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 […]
Are we a democracy or a republic? Why words matter
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 27, 2025. “The United States is not a democracy! It’s a republic!” my independent Baptist high school government teacher declared over the sound of gunfire and cannons exploding in the Civil War re-enactment across the street. Almost three decades later, the debate still isn’t settled. And […]
White evangelical men weaponize the gospel against women because they don’t respect women
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 27, 2025. “Do men desperately need respect, while women desperately need love?” This was the question posed by Sheila Gregoire on a recent episode of the “Bare Marriage” podcast. “That is the thesis of a lot of best-selling books in evangelicalism like Love and Respect; For Women Only; His Needs, Her […]
Notre Dame event models the hospitality needed for national healing
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on December 11, 2024. As I walked through the snow toward McKenna Hall at Notre Dame University, I imagined the next 12 hours would include hard truths and valuable insights from professors and pundits about the reelection of Donald Trump and the Republican takeover of Congress. The 2024 Election […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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,” […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
How the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy became a litmus test
This article originally appeared on March 14, 2022 at Baptist News Global. “Do you affirm the doctrine of inerrancy as articulated in the Chicago Statement?” demands Denny Burk, professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, tweeting his line in the sand to defend what he thinks are attacks against historic orthodoxy by the ever-so-dangerous Beth Allison Barr. Bringing up […]
Tim Tebow and Demaryius Thomas and the world we see
This article originally appeared on December 20, 2021 at Baptist News Global. After having what will one day be recognized as a Hall of Fame NFL career, Demaryius Thomas died unexpectedly of what police are calling “a medical issue” in his Georgia home on Dec. 9, 2021. He would have turned 34 on Christmas Day. As […]