Category: Uncategorized

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

When it comes to child care costs, Dave Ramsey is the one who’s ‘dumber than crap’

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 […]

Why are conservatives so afraid of Taylor Swift?

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 […]

What grief, denial and fear have to do with the evangelical fascination with Trump

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 […]

As MAGA pastors gain influence, let’s talk about peace instead of power

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,” […]

Reflections on 2023 and a vision for the new year

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 […]

Pope Francis vs. John Piper: Two views of ‘masculinizing’ the church

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 […]

In dialogue with Doug Wilson and the ‘pop Calvinists,’ at least Wilson is consistent

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 […]

How you connect apocalypse to Advent affects how you interact with the news

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, […]

If Good News Clubs get access to public schools, so does After School Satan Club

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 […]

Association of Certified Biblical Counselors needs to look deeper than Bill Shannon to understand what ails them

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, […]

You don’t have to demonize us just because we’ve left the faith as you believe it

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 […]

Home: A Short Story

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 […]

Retributive theology opened the door to growth of the prosperity gospel today

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. […]

Here are some ways to listen to Palestinian Christians

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, […]

What we should learn from Deion Sanders and Nebraska women’s volleyball

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on September 8, 2023. With week one of the college football season kicking off last weekend, fans across the country began dreaming once again about the gridiron glories of violence and victory. And for the parts of American culture shaped by white evangelicals, these simmering passions carry culture […]

Why I reference evangelical women I disagree with in my writing

One struggle I have as a religion writer is with how to cover a topic that includes voices that trigger and hurt people I care about. For example, if I was a political analyst for CNN, I would need to cover Republicans and Democrats. And while I would be very focused on exposing the Christian […]

The Director: A Tale of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

“For example, a housewife in her backyard may be asked by a man how to get to the freeway. At that point she is giving a kind of leadership. She has superior knowledge that the man needs and he submits himself to her guidance. But we all know that there is a way for that […]

A new metaphor could change the views of white evangelical conservatives

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 29, 2023. Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington is an opportunity to reflect not only on the vision of Black liberationists, but also on how conservative white evangelicals’ resistance to change is continuing through an entitlement to power rooted in insecurity. Al Sharpton, […]

Comedy or tragedy? The stories we tell ourselves about creation

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 18, 2023. “Wicked looks at what happened in the land of Oz — but from a different angle,” the most popular show on Broadway advertises. “So much happened before Dorothy dropped in.” As we shuffled out of the theater at the end of the show, we were […]

Appealing to religious freedom is the way to counter Christian supremacism in America today

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 7, 2023. Christian supremacism has gotten completely out of hand in the United States. We’ve seen it in the insurrection warfare of the New Apostolic Reformation, the battle against librarians by the likes of Kirk Cameron, the desire to punish homosexuality by Al Mohler, Dan Patrick’s claims that God wrote the […]

Why I have empathy for Karen Swallow Prior

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 5, 2023. “I’ve been struggling with regret lately, specifically in feeling like I wasted my whole academic career (given how things have turned out),” tweeted Karen Swallow Prior three months after resigning from the faculty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. When she announced her retirement in March, Prior […]

Complementarianism may promote the death of the family

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 28, 2023. “Lois! Get me my 10-cubed Pepsi!” my former Bible professor would yell across the house in their biblical home. His wife would immediately drop whatever she was doing, fill a glass with exactly 10 ice cubes, pour his Pepsi, and hand it to him […]

This is a story about the gods of the oil industry, capitalistic greed, religious fundamentalism, Islamic terrorism, Christian supremacy, Islamophobia and a federal investigation of Donald Trump

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 13, 2023. The PGA Tour shocked the world last week with its  announcement of a collaboration with LIV Golf. As much as this is about the business of golf, it’s also about the complexities of systemic injustice and the need to deconstruct hierarchies in the global clash […]

Yes, Tim Scott is a Black man, but he’s still promoting Christian nationalism

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 25, 2023. Republican Sen. Tim Scott entered the presidential race this week, hoping to loosen Donald Trump’s grip on the party with “an optimistic, positive message anchored in conservatism” while appealing to voters who are willing to welcome common sense and common ground. His emphasis on […]

Let’s stop treating the dignity of women as a secondary issue good Christians can disagree on

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 22, 2023. While complementarians sacralize the subjugation of women, perhaps the strongest obstacles to change are the priorities of egalitarians. We’ve witnessed the muscle of complementarian men weaponizing the Bible and wielding the gospel to fortify their authority and power in the church and at home. […]

Why aren’t we talking about the theology that drives white Christian nationalism?

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 21, 2023. Poll after poll and webinar after webinar lays out the data on white Christian nationalism. The facts of this threat to both democracy and faith are well-documented. What’s missing from nearly every public discussion is the toxic theology that fuels white Christian nationalism. Behind the […]

Why Women Talking has women talking and complementarian men fuming

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 14, 2023. As much as conservative evangelicals love to hate Hollywood, sometimes Hollywood plays the role of the prophet, exposing the brutal power dynamics of complementarianism’s “male headship.” Such is the case with Brett McCracken, senior editor and director of communications at The Gospel Coalition. His article about […]

Kirk Cameron is promoting his new children’s book by protesting against other children’s books — and CRT and drag queens and librarians

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on December 4, 2023. Actor Kirk Cameron of “Left Behind” fame is cashing in on evangelical fears of LGBTQ people as he wages a war with “woke libraries” in a publicity stunt for his new children’s book. “It’s terrifying to me,” Cameron said regarding children’s books that depict […]

Doomsday Vault created to preserve conservative preaching against cancel culture

This article originally appeared on December 16, 2022 at Baptist News Global. In a world where peer-reviewed evolutionists are taken seriously and LGBTQ people are treated as peers, Bob Jones University and Sermon Audio have come up with a conservative evangelical counter-offensive known as The Vault. The two organizations have joined forces to build a doomsday vault […]

What have we learned about Matt Chandler’s sin and restoration? Not much

This article originally appeared on December 5, 2022 at Baptist News Global. Among the many reasons people are leaving institutional churches, there is one that runs deeper than them all. John MacArthur says  it’s because “they deconstruct the Bible to give room for their pet sins and tolerances.” The Gospel Coalition says it’s because we have church […]

On meeting death as a sister

This story originally appeared at Baptist News Global on December 1, 2022. What if death isn’t the enemy we often think it is? And what if reconsidering our theology of death might help us live deeper into the union of self and neighbor? In four weeks, Christians across the world will celebrate the birth of Jesus. […]

How Trump’s latest comments on Israel align with evangelical Zionism

This article originally appeared on October 20, 2022 at Baptist News Global. Donald Trump is in the news again making negative statements about American Jews while flattering his evangelical fanbase. In my piece last week, I wrote about how the dispensationalist obsession with the end times led evangelicals to embrace the Christian Zionist beliefs that “modern-day Israel […]

What does complementarianism have to do with Domestic Violence Awareness Month?

This article originally appeared on October 6, 2022 at Baptist News Global. “Please don’t tell my husband I said anything. These men think they can bully women into submission.” I hear statements like this from Christian women in complementarian marriages quite often. But while many of these women are aware of the weight they bear, they […]