Opinion
A Baptist World Pentecost
Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), announced this week that leaders will celebrate Pentecost amid the pandemic by hosting a "virtual global BWA worship service" on Friday and Saturday, May 29 and 30. Both services will feature a short...
For Class of 2020, Exactly What Are You Graduating Into? A Mess
Physical distancing measures to respond to COVID-19 created an alternate universe for graduates in 2020. Our world faces a mess, yet your generation can help us clean it up. You are an inspiration. You will change the world.
4 Suggestions on How We Can Improve Clergy Mental Health
Clergy are more open today to seeking help for mental health issues. And when churches speak openly about mental health, they reduce the mystery and stigma for everyone, including their ministers. Consider these four suggestions.
Her Fight: How Many Pastors’ Spouses Deal with Depression
Choosing to be married to a pastor is hard. Many spouses deal with depression. The church needs to come to a fuller understanding of the often unrealistic expectations and pressures placed on ministers and their families.
Young Adults Face Mental Health Issues in ‘Emerging Adulthood’
With milestones like marriage and degrees pushed later into life, young adults are plunged into ‘emerging adulthood.’ This new stage brings with it challenges and mental health problems that previous generations never faced.
3 Trends to Help Your Church Weather COVID-19’s Financial Storm
Most churches have taken a significant financial hit from the COVID-19 health crisis, but some have seen their giving hold up and even increase. How did they do it? Check out these three trends most of these churches have in common.
Maintaining Clergy Mental Health Proves to be Complex Puzzle
During the coronavirus pandemic, clergy have led their churches from in-person to online ministry and now struggle with what comes next. It’s a frustrating process, like piecing together a complex jigsaw puzzle.
7 Issues Your Family Must Navigate During COVID-19 Crisis
During this global pandemic, every family must learn to function in a world challenged by a shared contagious enemy and an economy built on unstable consumerism. All of us are struggling through these seven emotions and topics.
Despite ACA, Not All Insurance Provides Mental Health Care
Not all health care plans cover mental health benefits per the Affordable Care Act: grandfathered insurance policies and health care cost-sharing ministries. So why do Christian insurance groups fail to offer mental health care?
The Subtle Religious Education of White Supremacy – Part 2
The well-supported god of white supremacy is often the one that many Christian churches actually worship. This god offers them a worldview in which they are both hero and victim of a country amid dramatic demographic transition.
Chancel surfing
By John D. Pierce Asking, “How was church last Sunday?” has a whole new connotation. The answer is likely to have a technical dimension. Curses, biblical and otherwise, rained down on Zoom’s unfaithfulness yesterday. Other online services were delivered as advertised....
How Coronavirus Affects Your Mental Health and What You Can Do
While suffering is inevitable in life, our suffering caused by this global pandemic is unlike any we’ve experienced during our lifetimes. We’ve heard about maintaining our physical health, but we cannot neglect our mental health.
The Subtle Religious Education of White Supremacy – Part 1
White supremacy has a subtle catechesis, or religious education. Its god trains people to see the world through the lens of the white gaze. Often worshipped at the altar of patriotism, it dominates through power and control.
Good news and bad news
In the field of archaeology, there's good news and bad. We might as well get the bad news out of the way first: virtually the entire 2020 digging season for volunteers has become a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most digs in Israel, at least, take place in May,...
The BS Express has left the station — at record speed
By John D. Pierce It was lunchtime in Rome, Ga., in 1980. I was living on a meager intern’s stipend so a Big Mac was the day’s sustenance. An older man at the neighboring table started a conversation. I was young, and had not yet learned to tell such strangers that I...
US Church Culture Tones Down Jesus’ Rebellious, Radical Side
The radical side of Jesus is downplayed in a US church culture that values order and authority and resists challenges to the status quo. For a reminder, look to the music of Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson.
7 Moments History Will Remember About COVID-19 Global Crisis
If specific moments can serve as memory triggers for a larger historical period, these seven current headlines would characterize this COVID-19 season in US history. God have mercy on our souls.
Look Back | Balancing Act: Government’s Role vs. Individual Rights
The question of the role of government versus individual rights is at least as old as the 17th century, but a major problem in debates over that role is the shortsightedness of people up and down the ideological spectrum.
Whether You Wear Mask During Pandemic Unmasks Your Theology
Whether or not we choose to wear masks during a global pandemic might very well unmask our theology. Those who don’t wear them reveal a theology of individualism that ignores sacred teachings urging self-sacrifice for others.
Proverbial Good Guy Finally Wakes Up to His White Privilege
It took me 40 years to accept my privilege as a white, middle-class man. I thought I was one of the good guys, but we live in a system historically skewed to favor my gender. Here’s what shook me out of my bubble.
‘Becoming’
While rather slow moving and in need of some sharper editing, the Netflix documentary ‘Becoming’ about Michelle Obama nevertheless presents an accurate portrayal of an accomplished woman being judged unfairly at every turn.
Vicarious rebellion
By John D. Pierce Rebellion never came easy for me — so I lived it vicariously through music by Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. I wore a groove through a 45-rpm record of “Mama Tried” — although I turned 21 approaching college graduation, not “in...
How COVID-19 Chaos Spurs Creativity to Make New Way Forward
The uncertainty and chaos of the COVID-19 crisis is causing us alarm, but frustration and fear are also the conditions inspiring creativity, vision and transformation. Leaning into them will help us create a new way forward.
To End Violence Against ‘The Other,’ We Must Cease Standing By
Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death in part because he was seen as ‘the other.’ Today, Stephens are stoned every day often for simply being ‘the other.’ We could stop the violence if we cease being bystanders.
Are We the Masters of the Universe?
Power is an unavoidable reality, but does it necessarily corrupt? Can transparency, humility and sharing power with a diversified group avoid its negative manifestations?
Evangelicals’ Devastating Influence on Pandemic in US, Brazil
The populist leaders of the US and Brazil enjoy widespread support from evangelicals, leading them to reject science and favor religion for solutions. When it comes to responding to the COVID-19 crisis, the results are devastating.
While Some Abuse the Law, It Compels Us to First Act Justly
Some people can manipulate the minutiae of the law for their personal gain. That’s why the more specific the statute is, the less opportunity for abuse. In the end, however, it can take a while for the law to catch up with society.
Ending the Horrific Practice of Female Genital Mutilation
Even though Sudan has banned female genital mutilation, 30 countries continue the practice, which has been inflicted upon 200 million women and girls. We need the light of public dialogue shined upon this horrific practice to end it.
For Ahmaud Arbery: Justice is Better Late than Never
Justice isn’t blind. Rather, the justice system willingly turns a blind eye, like it did for more than two months after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. Justice tried to feign deafness, but the public outrage was too great.
Why Reforming Human Interfaces with Creation Is Vital
Casting blame for the COVID-19 pandemic is instinctual. We should fix our gaze on our own practices which violate the healthy interface between human beings and the nonhuman denizens of God´s creation.