“So, that’s awesome, man,” megachurch pastor Josh Howerton concluded in what he claimed was an apology to his congregation on Sunday. “Can we move on now? Y’all good with that? We’re gonna do that. That’s what we’re going to do….
The re-assassination Of Martin Luther King Jr.
A year to the day before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist pastor, publicly defined the war in Vietnam as a civil rights issue on April 4, 1967, in an address titled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence to…
Southern Baptists, power and the continuum of sexual violence
Note to readers: This article includes content related to sexual abuse and violence against women. The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention has found yet another way to retraumatize survivors of clergy abuse and accentuate the convention’s long history…
When it comes to shaming women, the SBC isn’t the only perpetrator among Christians
The Southern Baptist Convention has made headlines not only in Baptist circles but in secular publications in the days after this year’s annual meeting. In addition to Critical Race Theory, the media has been reporting on the SBC’s commitment to…
American Christianity in China also imports gender bias and Calvinism
Imagine if America’s coalition of conspiracy theorist, cowboy Christianity had colonized its way into the world of international politics and sexual abuse cover-ups under the guise of spreading the gospel. Research scholar Mary Li Ma believes this isn’t an imaginary scenario,…
It was a bad week for women, but it wasn’t unusual
In case you didn’t notice, women had a very bad week. In Georgia, a Southern Baptist man shot and killed eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent, because he wanted to eliminate temptation because of his sex…
How I learned to stop making excuses for the men in my world
There he was, 10 feet in front of me in broad daylight. There was no mistaking him for someone else. To my advantage, I spotted him from behind the tinted windows of my car, where he couldn’t see me, yet…
Black Baptist women in ministry and the principality of patriarchy
As we march into Women’s History Month, I’ve been thinking about women in ministry, particularly Black Baptist women in ministry. This area is especially near and dear to me as my wife, Betty Wright-Riggins, is a woman in ministry. Betty…
Your words hold the power of life and death
In the age of social media, it’s easy to forget the power our words have on others. Sitting behind the safety of a computer screen makes it simple for us to say whatever we think with little consequence. With the…