At denominational gatherings across the country this summer, one topic of conversation has been a near constant: Christian nationalism.
The roots of Christian nationalism
Christian nationalism did not spring up fully formed during President Donald Trump’s first term. Its roots run deep in American soil. Unfortunately. In the Post-Reconstruction South, the United Daughters of the Confederacy planted a Confederate memorial on many a small-town…
Burge says this is why nondenoms have advantage over SBC
Nondenominational churches will continue to have an advantage over Southern Baptist churches because their members are younger and more ethnically diverse, predicts religion data analyst Ryan Burge. In a new Substack post titled, “Those Nondenoms are Just Southern Baptists, Right? ”…
A new Baptist’s reflections on BINOs
In September, I left the United Methodist Church for an Alliance of Baptists congregation. While I hold a master of divinity degree and knew the broad strokes of Baptist history and have worked alongside Baptists for several years, I didn’t…
Here’s a Mike Huckabee connection with the Holy Land you didn’t know
President-elect Donald Trump named Mike Huckabee as his choice to be the United States ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, of course, was a Southern Baptist minister before getting involved in rightwing media and politics. His faith has been a central feature…
Making sense of denominational decline and church shifting
Evangelical Protestantism continues to be a growing force in American Christianity, as Mainline Protestant denominations continue to decline, but where are these converts coming from? There is very little data showing where Christians go when they convert away from a…
Who’s an evangelical? New poll finds Southern Baptists separating from Christian nationalists on some points
The question of whether Southern Baptists should be counted among the nation’s conservative evangelicals is not a new one, but it is up for debate again thanks to results from a new Lifeway Research survey on faith and politics. That…
O’Fallon quits CBN, G3 and Alpha and Omega
One of the most controversial leaders with links to the Conservative Baptist Network and the Baptist Calvinist group G3 Ministries has resigned those posts abruptly, claiming he has been the victim of “lies, disinformation, political gamesmanship, false rumors and nonsense.”…
A Southern Baptist saint: Gratitude for the life of Leslie Jordan
When I saw the tweet that read “Comedian Leslie Jordan dead at 67,” I gasped. Then immediately, I felt a tear forming in my eyes — and I never cry. I began scrolling until I found an article that confirmed…
The plantation lived on through Texas Baptist evangelism
Recently during worship, my minister sang a song of lament he composed about the whitewashed history of violence and slavery in the United States. In “This House,” Aaron Austin sang: “They said it was history, time to move on. They…
How I learned to care about social justice growing up Southern Baptist in Oklahoma
“How did you come to have a passion for social justice issues?” That was one of the questions put to me this week when the tables got turned and I was the interviewee instead of the interviewer. The answer immediately…
Why we need to talk about abortion
We need to talk about abortion. The first time I remember knowing anything about the subject, I was probably in late elementary school and overheard my older cousins and sibling snickering about my grandmother’s concern about “all those aborkins” and…