Don’t be surprised white evangelicals still support Jesse Watters
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 6, 2026. Given that white evangelicals have spent the last decade largely ignoring the sexual abuse being perpetrated by their pastors and politicians and even calling such allegations a hoax, it’s no wonder they’d celebrate sexually abusive pundits as well. According to 2025 data from Public Religion […]
Men-only gyms seek to protect Christian men from lust
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 22, 2026. White conservative Christian men are rising up all over the nation to take their place at the top of their families, churches and communities. We’re witnessing their rise to power through the Rededicate 250 events where men like Mark Driscoll called on young men “to get […]
How bad theology has set us up for sexualized AI deepfakes
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 1, 2026. Given the research I conduct for writing, the ads my algorithm sends me can be all over the map. Nothing ever surprises me. But after looking into the recent story about 62 million visits to a website that contained instructions on how to sexually […]
The GOP has a transgender fixation, and Democrats aren’t helping
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 10, 2026. While the man in charge of the most powerful military in world history threatened to blow an entire civilization into oblivion, “never to be brought back again,” many of us wondered how his Christian followers would respond. Back in 2016, when white evangelicals refused […]
Of course, evangelicals are complaining about Stranger Things
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 5 2025. “Being gay is not a superpower,” one person wrote on social media. Immediately, my heart sank. Although I was still catching up on Stranger Things episodes, my gut told me we were on the precipice of yet another conservative panic attack over the existence of gay […]
Meet the ‘transvestigators’
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 20, 2025. Erika Kirk has been no stranger to online scrutiny in the months since her husband, Charlie, was murdered. When she appeared on “The Charlie Kirk Show” just five days after his memorial service, many people were surprised at how bright and bubbly she seemed. […]
MAGA has a meltdown over male cheerleaders
“The next generation of cheer has arrived!” the Minnesota Vikings announced as they revealed their 2025 cheerleading squad. And just like that, MAGA had a meltdown. The video opens with one Vikings cheerleader doing a backflip. Then the camera pans back and reveals the full squad dancing in dark uniforms with Vikings logos across the front and white […]
When Romans 1 is your answer to every challenge
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 7, 2025. Almost every political conversation with white evangelicals today eventually comes down to their fear of saying anything positive about LGBTQ people. If you have empathy, they’ll warn it’s a slippery slope toward affirming LGBTQ people. If you suggest women can preach, they’ll accuse you […]
Zuckerberg’s and Rogan’s masculinity sounds like evangelical complementarians
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 16, 2025. “It’s also good to know that you can kill people,” Joe Rogan opined in his podcast interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as the men began to giggle. “There’s a certain confidence from that,” Zuckerberg affirmed. “If you could sell it in a pill, […]
How I learned to stop obsessing over lust and you can too
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 9, 2025. This second week of January is likely hard for plenty of evangelical men who made New Year’s resolutions not to lust. I know, because I used to be one of them. Even President Jimmy Carter had to deal with this. In a 1976 interview […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
Who is Alistair Begg, and why are American fundamentalists so upset with him?
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 […]
Is it weird that Mike Johnson’s underage son is his porn accountability partner?
