Dispirited Christians must prepare to stand in the gap, historians urge
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 20, 2024. “We’re obviously in a very different space than we were in the last two times we had this conversation,” Robert P. Jones said to open the third “Faith and Democracy” tour event with historians Diana Butler Bass, Jemar Tisby and Kristin Du Mez. The […]
Here’s the toxic racism and misogyny you let loose with a vote for Trump
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 11, 2024. If Kamala Harris had won, no Black people would be receiving text messages threatening to make them slaves again, and no women would be being told, “Your body, my choice.” When Trump wins, those things happen. And when Trump loses, insurrections happen. That is the […]
The mysteries of the Latino vote for Trump
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 7, 2024. I’m furious at white evangelicals today, and especially at my white evangelical neighbors. A little over a month ago, Hurricane Helene left our neighborhood looking like a disaster zone. To this day, we still have large trees down in our yards and streets. And while the […]
When ‘thy kingdom come’ is a threat more than a blessing
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 4, 2024. Every election season since I left the final church I was a part of in 2019 is a reminder of why I don’t think I could ever go back. And I know many ex-evangelicals agree with me. I’m writing this just days before the […]
Of worship warfare, theocracy and a weekend with Sean Feucht
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 30, 2024. Is the United States on the verge of becoming a theocracy? After covering Sean Feucht’s “Kingdom to the Capitol” event in Raleigh two weeks ago — during which Feucht embraced the term “Christian nationalism” and another pastor admitted, “We deny the right of any other kingdom […]
Why inerrancy is a threat to democracy
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 21, 2024. If 200,000 Democrats met at the National Mall three weeks before a presidential election, erected an altar and started smashing it while yelling about the GOP candidate getting thrown from a tower, trampled by horses, eaten by dogs and turned into dung, the demand […]
A tale of two rallies on the same day in North Carolina
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 16, 2024. The juxtaposition of experiencing the “Kingdom to the Capitol” tour followed by the “Faith and Democracy” tour in North Carolina on Sunday was a contrast in theology and politics that demonstrates the fracturing of American Christianity unlike any pairing of events in a single […]
Now they’re going after Bluey for being woke
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 8, 2024. “We can’t know whether Bluey will one day go the woke way of Peppa,” The Gospel Coalition’s Brett McCracken wrote two years ago in response to the cartoon Peppa Pig introducing “a character with ‘two mummies.’” According to McCracken, “Pressure is immense and relentless for even the most innocent children’s entertainment […]
Looking for God in the midst of the storm
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 4, 2024. The wind was rushing so strong that it sounded like someone left water running outside as I woke up early last Friday morning. When our kids found their way through the dark house to our room, we looked out the window to see […]
For Our Daughters tells the stories of clergy sexual abuse survivors in their own words
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on September 26, 2024. “Nothing draws fire like drawing attention to sexual abuse and coverups in white evangelical churches. Nothing even comes close.” These are the words Kristin Du Mez chose to reflect on as she prepared herself on the eve of the release of her film For Our […]
Steve Lawson preached fire and brimstone except for himself
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on September 23, 2024. “Megachurch pastors in Dallas are starting to drop like flies,” I wrote back on June 25 after Tony Evans and Robert Morris stepped away from ministry at prominent megachurches. Apparently “starting” was the keyword because over the next three months, the number of Dallas pastors […]
10 examples of conservative evangelicals turning truth into dangerous lies
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on September 18, 2024. Conservative evangelicals claim to be the arbiters of truth in a post-truth world. But if we take a moment to consider how the last few months have gone, we’ll notice a pattern emerge. Story after story, conservatives are the ones who seem to be […]
Interview: “A Conversation with Rick Pidcock” on the Crucible of Thought podcast
A couple weeks ago, I sat down with Brandon Munday on the Crucible of Thought podcast. We talked about a lot of different topics including theology, politics, and how I approach research for my articles.
