The recent spate of ultraconservative decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court has put The United Methodist Church officially at odds with the nation’s highest judicial body. The denomination’s opposition to the high court’s decisions can be found from its core…
Is there a balm in Gilead? The church in post-Roe America
The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah cried out on behalf of his people and nation. It was wracked by rampant greed and deceit, and the lives of the poor were being trampled upon. “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no…
Weaponizing America: Every neighbor a threat
Something clicked within me recently while half-listening to a news report. The report concerned yet another police killing of a citizen and, as I recall, the reporter’s words went something like this: “Police chased the man on foot for two…
We know the truth, and it is not setting us free
At the annual gathering of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship last week, I heard at least one speaker repeat the words of John 8:32: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” In fact, as I recall,…
We dissent!
The headline read, “In a 5-4 Vote the United States Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade.” While I knew this decision was coming, I still felt a deep pain in my heart and anxiety swell all over my body. Perhaps…
The U.S. Supreme Court in a four-letter word: Bork
In recent days, the Supreme Court of the United States has issued several landmark decisions. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, six of the nine justices decided to overrule the court’s 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, which…
Jeffress says he’s not a ‘Christian nationalist’ but America was founded as a ‘Christian nation’
America was founded as a “Christian nation” but that has been subverted since 1947 when “we allowed the liberals, the left, the progressives, the humanists, the atheists to pervert our Constitution into something the founders never intended it to be,”…
A radical court on the move
In one of the most consequential terms in the 233-year history of the U.S. Supreme Court, an aggressive and radicalized supermajority of justices has begun a comprehensive reshaping of the legal landscape of the country with consequences we can only…
‘If they come for me in the night, they’ll come for you in the morning’
Raise your hand if the Supreme Court had to decide whether or not you could marry. Folks in interracial couples and queer folks, I see you. Now raise your hand if you’re afraid the Supreme Court might take away your…
This Supreme Court’s dangerous vision of ‘history and tradition’
To kick things off today, just a quick reaction to last Wednesday’s Jan. 6 House committee hearings, which featured Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Her testimony contained startling new revelations, even in…
Why I’ve never written about abortion before now
Note: This article includes a graphic description of miscarriage. Last week, a friend who is a compassionate pro-lifer asked me about the opinion pieces on abortion we’ve carried at BNG before and after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe…
Welcome to Gilead
The red-robed memes started immediately after Friday’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and jumpstarting abortion bans across the country. When I first read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale back in 1985, I certainly could believe some people wanted…