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.” […]
It’s Al Mohler vs. Andy Stanley, part two, with Christianity Today joining the fray
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 5, 2023. “Farewell, Andy Stanley.” So seems to be the response from Al Mohler, Christianity Today, and many other evangelicals to Stanley’s defense of North Point Community Church hosting the Unconditional Conference for LGBTQ Christians and their parents. Sam Allberry, writing for Christianity Today, argues Stanley “seriously undermined” a “New Testament sexual ethic.” As […]
Criticism of Andy Stanley is rooted in father wounds
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on September 21, 2023. LGBTQ kids who grow up in conservative evangelical families tend to have father wounds because evangelicals view LGBTQ people as given over by God to a reprobate mind for the degrading of their bodies and therefore eternally condemned. The challenge many conservative evangelical parents […]
Another C.S. Lewis knock-off letter shows what evangelicals get wrong about sex
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 22, 2023. Note: This article includes an explicit discussion of sexuality. Desiring God’s latest installment of cheap Screwtape Letter knockoffs features Greg Morse attempting to mimic C.S. Lewis’ classic novel by writing a letter from a “marriage counselor” demon named Grimrod to his dear nephew Globdrop. In […]
Here’s how Fox News misled viewers in support of Kirk Cameron’s anti-woke book tour
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 11, 2023. Last Saturday afternoon, historian Kristin Du Mez sat down at her computer to see if her new friend Lindsay Booker had posted any updates about the gathering Booker organized earlier that day at the Madison Library in Huntsville, Ala. Even though Du Mez was […]
2023 was the year the evangelical obsession with Pride month turned violent
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 13, 2023. I toted my brood of children through Target, as Kevin DeYoung suggested, when suddenly I noticed the display of Pride T-shirts. At first, I thought it was nice that my LGBTQ neighbors would receive kind messages like “Free Mom Hugs” and “You Belong.” It seemed especially […]
Tired of reading only male perspectives on Christian sexuality? Here are 14 women you ought to read
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 19, 2023. The past few months have been marked by evangelical men writing about sexuality in ways that center their perspective and pleasure while ignoring the perspectives and pleasure of women. In one interview about his controversial book, Josh Butler said he continues to see his theology of sexuality […]
Josh Butler isn’t done talking about God and sex yet
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 20, 2023. When The Gospel Coalition and The Keller Center scapegoated Josh Butler due to his article about sex and the church — an excerpt taken from his Beautiful Union book they previously hailed as “the Protestant magnum opus on sexual ethics we’ve been waiting for” — many people wondered […]
Preston Sprinkle’s strange interview with Sheila Gregoire and Rebecca Lindenbach
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 13, 2023. Ten days after defending his decision to endorse Josh Butler’s controversial book about Jesus, marriage and sex, Preston Sprinkle released a Theology in the Raw interview with Sheila Gregoire and Rebecca Lindenbach where he continued to prioritize the perspective of men. But this time, his line of reasoning parroted […]
Old wounds and power hierarchies are in fashion at Bob Jones University
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 3, 2023. After consolidating his power over the Bob Jones University board of trustees last week, Chairman John Lewis won his face-off against university president Steve Pettit. Pettit, who has served as president of the ultra-conservative school since 2014, had given the board an ultimatum before […]
We don’t need more ‘context’ to understand Josh Butler’s article on sex and the church
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 6, 2023. In the wake of The Gospel Coalition publishing a male-centric sexual fantasy about Christ penetrating the church, we are getting a clearer picture of how their alliance is characterized by carelessness and control in an attempt to build author platforms by cultivating and protecting […]
Sex, Tech, and Faith: Sexual Ethics for a Digital Age (Review)
This past year, I connected with the American Academy of Religion to write academic reviews of books about religion. For my first review, I discuss Sex, Tech, and Faith: Sexual Ethics for a Digital Age by Kate Ott. You can read my entire review of her book here.
How our view of creation and incarnation shape our view of intersex people
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 18, 2023. Every disconnection from communal wholeness goes back to a disconnection within the self, which is fundamentally experienced in bodies. So the way Christians talk about Jesus being born as a human body has the potential to shape either wholeness or disconnection from self and […]
Amy Grant will host a same-sex wedding, Franklin Graham objects, and where does that leave Michael W. Smith?
