Opinion

In 1845, a group of pro-slavery Baptists created the Southern Baptist Convention to defend enslavers serving as missionaries. One hundred and eighty years later, SBC leaders defend a pastor serving as an ICE leader. Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on this through line.

Comedian Druski’s latest viral church parody contains some truth in its critique, however uncomfortable it may be. The Church and the Christians within it should face that openly.

The ICE shooting in Minneapolis, like the Jan. 6 insurrection, brings into sharp relief two different visions in America. Many of us now filter what we see through a pair of political eyeglasses, blurring facts with ideology.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reacts to a Calvinist pastor in Minnesota to offered a blessing for ICE after the killing of Renee Good. Each generation has preachers excited to stand up as chaplains for the empire.

From the beginning, the U.S. has prided itself on being a haven for persecuted believers. But it has also demanded those believers demonstrate their loyalty in ways that blur the line between conscience and citizenship.

In these unsettling times of hatred and violence as rulers rage like Herod, may we stand in the ruins of the empire and lift our voices. For unto us a child is born.

In our familiarity with the birth narrative, we often do not consider the long-term consequences for the secondary figures in the story. It was an unsettling time that left long and permanent scars on their lives.

Advent reminds us that God comes into a world already organized by power and exclusion — and does not accept its terms. If Christianity is used today to justify separation, the gospel calls us back to its center.

The cruel spectacle churns on for now, but Advent prepares us to see anew that there are countless ordinary acts of love happening quietly, out of sight, more than you and I will ever know.

We should all be concerned about government officials anointing themselves as the arbiters of what a Nativity scene should look like. Sadly, too many Christians today willingly side with Herod.