For the first time ever, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will speak at a gathering of activists, politicians and scientists who deny human activity influences climate change. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will open the 16th International Conference on…
Why do people deny the evidence before their eyes?
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” Over the last week, in the wake of Renee Good’s murder by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, this quote…
Religious attacks on science
The current MAGA evangelical attacks on science threaten to make America less safe, less healthy and much dumber. This anti-science compulsion is no surprise. Evangelical Christianity in the United States has rejected science at least since Charles Darwin. There is…
Simmer down? Hell, I’m just getting warmed up
Recently someone suggested I should “lighten up” on my criticism of Donald Trump and his regime. That’s not going to happen. To be silent is to be complicit. Throughout my career I’ve been threatened, trolled, falsely accused, defamed, shamed and…
Traversing the American psychosis with Francis Collins
The National Institute of Mental Health defines psychosis as “a collection of symptoms that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality.” The psychotic symptoms can be episodic, or one can suffer a psychotic break…
Of gay penguins, the Grand Canyon, the Ark and the Scopes trial
As the 100-year anniversary of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial approaches, the scientific community has had an entire century to explore our world and then sharpen and share their discoveries through peer review. But young earth creationists are still stuck…
The Toxic Evangelical Variant
It’s not an exaggeration to say the evangelical church saved me in every way a person can be saved. They introduced me to Jesus. They became the family my childhood family could not be. They loved and affirmed me. They…
As you watch the new movie Oppenheimer, remember Glen Stassen
It was 1989 and I had taken a class called Just Peacemaking taught by Glenn H. Stassen. For those of you not familiar with Stassen, he was a nuclear physicist turned theologian turned ethics professor at the Southern Baptist Theological…
‘So you’ve been deconstructing, huh? What do you believe now?’
There is perhaps no greater trend in American Christianity than deconstructing the theology and ethics of white evangelicalism. Books, articles, podcasts and even music are being created daily to explore the reasons why so many people are leaving the faith…
Three cheers for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb
In a sign that sanity is possible amid today’s culture wars, the Republican governors of Utah and Indiana this week vetoed mean-spirited bills passed by their legislatures to address a fake crisis about transgender student athletes. This year already is…
Why is there a boom in enrollment at private Christian schools? Here’s one critical theory: Race
The New York Times headline, “Christian Schools Boom in a Revolt Against Curriculum and Pandemic Rules,” begs the question “Why?” “Why are Christian schools growing? Before addressing this thematic question, there is a definitional concern that needs attention. The secular…
Why I see COVID-19 vaccines as a sign of God’s grace
I used to tell the Hardin-Simmons University students in my freshman biology class that scientific knowledge is a gift from God, but we have to do the hard work of discovering it and learning how to use it. For example,…