Opinion

Anthea Butler writes that when White evangelicals ignore race as the motivating issue, she doubts their witness. Their handwringing, the self-abnegation, is meant to assuage their own discomfort, rather than the discomfort, violence, and continual distress of Black people in America.

Columnist Terrell Carter writes that Jesus gave his disciples an earnest rundown of how their lives would be changed due to following him. Although discipleship would be a blessing, it would also carry a cost with struggle, conflict, and separation in many ways.

At a recent annual meeting, seminary presidents in the Southern Baptist Convention reasserted the SBC’s dismissal of Critical Race Theory. Jim Wallis argues that opposing CRT as bad sociology is bad theology.

As Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, campaigns for the U.S. Senate, it raises questions about religion in politics. Why do so few clergy serve in Congress? And what kind of effect might this have on the priorities and policies that emerge from Washington, D.C.?

While women are changing the world of electoral politics, their progress in the world of religion is downright glacial. Ryan Burge unpacks the data over the past two decades.

President Donald Trump will leave the White House next month after overseeing a deadly year of federal executions. We should pause and reflect on this moment. After all, our government conducts this killing spree in our names and with our resources.

Last week’s statement from the presidents of six SBC seminaries opposing critical race theory isn’t good for the denomination. I don’t think they understand how problematic it is to have six White men meeting to discuss race without having anyone of color in the room to represent their experience.

For more than a decade, an annual column here has recognized truly questionable attempts at marketing and promoting religion, probably due to indigestion-fueled middle-of-the-night inspiration. Here is the 2020 edition of the Bad Burrito Awards from columnist Ken Satterfield.

Using prayer to cover up our own misdeeds or guilty inaction isn’t just upsetting but can also be dangerous. Consider the latest move to fight coronavirus undertaken by Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. Instead of issuing a life-saving statewide mask mandate, he called for an official day of prayer.

Columnist Greg Mamula has noticed a trend in Baptist churches toward at least acknowledging classic Christian seasons like Advent more often. He writes that the good thing about seasons is that they come back around every year, allowing us to gain deeper understanding of each season.