Recent Articles
June 10, 2021
In today’s curated news and analysis headlines: Pressure Mounts for an Independent Investigation of SBC Executive Committee Handling of Abuse; Religiosity and Conspiratorial Beliefs Linked in Baylor Religion Survey Findings; Missouri Church Says it Won’t Back Down After Black Lives Matter Sign is Vandalized for Third Time in Month; As Organized Religion Declines, is Conspiracy the New Religion of Republicans?; and more
Trauma’s Long Reach Echoes for Generations
The remains of 215 children were found last month on the grounds of what was once Canada’s largest residential school for Indigenous people, who have had to experience the trauma passed down from one generation to the next.
Seriously Heirloom Crops
The next time you complain about making your dinner, remember our long-ago ancestors. Canaanite women would spend back-breaking hours rolling a rough milling stone back and forth to make flour. And that’s just the beginning.
How Gov’t Funding Spurs Vaccine Development
The US government has invested billions in vaccine development but doesn’t own any of the generated patents or have a right to the profits. It’s part of a public-private partnership, which has spawned numerous scientific advances.
June 9, 2021
In today’s news and curated headlines: Majority of Republicans Support Same-Sex Marriage for the First Time, Poll Finds; N.C. Legislature Sends Bill to Governor that Would Provide Right-to-Carry in Churches; Methodists Drop State Line Church, One of Seven Original Methodist Churches in Alabama; and more
Social-Media Critics Ignore Faces of Unemployment
Critics on social media – with their slew of posts, memes and gifs – disparage the extra dollars the unemployed receive as the cause of many of society’s ills. They forget that these are people and families struggling to survive.
‘Just 15 Minutes to Mourn’
As we return to normal in these days following more than a year of the pandemic, let us not forget those whose grief and other suffering extend beyond the time we tend to assign for them. Our sensitivity and care must be ongoing.
The Radically Inclusive Life of Rachel Held Evans
Rachel Held Evans would have turned 40 today. She became a prominent Christian blogger, author and speaker, who regularly rejected the biblicism, patriarchalism and homophobic ideas of the conservative Christianity of her youth.
June 8, 2021
In today’s curated news and analysis headlines: Meet the Tennessee Pastor Preaching Against Anti-LGBTQ Hat; Why is TikTok Turning a Hateful Radical Evangelist into a Viral Star?; Supreme Court to Hear Case of FBI Surveillance of Muslim Community; and more.
Don’t Live Memories Others Choose for You
We all have memories we prefer not to recall, but it’s better to live the truth than keep up appearances of a lie. Some would ask us to deny our own memories so they don’t have to accept their own. There’s a word for that.
Emerging Voices | Rebuilding Deconstructed Lives
Some people who experience tragedy, trauma and turbulence find their belief systems have not been constructed to uphold the impacts of such occurrences. Here are 3 ways to help them navigate the lonely process to rebuild their lives.
Christian Ethics: The Hard Road of Doing Right
Ethics is not popular among church folks. It involves more than just knowing Scripture; it involves ‘doing’ Scripture, and that’s where so many stumble. Ethics asks the hard questions. And that’s why ethics is not popular.
June 7, 2021
In today’s curated news and analysis headlines: How is the GOP Adjusting to a Less Religious America?; Why it Matters that 7 States Still Have Bans on Atheists Holding Office; What the Pandemic Has Stolen from Black America; and more
People of Good Faith: Jim Qualls
Jim Qualls is husband of 38 years to Janna, proud dad to two grown daughters, proud to have acquired two fine sons-in-law. He serves as a member of Good Faith Media’s strategic advisory board for news and opinion.
Making Sense of What Happens to You
With over half a million deaths in the US alone, the pandemic has touched all of us. The unseen lines of connection have been skewed or severed, crippling our once familiar communities. How do we rebuild the bridges connecting us?
Look Back | Where Racism Resides
Where does racism reside? Ultimately, it finds its resting place in human hearts. And many of those hearts huddle under church steeples on Sundays. If we want to move on, it requires confession and restoration, not avoidance.
