Offense taken: Parsing the uproar over the Olympics opening ceremony
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 28, 2024. The way pastors and pundits respond to controversy online in the heat of a cultural moment can be a window for discovering how power works in society and a reminder for where Christians can find beauty. When screenshots of the Olympics opening ceremony revealed […]
What JD Vance and Harrison Butker have in common
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 23, 2024. The most disturbing truth we’re learning this week about Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance isn’t his demonization of the poor in Appalachia, his words about staying in abusive marriages for the sake of the kids, his claim that becoming pregnant through rape is an inconvenience, or even his […]
Must our quests for liberty be mutually exclusive?
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 16, 2024. There’s a strange tension in the minds of many people between the desires for independence and community. It comes up often in conversations about churches and denominations. A church may want to be independent yet participate in the community of a denomination or family […]
Don’t blame ‘the media’ for reporting your own violent language
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 14, 2024. Boston Globe reporter James Pindell stood in front of the press riser in the 91-degree heat as the gun smoke settled and Donald Trump rose up with blood running down his cheek, pumped his fist, and yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” The crowd, understandably in shock, […]
Matt Chandler’s father confessed to sexually abusing a child then years later was given free reign of a church property
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 11, 2024. “Let me be completely, completely honest with you,” Dallas megachurch pastor Matt Chandler said in a May 2006 sermon titled “What Faith Does,” one year before The Village Church Denton Campus hired his sex abuser father as a janitor and handed him the keys to the […]
Conservative evangelicals claim they are being persecuted by not being allowed to persecute LGBTQ foster kids
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 2, 2024. In the latest episode of conservative Christianity’s persecution complex, the Biden administration is accused of discriminating against Christians by prohibiting them from fostering kids. “Biden Takes Aim at Christian Foster Care,” one headline from the American Family Association claims. “The Biden Regime has proposed a […]