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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 27, 2024. Most of the noise at this month’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting was from men attempting to cement their pastoral power over women, Christian nationalists attacking religious liberty, messengers seeking to censure SBC leaders publicly, and the convention voting to oppose in vitro fertilization.These […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 25, 2024. Megachurch pastors in Dallas are starting to drop like flies. On June 9, Tony Evans stepped away for an unspecified period of time from the 10,000-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, a church he started in his living room and led for 48 years, explaining vaguely that […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 10, 2024. It’s exhausting to the soul. That’s what I’m feeling as I consider all the possible stories I could write regarding what white conservative men have planned for this year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis. Capturing most headlines is the Law Amendment, which […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 4, 2024. Growing up as an independent fundamentalist Baptist, I was taught that loosening any standards meant you were getting on the slippery slope toward becoming gay. If I grew my hair out over my ears, I might eventually reject God and become gay. If I […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 24, 2024. “The headline could just be, ‘Man who kicks ball for a living and has no other job criticizes women who want to be nurses, surgeons and U.N. Secretary General,’” said Brad Onishi on the Straight White American Jesus podcast episode that featured discussion about the Kansas […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 22, 2024. There’s a thin line between reading a memoir written by somebody who grew up in conservative Christianity and watching a horror movie. As Christa Brown, a frequent contributor to Baptist News Global, releases her new memoir Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation, it’s […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 15, 2024. With Pride Month looming over the horizon and women graduating from college, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker decided to attack “dangerous gender ideologies” when he gave the commencement address at Benedictine College. Butker, an outspoken conservative Catholic, believes the gender ideologies he is […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 12, 2024. Mica Miller’s body was found at 3:03 p.m. April 27 in Robeson County, N.C., with a gunshot wound to the head, an hour and a half drive away from her home in Myrtle Beach, S.C., two days after serving her husband divorce papers. Her […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 3, 2024. “There is a difference between being secular and being ANTI-CHRISTIAN,” wrote Shane Pruitt, National Next Gen director for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. The anti-Christian culprit he had in mind was not one of the many examples of male church leaders in […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 30, 2024. April 2024 has been the month when the Kens of the Mojo Dojo Casa Churches came out in full force to flex their patriarchy power in preach-offs. It started with Josh Howerton telling women to crown dishonorable men as their kings and telling women to stand, […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 26, 2024. Twenty-five years ago, I sat in my living room as a junior in high school watching the Columbine shooting unfold. Seeing students my age filing out of the school, I had no idea how that moment would impact me or shape the narrative about […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 15, 2024. Megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll seethed as Alex Magala, described by two fawning onlookers as “the finest swordsman in all the world,” slowly circled a pole on stage, peeled off his red leather top, slid his tongue up to the tip of a sword, swallowed the […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 10, 2024. “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. OK?” Then he clapped […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 4, 2024. Every March, millions of people locate their yellow highlighters and black pens as they compete against family, friends and coworkers for bragging rights in their March Madness bracket contest. It all started in a Staten Island bar in 1977, where an 88-person bracket contest […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 29, 2024. On your wedding night, “stand where he tells you to stand, wear what he tells you to wear, and do what he tells you to do.” This is the advice Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Josh Howerton gave the women of his congregation last month at Lakepointe […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 27, 2024. With echoes of “You’re so vain; you probably think the Bible’s about you,” today’s conservative American conspiracy theorists are raising money for Christian broadcasters by claiming the upcoming solar eclipse is a prophetic word from God revealed in the stars and in the Scriptures […]
I did a 45 minute presentation for Secular Arizona last Friday about how ancient empire hierarchies that the Bible was written in are being applied through authoritarian Christianity and Christian nationalism today. And then we did a 15 minute Q&A. Unfortunately, I forgot to put my presentation in presentation mode. So the slides are a […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 20, 2024. Mainline and evangelical churches aren’t the only religious communities losing members these days. According to a new study published in the Journal of Religion and Demography, Mormonism is no longer followed by the majority of residents in Utah. Ryan Cragun, a professor of sociology at the University […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 11, 2024. In addition to calling for a Coca Cola-sponsored decapitation of Donald Trump’s political opponents to be broadcast live for children to watch, Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk is making headlines again, this time claiming the United States government was formed based on the book of […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 6, 2024. In the latest “Law and Order” episode of the GOP’s march toward theocracy, the Arizona Senate passed Senate Bill 1151, which would allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed and read in public schools. “The progressive slide down in our country right now is […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 29, 2024. Perusing the news is beginning to feel like reading my Bob Jones University handbook a quarter century ago. Every page unveils another clutching of control that mortifies and confounds until the reader doesn’t know whether to laugh, cry or rage. This isn’t a new […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 23, 2024. One of the most notable differences since leaving conservative evangelicalism has been my body’s reaction to justice-themed events on the calendar. If the day or month had something to do with LGBTQ people, my immediate reaction would be one of defiance. These