Nex Benedict died by suicide a day after a fight with bullies at their high school, according to a medical examiner’s report released March 13. The 16-year-old nonbinary student’s death has drawn international headlines for a month now, cited by…
God (suffers) with us
As we laid Phyllis, my paternal grandmother, to rest Dec. 11, 2019, I looked around and saw my family trying to piece themselves together. It was an intense funeral, the kind that comes after an unexpected loss; the kind where…
Making sense of the senseless death of an Alabama pastor
I did not know F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, but I probably have more insights into his tragic story than most Baptist pastors. Copeland, mayor of Smiths Station, Ala., and pastor of First Baptist Church in nearby Phenix City, took his own…
Now I know my grandmother was a person, not just an event
Note: This article includes graphic descriptions of suicide. In my life, she wasn’t a person. She was an event. My mother’s mother ended her own life with a shotgun blow to the head. It’s a conversation stopper if there ever…
Anti-LGBTQ legislation is bad science, bad politics and bad theology, and it’s going to get people killed
Needing yet another wedge issue for election season, Republicans in many states are at work attempting to pass legislation that targets LGBTQ people, with a special emphasis on the T. The year 2022 already has surpassed the record-breaking 2021 as…
Racism-induced trauma creates hopelessness in Black communities, scholars say
As he consults with Black congregations, Black church scholar Lewis Brogdon often advises them to prioritize adding a mental health professional to their staffs. That’s because Brogdon, director of the Institute for Black Church Studies at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky,…
How 29 syllables changed my heart about God and gay people
“For the last 20 years, I thought if there was a God, he probably hated me for making me the way I am.” I can’t communicate the destructive power those words had on me. Back then, I was a conservative,…
Worldwide church needs global approach to mental illness, psychologist says
Baptist churches must work together and with other religious and civic organizations to have a positive impact on the mental illness pandemic that is destroying lives and communities around the world, a Jamaican psychologist said on the opening day of…
Clergy mental health is a choice between life and death
I took a leave of absence in 2020, and it saved my life. I serve as pastor of a church in Oklahoma, and it’s been a heck of a year. Even before the pandemic, we navigated painful staff changes and…