Opinion

Now that the trustees at Southwest Baptist University dropped their push for new governing documents, Brian Kaylor offers six next steps that leaders of the school and the Missouri Baptist Convention should take.

Columnist Ken Satterfield explains the duality of our attitude toward passwords: In the Kingdom of Should, we know we should come up with strong passwords and not use the same password for multiple accounts. In the Kingdom of But, we know all of this, but we still pick the names of our children, pets, significant dates, and favorite teams.

Attorney and alum Russell Jackson responds to the news that trustees at Southwest Baptist University decided last week to drop their court petition seeking approval for new governing articles.

Columnist Sarah Blackwell discusses how can we better discern when to open our mouths or when to keep them shut — particularly on social media. This means exploring the question: when is saying nothing the path to winning? 

Those who took the pandemic seriously, and made life-altering decisions all along to protect others, are being asked to dig deeper into the well of compassion to ladle out another cup or two of sympathy. But for many that well is dry.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor responds to critics of a Word&Way clergy statement urging Christians to get a COVID-19 vaccine. And Kaylor challenges the anti-vaxxer message of “faith over fear.”

Columnist Rodney Kennedy weaves together a discussion of 1 Corinthians 8, where Paul’s subject is whether Christians should eat meat offered to idols, with the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre to help us better understand the current ideological debate surrounding public health measures.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games the world witnessed Simone Biles, one of the greatest athletes of all time, defend not the gold medal but her own mental health. She is breaking the silence about mental illness while in the global spotlight. This deserves a gold medal in columnist Sarah Griffith Lund's book.

Columnist Rodney Kennedy explores the values that are necessary for us to move beyond our current political moment. He asks if we can have a patriotism that rises above petty differences, respects a diversity of opinions, and works for the common good.

Sean Taylor explains his theological support for COVID-19 vaccination and details what happened when he urged his congregation to get vaccinated from the pulpit. He believes that for the church, the issue is not ultimately about safety or government conspiracies. Instead, the question should be “where is Jesus?”