events were […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 16, 2024. It seems no matter what table a Christian chooses to sit at these days, powerful men are determining who gets a seat, when they can talk and what stories they’re allowed to tell. This marginalization of voices on the underside of sacralized machismo is evident in […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 9, 2024. “Come on dude. That’s just dumber than crap. Seriously. Good God,” the conservative evangelical financial celebrity and New York Times bestselling author Dave Ramsey ranted at a parent who called into his radio program asking for advice. Ramsey’s co-host Jade Warshaw piled on, “It’s time to take the […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 1, 2024. “I’m not ready to repent over this. I don’t have to,” Alistair Begg boldly declared in a sermon titled “Compassion vs. Condemnation” at the non-denominational Parkside Church in Cleveland last Sunday. The accusations being leveled against Begg are that he has caved to the LGBTQ movement […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 31, 2024. The Kansas City Chiefs have booked their fourth trip to the Super Bowl in five years behind the leadership of head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, two of the best individuals ever at their respective roles. With 269 total wins, Reid has […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 26, 2024. “Whether Trump means it or not is kind of irrelevant because he’s saying the things to people who are hurting,” filmmaker Michael Moore told a gathering of voters in his 2016 documentary TrumpLand. “It’s why every beaten down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 19, 2024. “Kind of disturbing” is how journalist Katie Couric described an Axios piece about how Donald Trump built an insurmountable lead in Monday’s Iowa caucus by catering to evangelical MAGA pastors. “They say obviously they embrace Trump because of the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v Wade,” […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 10, 2024. “MAY THEY ROT IN HELL,” Donald Trump posted in all caps on Truth Social Christmas Day. “AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!” Although this message was par for the course when it comes to Trump, it also offered a moment that caught many people off guard. “What […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 2, 2024. It’s ironic that in a movement built on prophetic dreams where God supposedly reveals the secrets of the world, apparently nobody ever receives a dream about the credible allegations of sexual abuse going on in the church. Mike Bickle is the latest example of […]
It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since I left my cleaning business with the intention of being a stay-at-home dad and pursuing my writing. Three months after the transition, BioLogos published my first piece, which was a co-written interview about my album Consider the Stars. Then four months after that, I began writing […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on December 27, 2023. “One of the great sins we have had is ‘masculinizing’ the church,” Pope Francis admitted to the International Theological Commission last month in what could potentially become the most impactful theological repentance of the year. “Women have a capacity for theological reflection that is […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on December 14, 2023. Twenty-three years after John Piper called Doug Wilson an “absolute genius at sarcasm and irony,” pop Calvinists are still wringing their hands over how to respond to the conservative Reformed pastor from Moscow, Idaho. “You’re very clever, really clever. And I think we need […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on December 8, 2023. Few activities fuel a connection with Advent like reading the news. Stories about weather catastrophes, wars and rumors of wars have many Christians across the theological and political spectrum wondering if the apocalypse is near and perhaps finding themselves praying the words, “Even so, […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 30, 2023. “Every IFB church is a powder keg ready to explode,” says Eric Skwarczynski on Let Us Prey: A Ministry of Scandals, which released last weekend on HBO Max and Investigation Discovery. The four-part docuseries follows the stories of sexual abuse survivors within the Independent Fundamental […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 21, 2023. The Satanic Temple agreed to a settlement with Pennsylvania’s Saucon Valley School District last week for $200,000 in legal fees and access to their buildings for their After School Satan Club. It’s another victory for those who oppose Christian supremacy by appealing to the same religious […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 13, 2023. The latest theater of conservative evangelicalism’s multiple-front spiritual warfare cosplay is being dubbed the “War on Technology” by Cypress Baptist Church of Benton, La. It began as a gathering in October 2022 that promised to “help families win the technology battle in their homes.” […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 7, 2023. The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors has removed Bill Shannon, women’s pastor and counseling pastor at John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church, from their approved counselors list due to credible allegations of protecting abusers and harming women. The accusations were cosigned in September by Hohn Cho, […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 1, 2023. One of the most dismissive and hurtful statements ex-evangelicals hear from our conservative evangelical family and friends after we deconstruct their walls is: “You must have never been saved to begin with.” Another way they say it is, “You must have had a head […]
Eden lay silent and still on her bed as the shadows watched from every corner of her large drab room. Each stone wall stood tall and featureless. Her latched door seemed to be a world away. And all she could hear was the sound of her breath. As she gripped her thin blanket, Eden closed […]
I appeared on the Beached White Male Podcast this week to discuss my articles about Andy Stanley, father wounds, and the war in Israel. Check it out!
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 26, 2023. Is it any wonder that the two most influential definitions of the “good news” in a Western society built on capitalism and retribution would be about people getting paid or being punished? In conservative evangelicalism, we see a heavy emphasis on the punishment side. […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 17, 2023. As someone whose ancestors immigrated to the United States from Lebanon, the faces of children suffering in the war in Israel remind me of my own children. The limp body of a 5-year-old girl being carried through the rubble, and the bare, bloody shoulders […]
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 10, 2023. With war raging once again in Israel and Palestine, it seems far more people have opinions to proclaim about it than openness to listening. After the horrific attacks carried out by Hamas in which more than 1,600 people were killed and many more injured, […]