Opinion
People of Good Faith | Dakota Felton
Dakota Felton is a Junior Management major at the University of Kentucky. He is a Spring 2025 Ernest C. Hynds intern at Good Faith Media.
Trump Administration Immigration Concerns: A Conversation with Fellowship Southwest’s Stephen Reeves
On this side of the border, for the last week or so, our partners have received goodbye messages from Department of Homeland Security officials they had worked closely with for years who were resigning, effective Monday. There is a general sense of fear for the migrants and uncertainty about the future.
2025 | Good Faith Stories To Watch
We can rarely predict the stories that will most shape the world in the coming year. But we are keeping an eye on several that will receive our and our readers’ attention throughout 2025. We asked our team of writers, editors, content creators and executives to look ahead and point out stories to watch.
Shunning “Friends” To Live In A “Whiplash” World
While much of the United States was with their families on Christmas, enjoying one of the only nationally sanctioned days when large numbers of us are allowed to disengage from work, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk were exposing a rift in MAGA-world over the idea of work itself.
Two Stories to Watch in 2026
The new year will likely continue a lot more of the same stories from 2025, combined with many surprises.
Resolutions or Revolution?: A Come To Jesus Meeting With Clergy, Congregations and Denominations
The days of packed pews filled with faithful Baby Boomers are gone. Gen X, Millennials, and now Gen Z aren’t fighting for space in sanctuaries.
2025 Social Justice Engagement: Becoming Burning Embers
If the past is a prelude, progressive white women will swarm to places to help or try to reinvent the wheel by creating their own groups. They’ll go to all the marches, protests and city meanings, only to run themselves into the ground, quitting before Trump writes his first executive order.
Witness: As Far as I Can See
“You got me workin', workin' day and night.” From his 1979 album “Off the Wall,” this is the chorus to Michael Jackson’s “Workin’ Day and Night” and a popular refrain of automatons in a capitalist society. Still, millions of Americans don’t earn enough money to afford...
Looking Back At GFM’s 2024 “Stories To Watch”
A lot happened this year and our team at Good Faith Media has been on top of it since the beginning. Early this year, we asked our staff writers and contributing correspondents to share with readers the stories they will be following in 2024. Although many of these...
What We Read, Watched and Listened to in 2024
Editor’s Note: The following is a look back at some of what our team has been reading, watching and listening to in 2024. Stephanie Brueggeman, Data and Sales Manager In 2016, when Beyonce performed “Daddy Lessons” with The Chicks at the CMA Awards, I knew this was a...
2024 New Year Wishes Unfulfilled, What to Wish for in 2025?
At the beginning of 2024, I made two New Year wishes: (1) End the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and (2) Encourage people to reject intolerance. Neither of those wishes came true. I’m hoping to do better in 2025.
A Light Has Dawned
God’s presence in the form of a child radiated a great light amid the Israelites’ darkness, and it continues to illuminate our darkness today.
The Suspicious Relatives of Christmas
The genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of Bathsheba, the son of Sarah
Witness: Beginning to See the Light
Many North American churches are lighting Advent candles. But prisoners are setting themselves on fire. How many more will resort to these drastic measures before Christ-followers begin to see the light?
Charles Dickens, Ted Lasso, and Mary, Mother of Jesus: Reimagining Christmas Memories
As in other memory reconstructions– such as how great our country allegedly was at some point in the past–a lot of selective editing goes into recreating the template we try to cram our yearly Christmas experience into.
There’s Still No Room for Jesus
As I reflect upon and contemplate the Christmas story this year, I cannot help but imagine Mary and Joseph arriving at the church’s steps today, carrying their little bastard with them. How would they be treated? There is plenty of space in the pews of the churches, but would there be room for an undocumented, unhoused and unwed family?
Look Back | 5 Suggestions to Cope With Grief During Holiday Season
While carrying the burden of grief during the holidays is challenging enough, often those who struggle during this time of year feel as if they cannot express their grief because there is an expectation to be joyful despite the pain we feel.
The Forgotten Mary
Mary is a good guide, but not because she is sinless and always takes the right steps. In fact, if we read the gospel account carefully, we will see that she experiences doubts and hesitations. She often misunderstands her son’s purpose and mission and sometimes even opposes him.
Beating Christian Nationalist Swords Into Ploughshares and Answers Into Questions
Christian nationalism may be able to relate to the theological legacy of Pharaoh, Babylon, Assyria, Rome, the Beast, and perhaps even Joshua. However, those analogies would generally invite indictment and damnation in serious Christian biblical theological discourse.
By the Way | Premillennialism, Evangelical Political Apathy and Bad Architecture
As American evangelicals adopted dispensational premillennialism, their attitudes toward society changed dramatically. If Jesus were to return any minute, why bother making the world a better place?
The Moral And Biblical Cases Against Mass Deportation
I teach in a 70% Hispanic high school in northwest Georgia. Although it has its challenges, it is generally a good place to work. The students are quiet but respectful, dutifully taking notes and completing their assignments. I worry that some of my students are in danger of being deported.
Hungering and Thirsting For Righteousness: Alexei Navalny’s Christian Witness
Anyone who reads Alexei Navalny’s posthumously released memoir “Patriot” without connecting the dots between Vladimir Putin’s Russian and Donald Trump’s America is either not paying attention or didn’t learn to connect dots in preschool.
The Advent of The Beloved Community
Advent reminds us that the Beloved Community is already in this big, wide world around us. Because of the birth of Jesus into the lowly manger, the Beloved Community is already in the lowly, humble people and the lowly, humble places around us. Because God is a God who is with us, the Beloved Community is already here.
Lights on the Tree, Darkness in the Streets: Why Christmas Under Capitalism Betrays the Gospel
To celebrate Christmas without addressing poverty or at least protesting the unjust systems that create it is to betray the very meaning of the holiday.
IMAGE: Christmas Consumerism
Witness: See What I’m Saying
Walmart stores announced their rolling back their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative (DEI) and will no longer use the term. I roll over in bed. “Rest is resistance,” I repeat after Tricia Hersey, the Nap Bishop.
Bonhoeffer’s Ethics and Luis Mangione: Is Murder Ever Justified?
Violence from the far-left and the far-right extremists are equally evil. And yet, we find ourselves at a moment where such violence is not only celebrated but becoming normative and legitimate.
Cough and Repeal: Why the Affordable Care Act May Go Away
Jesus did not believe in free market capitalism. Heck, he wouldn’t have even known what it was back then. Jesus certainly did not know about insurance companies, co-pays, and the Affordable Care Act. However, Jesus knew the importance of compassionate actions.
Advent and the Coming of Christ
The traditional narrative of Jesus has often been co-opted to serve the interests of empire, turning the radical teacher from Nazareth into a symbol of worldly dominance. Yet, the true message of Christ’s life and ministry is a call to dismantle systems of oppression and to bring good news to the poor.
Make the Yuletide Gay: Navigating the Holidays as a Queer Person
My Christmas is queer in the sense that I usually celebrate it with people I’m not biologically related to, and a lot of those folks are queer like me. We laugh, play games, eat good food and gather on days other than December 25th. It’s queer in the sense that it’s quirky and not what the hegemony tells me it’s supposed to look like.
Good Faith Film Review | The Order
In his book “Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible,” Michael F. Bird discusses the debate over the Bible’s inerrancy. He notes the ongoing rivalry within evangelical circles, which says, “Some people preach the inerrancy of the Scriptures, but what they really mean is the inerrancy of their interpretation of Scripture.” This came to mind when I watched the new film “The Order,” directed by Justin Kurzel.