Why Allies Must Speak Up for Each Other – Every Time
If Jews are being vilified or victimized because of an assumed association, those who support religious freedom and oppose hate crimes must take a stand. Allies need to speak up for each other – and act – without equivocation.
Entering Pentecost, Exiting COVID-19 Hibernation
As society emerges from a long period of enforced isolation and uncertainties about the future, the Western church begins to observe Pentecost. Could Pentecost provide insight as we move into our post-COVID-19 world?
Turnout Trends Up for In-Person Religious Services
US adults are attending in-person religious services in increasing numbers, a report found, with 20% saying they attended a religious service in the past week. Online service engagement, meanwhile, continues to trend downward.
June 3, 2021
In today’s curated news and analysis headlines: Gorsuch Denies Colorado Churches’ Petition Challenging Covid-Related Restrictions; Texas GOP Now Claims its Bill Limiting Black Churches’ ‘Souls to the Polls’ Was a Typo; New Research Indicates Religion Protected Health During the COVID-19 Outbreak But Also Undermined Efforts to Save Lives; An Evangelical Battle of the Generations at Liberty University: To Embrace Trump or Not; Christian Monks May Have Buried This Treasure to Dupe the Vikings; and more.
Vegetables, Vermin, and Blossom-End Rot
We want our churches to grow and be healthy and produce fruit. We overcome obstacles, but nothing we do will stop the weeds of the world from competing with the kingdom vision. And so, we continue on. It’s what we do.
A New Way to Think About Education
Thinking educationally neither denies history nor embalms it into uncritical permanence. Rather, it enables history to teach its lessons and to become a creative partner in the educational process rather than an idol in place of it.
White Evangelicals Most Likely to Affirm QAnon Tenets
Nearly one out of four white evangelical Protestants either mostly or completely agree with three core tenets of QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory group, a report revealed. That’s more than any other religious group.
June 2, 2021
In today’s curated news and analysis headlines: Hundreds Gather at Historic Tulsa Church to Dedicate Prayer Wall on Anniversary of Massacre; Christian Billionaires are Funding a Push to Kill the Equality Act; Anarchists and an Increase in Violent Crime Hijack Portland’s Social Justice Movement; Disputing Racism’s Reach, Republicans Rattle American Schools; and more.
Don’t Believe Lies Downplaying Town’s Destruction
Greenwood was a thriving African American community in Oklahoma that had it all. Segregated but without racial oppression, it was known as Black Wall Street. Then, during 18 hours 100 years ago, a white mob decimated the town.
What a ‘Followship’
The earliest followers of Jesus would be greatly baffled by what it means to be ‘Christian’ today. Today’s Americanized Christianity gives little to no attention to following Jesus, except for a nod as a salvation-inducing mascot.
Ethical Questions Swirl Around Hybrid Creation
A mythical hybrid beast, the chimera has a modern-day equivalent in a research lab, where a monkey-human chimera has been created. While this represents a potential game-changer for organ transplants, ethical questions abound.
June 1, 2021
In today’s curated news and analysis headlines: The Second Amendment is Not About Guns – it’s About Anti-Blackness, a New Book Argues; How Does America’s Gun Cycle Violence End?; Tulsa Pastors Honor ‘Holy Ground’ 100 Years After Massacre; Virginia Theological Seminary, Built on Slavery and Jim Crow Labor, Has Begun Paying Reparations; and more.
People of Good Faith: Don Brewer
Don Brewer is a retired baseball coach and retired national sales manager for a foodservice equipment company. He’s lived in Gainesville, Georgia, for 51 years – almost long enough to be a native.
Your Church: Alive with Spirit’s Fire or Just Making It?
The COVID-19 pandemic has given us the opportunity to rethink what it means to be the church. With more time to pay attention to our neighbors, people of the Christian faith were invited to see Christianity from a new perspective.