JD Vance and Al Mohler use fuzzy math to sound an alarm on falling birth rates
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on September 10, 2024. Over the past two months since Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate, many people have been surprised to learn about Vance’s demonization of women in the workplace and his strange fascination with large families. Just this past week, another quote from […]
Of gay penguins, the Grand Canyon, the Ark and the Scopes trial
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on September 6, 2024. As the 100-year anniversary of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial approaches, the scientific community has had an entire century to explore our world and then sharpen and share their discoveries through peer review. But young earth creationists are still stuck using the same tactics […]
Deconstructing God as king
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 30, 2024. As Donald Trump criticizes Kamala Harris for supposedly “turning Black,” laughing too expressively or creating AI-generated crowds, his poll numbers are slipping. Therefore, many of his political advisers are urging him to focus on policies. One of the most common statements from conservative pundits […]
White Calvinist theology has gone to hell
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 23, 2024. “They’re going to hell,” declared Founders Ministry president and Southern Baptist pastor Tom Ascol. In a scene reminiscent of Oprah Winfrey’s “You Get a Car” giveaway, Ascol proclaimed, “Kamala Harris is going to hell, … (Anne) Branigin is going to hell, Jake Tapper is […]
Southern Baptist megachurch pastor returns to misogyny as a text
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 18, 2024. Apparently, Josh Howerton must be getting jealous of JD Vance taking all the limelight for sacralized misogyny because he’s back in the news again with a new sermon series called “Fight For Your Family.” Earlier this year, the pastor of Dallas megachurch Lakepointe made headlines when he […]
Who are the billionaires and celebrity pastors supporting Megan Basham?
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 15, 2024. Megan Basham may have been given the 2024 Boniface Award for “fearless and faithful” journalism by the Association of Classical Christian Schools for taking “a stand for the Christian viewpoint … without bitterness and in a godly and grace-filled way.” But her latest book, Shepherds […]
How concerned should we be about conspiracy theorists counting our votes?
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 11, 2024. Growing up as an independent fundamentalist Baptist, the highlight of each year for our church was the weeklong revival meeting, where we began each night with songs that prepared our hearts for a sermon by a fiery evangelist who then gave an altar call […]
Interview: “JD Vance is Super Weird” on the Straight White American Jesus podcast
I appeared on the Straight White American Jesus podcast for the first time. It’s a bonus episode. So to hear the whole thing, you’ll need to become a subscriber. But here is a 13 minute preview. We discussed my article titled “What JD Vance and Harrison Butker have in common” that was published on July […]
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 […]
When being a pastor is ‘the most important calling,’ family values take a back seat
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 […]
What’s happening to megachurch pastors in Dallas?
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 […]
Watching SBC men posture for position is exhausting
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 […]
Rosaria Butterfield is not a model for becoming un-gay
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 […]
The Harrison Butker story is so much weirder than you know
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 […]
A controversial horror film embodies the real-life horrors of church abuse
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 […]
Butker’s commencement speech echoes MacArthur and other male supremacists
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 […]
A pastor’s wife’s questionable suicide sparks suspicion and highlights the fruit of abusive theologies
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 […]
Before evangelical males went after Taylor Swift, they hated on Amy Grant
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 […]
What can we learn from children about being liberated from Kendomland?
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, […]
Amid concerns about video game-inspired violence, a ‘Christian’ game slays ungodly enemies
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 […]
What happened when Mark Driscoll and Josh Howerton showed up at the Stronger Men’s Conference this weekend
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 […]
Here’s how toxic male supremacy keeps on infecting the church, even in a supposed ‘apology’
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 […]
Even in March Madness, the playing field remains uneven for women
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 […]
Pastor’s wedding night advice to women opens a conversation on harmful evangelical teaching on sex
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 […]
Can’t a solar eclipse just be a solar eclipse?
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 […]
Presentation on Authoritarian Christianity
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 […]
How evangelical and Mormon deconstruction is playing out on TikTok and YouTube
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 […]
No, the U.S. Constitution is not based on the book of Deuteronomy
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 […]
If you want to post the Ten Commandments in schools, you ought to learn more about them
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 […]
Conservatives’ agenda for America is starting to read like my Bob Jones University student handbook
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 […]
On sitting in the shade of another’s tree
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 […]
Of Elisabeth Elliot, Beth Allison Barr, Kristin Du Mez and Karen Swallow Prior and who gets a seat at the table
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 […]