Opinion
Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’: Remembering Dolly Parton
Southerners are known for our ability to turn a phrase. We have certain sayings and expressions.
We Need to Talk About ‘Woke 1’
Progressives shouldn’t ignore the possibility that we bear some of the blame for this recalibration.
The Tragedy of Professor Jason Arday
Black professionals are not always permitted the luxury of simply being individuals.
AI and the Future of Racism
Racism is adapting to modern technology with systemic forms of prejudice embedded in digital algorithms. It’s called techno- racism, which means the search results aren’t promising.
Women’s Equality Day is a Call to Justice
Equality is a theological imperative grounded in the belief that everyone bears the image of God.
Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak: Principles for Interfaith Dialogue and Action
A few principles can help as you consider going deeper into interfaith and interreligious dialogue and work.
In an Open Relationship with Jesus
God knows our human frailties and struggles and loves humanity so much because God became one of us.
Evangelical ‘Expert’ on Iran Sows Seeds of Distrust Against Muslims
Nasser threaded familiar yet dangerous ideas about Islam into his uneven thoughts about the geopolitics of the war with Iran.
Kevin Morby Imagines Heaven on Earth in the ‘Little Wide Open’
Morby has been a curious observer of the religious landscape around him since childhood.
U.S. Democracy Owes a Debt of Gratitude to Native Americans
The Haudenosaunee developed what historians now consider the first democracy.
The Future of Faith: The Evidence of Things Unseen
My understanding of faith and its practice has changed. I used to believe faith was made evident in church attendance and tithing.
A Pastor and Adoptive Mother’s Case for Reproductive Rights
I have sat and wept with more couples than I care to mention, who have heard the words “incompatible with life” used to describe their long-anticipated baby.
‘Church Together’: Breaking Generational Barriers in Congregational Life
All-age ministry is about nothing less than the missio Dei, God’s mission of love and hope for all of creation.
By the Way | Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics & a New (I think) Argument for Women’s Ordination
If the gender of the disciples is taken as a template for the priesthood or the ministry for millennia thereafter, then why shouldn’t the ethnic composition of the disciples also be determinative?
The Jesus Way at Back to School Bash
Outside a court of law, judgment isn’t our calling as believers. Meeting needs is.
Nara Smith and the Life-Altering Choice of Becoming a Trad Wife
I look at the content cycling through the internet at rapid speed and I see a seed of myself and the darkness I once harbored.
Cop City, Weather Underground, and the Risks and Rewards of Costly Resistance
The Weatherfolks were white. They rejected the brutish social contract of American life altogether.
Trump’s Performative Vaccine Policy
Developed nations with healthier children have other policies I’d like our country to emulate.
My Colonized Mind
The first step of liberation/salvation becomes learning how to see myself with my own eyes, a process I am still learning.
Israel is Causing Me to Reconsider ‘Single-Issue’ Voting
In many states, voters will have an option to uphold Christian values at the voting booth this November.
What Thomas Aquinas Teaches Us About Justice
For Aquinas, the quintessential reason for justice in society is to work toward the common good of all people.
Betye Saar, Pioneer of Mixed- Media Assemblage and Recycler of Racist Caricatures, Dies at 99
Betye Saar transformed derogatory Jim Crow-era memorabilia and racist caricatures into empowering symbols of political resistance and self-liberation. The assemblage art pioneer died on July 26. She was 99 years old.
Contempt for Senate Bullies
Who knew that the standards for the Miss Universe pageant, which Donald Trump owned in the mid-1990s, were considerably higher than those of the duly elected senators of the United States?
Digital Discernment: Learning to Recognize and Navigate the Algorithm
Left unchecked, the algorithms can gradually reshape our assumptions, reinforce our biases, and influence our decisions without our even realizing it.
A Journey to Health: One Year Later
I am grateful for the last year, for finding my own oxygen mask, and for the ways in which this lesson finally seems to be sinking in.
Beauty is Waiting: How an Estonian Congregation Opened Its Doors and Let the Light In
It’s ok if you don’t or can’t believe right now. We will believe for you, and will be here when (and if) you are ready.
Sunday Night Church
I kind of loved Sunday night church. Everyone there knew each other’s names and their whole lineage. It felt like family.
“Raining Blood” and “Amazing Grace”: On Dangerous Music
The problem is the way Amazing Grace has been handed to congregations as emotional permission rather than moral demand.
Telling the Truth | The Real Work of Staying Alive
Self‑preservation and self‑care look different than what many expect.
Black August Celebrates the History of African American Resistance
Black August honors African American radicals, revolutionaries, and political prisoners. The final summer month celebrates African American resistance against systemic, racialized oppression and state violence.