This article originally appeared on December 20, 2022 at Baptist News Global. Amy Grant is hosting her niece’s same-sex wedding on her farm, and Franklin Graham wants everyone to know he disapproves. Of course, this should come as no surprise to Graham. In a 2013 interview with the LGBTQ news outlet PrideSource, Grant said she knew by the […]
Should adultery and homosexuality be illegal? Mohler weighs in
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 8, 2022. “Should adultery be illegal? What about homosexuality?” These were questions posed to Al Mohler from a Christian schoolteacher who passed along ideas from a class discussion with his students. Four days before today’s mid-term elections, Mohler answered these questions in his daily Briefing. Mohler identifies […]
There’s a straight line from eugenics to ‘biblical family values’ to white supremacy and the anti-abortion movement
This article originally appeared on July 5, 2022 at Baptist News Global. Pro-life conservative evangelicals erupted into unanimous jubilation at the news of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. But while united in their celebration, they are divided in their vision for the future of the pro-life movement and unaware of its past. Karen Swallow […]
Exiles in Babylon conference gets so much right but can’t apply its logic about race to sexuality
This article originally appeared on April 6, 2022 at Baptist News Global. While many conservative evangelicals focus on fighting culture wars in an attempt to save the United States from progressive ideologies, New York Times bestselling author Preston Sprinkle seems to have accepted that Christians should reimagine their identity as exiles rather than as culture warriors. As host […]
Here’s a better way to talk about Lia Thomas and transgender athletes
This article originally appeared on March 24, 2022 at Baptist News Global. When Lia Thomas touched the wall during the 500-yard freestyle swim and became the first NCAA Division I national champion who self-identifies as a transgender athlete, many people quietly wondered whether her victory was something to celebrate or lament. On one hand, historic victories from underdogs […]
How to talk with your kids about porn without sending them straight to hell
This article originally appeared on February 24, 2022 at Baptist News Global. The first time I saw pornography was at a public school playground during summer break when I was 8. I had ridden my bike over to the school to play, when a couple teenage boys called me over and said they wanted to show […]
This is a tale of testicles, fertility, the length of men’s hair, and one bizarre tweet
This article originally appeared on January 24, 2022 at Baptist News Global. Owen Strachan woke up on Martin Luther King Jr. Day with decades of injustice weighing heavily on his mind: Men with long hair. Strachan, who is former president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and is now provost and research professor of […]
How a student’s fashion design project upset the created order at Bob Jones University
This article originally appeared on January 18, 2022 at Baptist News Global. Let’s call this controversy Wrap-Coat-Gate. Trustees and administrators at Bob Jones University recently grew so alarmed over a wrap coat designed by a student for a class project that they publicly called the student’s work sacrilegious, blasphemous, dishonoring to Jesus, offensive, and egregious. […]
The weakness of complementarian theology on display in Duggar trial
This article originally appeared on December 9, 2021 at Baptist News Global. As we reflect back on 2021, one theme will be how three of the major conservative evangelical denominations have become compromised by sexual abuse and sexual abuse coverups. The Presbyterian Church in America became embroiled in a scandal over the past couple years when a […]
How did an openly queer artist climb to No. 1 on the Christian music charts?
This article originally appeared on September 27, 2021 at Baptist News Global. The openly queer Christian artist Semler was elated to report the breaking news that the parking attendant at a Switchfoot concert supports gay rights. And that wouldn’t be the only surprise of the night. As they drove to their parking space, Semler joked about how huge […]
Knocking down the straw man of theological liberalism
This article originally appeared on August 30, 2021 at Baptist News Global. One of the growing frustrations many deconstructing Christians, ex-evangelicals, liberationist and liberal theologians share is how conservative organizations like The Gospel Coalition constantly misrepresent us through “straw man” fallacies. In the field of logic, a “straw man” is when somebody twists or exaggerates another […]
Coffee, conversation and Christianity go together like cups and saucers
This article originally appeared on August 20, 2021 at Baptist News Global. Across the American South, it’s hard to sit in a coffee shop anywhere and not overhear a Bible study or a conversation about Christian faith. America’s obsession with coffee — whether from Starbucks or the hippest new local spot — has spilled over to […]
From purity pledges to the Equality Act: How evangelical concern about sex has shifted and what it has to do with creation
When more than 200,000 evangelical purity pledges were being planted at the National Mall in 1994 at the height of the True Love Waits movement, nobody would have imagined that the next 25 years would bring about a total revolution in how Americans viewed same-sex marriage. While at the time — now 25 years ago — just 27% of […]
Meet the Theobros, who want you to know they’re right about everything
This article originally appeared on June 28, 2021 at Baptist News Global. In this world of spiritual warfare, theological compromise and Republicans losing the White House, there lives a group of men, mostly white, who put on their armor, saddle up and ride into the glorious battlefield known as Twitter. They alone wear the belt of […]
My journey through purity culture and Christian worship music
This article originally appeared on September 4, 2020 at Baptist News Global. The year was 1993. I was a sweaty junior high kid who had recently gotten my first stick of deodorant and had begun experiencing sensations in my body that felt both good and confusing. But one night, as my brothers and I were laying […]