evangelicals flocked to Washington, D.C., over the weekend to attend the Trump administration’s “Rededicate 250” event on Sunday, which was billed as “rededicating” the country to being “one nation under God.” The night before Trump’s official event — funded by public money…
Is pluralism possible under an evangelical Christian God?
What does pluralism mean for people who believe there’s only one way to God, who believe God reigns, but who live in a nation that values liberty and justice for all? This is the question many Christians are wrestling through….
End-times prophets say we’re about to find out aliens are demons
“The rumors are real,” pastor Mike Signorelli wrote on X. “I was brought into a private briefing with other pastors. No phones, no cameras, no recordings. We were told plainly: Disclosure is coming, and what follows will shake the faith…
Newsboys lawsuit exposes underlying finances of CCM business
In the summer of 2001, I risked getting expelled by Bob Jones University for the chance to watch Michael W. Smith in concert at a Franklin Graham crusade at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. This was just one year removed…
How bad theology has set us up for sexualized AI deepfakes
Given the research I conduct for writing, the ads my algorithm sends me can be all over the map. Nothing ever surprises me. But after looking into the recent story about 62 million visits to a website that contained instructions…
When it comes to religion, question everything
Surrounded by FBI agents attempting to coax them into their vehicles, five of Samuel Bateman’s underaged wives huddled tightly. With trembling arms around one another, they sang, “And he will come again, and one by one we’ll rise, to praise…
Why was the AI image of Trump as Jesus the last straw?
The AI image President Donald Trump posted of himself as Jesus is a sobering reminder not of how much Trump is obsessed with himself, but of how white evangelicals serve a higher power than Trump, and what that higher power…