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Finally, an honest conversation about CCM and Gospel music

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 13, 2025. One recurring story in recent years has been Christian nationalist worship leaders wielding worship as a weapon for dominating their neighbors rather than as a vehicle for liberating them. The insurrection of January 6 unfolded as New Apostolic Reformation charismatics sang worship songs. The 2024 election […]

Will the SBC keep Lakepointe after kicking out Saddleback?

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 6, 2025. Given how often Dallas megachurch pastors have been in the news for abuse scandals or for run-of-the-mill sacralized misogyny over the past year, it’s only fitting that the Southern Baptist Convention would host its 2025 annual meeting in Dallas. When they meet next week, […]

‘Worship warfare’ event in Seattle was planned to be violent

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 27, 2025. “TODAY WAS WILD!!! A RIOT BROKE OUT IN SEATTLE!!” Those were the exuberant words of revivalist Ross Johnston celebrating on Instagram in all caps as chaos erupted during a worship protest Saturday in Seattle’s Cal Anderson Park. “NO MORE CUTE WEAK CHRISTIANS, WE […]

You won’t believe our story of Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 22, 2025. Three days before what we thought would be my wife, Ruth Ellen’s, final surgery for stage three breast cancer, my mind was racing as I was trying to finish moving out of our old house while confirming plans for where our five kids would […]

Woman preaches at Lakepointe ‘under the fathers of this house’

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 15, 2025. In a scene reminiscent of a Serena Waterford speech from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian depiction of totalitarian patriarchy in The Handmaid’s Tale, Dallas megachurch pastor Josh Howerton and his fellow elders allowed a woman to preach on Mother’s Day. If you’re a complementarian, that’s likely where […]

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 […]

So Paula White’s a complementarian? Really?

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 30, 2025. While many express concern about Paula White’s leadership in the White House Faith Office due to her adherence to the prosperity gospel and her bizarre, tongue-speaking prophecies for Donald Trump, one of the surprising developments of this past week was video of her embracing […]

Trump, Harvard and Bob Jones University: The resurrection of racism

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 21, 2025. Donald Trump’s threat to revoke the tax-exempt status of Harvard University may be novel, but it is not new. It is, in fact, a resurrection of a previous kind of discrimination. There’s one other time in American history when a private university lost its […]

Here’s what we’ve been talking about on ‘Highest Power’

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 1, 2025. It’s been one month since the launch of my new podcast with BNG, Highest Power: Church + State, which is currently ranking within the top 20% of all podcasts nationally. “I’m thrilled with the podcast and what you’re doing here,” BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield […]

That time I got an angry call from the subject of an article about anger and abuse

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 23, 2025. Editor’s note: It is BNG’s policy to correct factual errors as soon as possible after learning about those errors. In the case of Rick Pidcock’s earlier piece mentioned here, we have not been informed of any factual errors or asked to make any […]

Why we can’t convince some Christians to love their neighbor

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 14, 2025. It shouldn’t be this difficult to convince conservative Christians to love their neighbor. But in seemingly every example of someone in power mistreating the marginalized these days, the Religious Right sides with the person in power. The presence those on the right have in […]

Our debate ultimately is about the dignity and humanity of women

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 5, 2025. A conservative friend on social media recently admitted that some of the storylines around Donald Trump’s second term have been extreme but concluded this is simply the way the pendulum swings. In one sense, what he said was true. Since Jimmy Carter, the Democrats […]

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 […]

Feeling overwhelmed? Think local, Tyler advises

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 18, 2025. It can be overwhelming to consider that there won’t be a presidential election for nearly four years, or even the possibility of winning either the House or Senate away from the control of Christian nationalists for another two years. One recent CNN headline said, “Democrats confront […]

When a church’s sexual abuse is so pernicious the church should close

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 11, 2025. “The nation of Israel was born because Joseph went to prison,” former IHOPKC pastor Mike Bickle told the congregation in what would become his final sermon in October,2023. “He’s thrown in prison because of the betrayal of his brothers.” Then he concluded, “The nation […]

Why Trump seeks to create a government of one person

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on February 7, 2025. “Do you believe I am unwittingly supporting the Antichrist?” Benjamin Cole asked BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield in perhaps the most contentious episode of BNG’s “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast to date. In an hour-long conversation on current politics, the temperature started to rise […]

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 […]

When worship becomes an act of cruelty

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on January 22, 2025. Why are white evangelicals so conditioned for cruelty? After all, the debacle that was Donald Trump’s first day in office included ending birthright citizenship, erasing transgender and intersex people, threatening to colonize our neighbors, lying about the 2020 election results, and pardoning more than […]

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 […]

When flat earthers and creationists find common ground

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on December 29, 2024. It was hyped as “The Final Experiment.” Led by pastor Will Duffy of Agape Kingdom Fellowship in Wheat Ridge, Colo., a group of people who believed in a flat earth and others who believed in a global earth traveled to Union Glacier, Antarctica, together on […]

Remember that time the pastor reenacted a scene from Die Hard?

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on December 17, 2024. “Christmas at the movies!” the pleasant, feminine voice sings as the smiley-faced popcorn, coffee, candy bar and soda cartoon characters come waltzing into the auditorium before getting interrupted with an explosion, heavy metal music, and a man yelling, “Don’t need that ring-a-ling, ding-a-dong, ding-a-ding […]

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 […]

Unsurprisingly, The Gospel Coalition loathes the Wicked movie

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on December 5, 2024. One of the most noteworthy theological trends in 21st-century pop Calvinism has been the rehabilitation of the patriarchy. From Josh Howerton to Mark Driscoll to John MacArthur and more, iconic pastors are now routinely given platforms and sympathetic backstories that attempt to complicate categories of good and evil. This has dovetailed […]

Hegseth’s nomination fits the TheoBro pattern creating abuse culture

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 26, 2024. Given the state of their churches, it makes total sense that conservative evangelicals would elect a president who has a history of bragging about sexual assault. And it also makes sense that this sexually abusive president would nominate five people to his cabinet who […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]