The assignment is so simple it could be a middle school American history exam question: Compare and contrast the lives of Dolly Parton and Donald Trump.

There’s been a lot of that kind of compare and contrast going around this week because the distinctions are so obvious. Both Dolly and Donald were born in 1946, she in January and he in June. Although both 80-year-olds became international household names, she came from abject poverty and he was born, as Ann Richards once said of George W. Bush, “with a golden foot in his mouth.”

Dolly built an entertainment empire through hard work, talent, respect and lifting people up along the way. Donald built a business empire through deceit, bankruptcies, stiffing vendors and threatening lawsuits against anyone who stood in his way.

“Dolly used her wealth to help children learn to read, keep kids in school, aid scientific research and develop modern vaccines.”

Dolly used her wealth to help children learn to read, keep kids in school, aid scientific research and develop modern vaccines, like the COVID vaccine that has saved millions of lives. Donald has no record of charitable giving but instead has used political office to enrich him and his family by billions of dollars. And while Dolly helped create life-saving vaccines, Donald has spread conspiracy theories about them and worked to undermine them.

Those are among the obvious fruits of two very different lives. But there’s also the matter of character.

Drummer Michael Jochum of the band Korn wrote a beautiful Facebook post on this yesterday. He told this story:

I had the privilege of playing with Dolly exactly once, on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, where I had been fortunate enough to work as a sub drummer. Everyone in that very large band was excited because Dolly Parton was one of those names that changed the temperature of a room before she even entered it. Most stars would arrive, offer the musicians a polite wave, complete the sound check and retreat into the cocoon that television builds around famous people. I never held that against anyone; it was simply how the machinery worked. But Dolly walked around the room, shook every musician’s hand, looked each of us in the eye and asked questions about who we were and what we played. The cameras were not rolling, and there was nothing for her to gain. She did it because Dolly Parton saw people, including the people standing behind her whose names would never appear in lights.

Within days of Dolly Parton’s death, Donald Trump was trying to rename Lake Ontario to spite Canada, threatened demolition of the Kennedy Center because he couldn’t put his name on it and posted a chart of the “greatness” of former U.S. presidents with him alone at the top and his enemies at the bottom labeled as “failures.”

I’ve got to agree with John Pavlovitz on this one with his words to MAGA supporters mourning Dolly’s death: “I see you out here today, trying to claim Dolly Parton as your own, as if she were one of you, as if you and she were kindred spirits, as if your heart and hers were aligned. Just stop it. Dolly was far too kind to tell you this while she was alive, so I will: You and she had little in common.”

For more on Dolly’s life, read Edmond Davis’ excellent tribute we published.

You cannot admire Dolly and Donald at the same time any more than you can follow Donald and Jesus at the same time. These are radically different paths fueled by radically different ideologies. One is the way of humility and sacrifice and generosity; the other is the way of arrogance and self-dealing and greed. One is the way of love and inclusiveness; the other is the way of animosity and exclusion.

Sometimes we understand the challenges before us more clearly when we see contrasting models that show us a better way. Think of a child raised in a dysfunctional home who goes to visit a friend and for the first time experiences family without danger.

To borrow from the Apostle Paul, Dolly’s death this week reminds us of a “more excellent way” of living. Or to quote a meme going around: In a world of full of Donalds, be a Dolly.

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We’ve published a larger than usual number of analysis pieces this week, so I’d like to start there for today’s summary. And this might be a good time to answer a question I get asked: What makes a piece analysis rather than news or opinion?

On our website, an analysis piece is a cross between news and opinion. It’s what some media outlets call “reported opinion.” It is written primarily in the first person but usually includes data or other research that needs interpretation. Thus, it’s not strictly opinion.

In a traditional news piece, if you have data from a survey, for example, you might go interview two or three people to get their interpretations of the data. Then you dutifully report the data and those viewpoints. An analysis piece simplifies the process by engaging an informed writer who can bring out those same points without having to quote three other people — even though they still might.

Truth is, our analysis pieces are among our most-read content because they address current issues in understandable ways. We try to take complicated issues and explain them in lay terms.

We’re not a scientific journal or a theology journal or a social work journal. But we do try to take that same kind of content and present it to a broader audience within a theological framework.

A great example this week is the piece written by Charles Packman, a lay leader at St. John’s Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. He’s a retired medical doctor with an interest in explaining things for general understanding. So for us he tackled the thorny question of defining the terms “sex” and “gender.” As he says, there are so many opinions today and so much ignorance.

I used the analysis format this week to try to bring you up to date on the important drama playing out at Highland Park United Methodist Church here in Dallas. It’s cleaner to summarize some of the fast-turning events with a bit of insider commentary.

Our Clemons Fellow Mara Richards Bim also used the analysis format this week to explain the difference between Democratic Socialists and Social Democrats. It’s so complex she even created a chart! Mara also wrote about a recent gathering in Minneapolis and what she learned about clergy roles in protecting democracy.

David Gushee is one of our expert analysts who this week gave an overview of where he sees America in its slide away from democracy toward autocracy. It’s a good assessment that won’t necessarily cheer you up but does offer a glimmer of hope.

Josh Olds makes excellent use of the first-person format of an analysis piece to explain how AI is rewriting the rules of book publishing — and not for the good — with an anecdote from his own family. And he wrote another piece about the Little League World Series and the problem with “adultifying” boys of color.

Paul Seebeck reports on a conference he attended about the definition and current threats of Christian Zionism.

Back to Minneapolis for a minute. Rick Pidcock brings us the crazy story — with interpretation — of a Jake Lang rally there last Saturday where Spider-Man showed up to punch the troublemaker in the face. We’ve got some great photos to go with the story too.

And Braxton Wade gives a personal interpretation about what it means to keep hearing about Black bodies found hanging from trees in 2026.

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In other news this week:

The Trump administration broke U.S. law with a policy denying visas to people based on nationality, a federal court has ruled.

A trial date has been set for a former vice president of Truett McConnell University who was accused of a years-long illicit relationship with a former student and staffer and then lying about it.

Apple Inc. will pay $150,000 and update its religious-observance policies to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC said the litigation resulted from Apple’s refusal to grant a Jewish employee time off for sabbath.

The U.S. Supreme Court granted the Trump administration an emergency appeal Aug. 24 allowing the president to implement portions of an executive order that threatens mail-in voting in the midterm elections in November.

The Catholic bishops of Florida took state Attorney General James Uthmeier to school on basic freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment and on the rights of religious institutions, not politicians, to decide matters of theology.

Grand Canyon University is the latest evangelical school to launch a law school, corresponding with increased interest in preparing “Christian worldview” students for legal careers.

The new president of the Catholic Biblical Association is a Jew. And that’s a problem for some folks, despite the fact Amy-Jill Levine is perhaps the best-known Jewish advocate for interpreting the New Testament in its original context.

The Trump administration claims its spy mission in a Baptist church did not violate an injunction barring immigration actions on or around the property because its operative infiltrated a gathering other than a worship service.

Donald Trump pledged to broaden access to in vitro fertilization, but groups that oppose abortion have halted efforts to expand IVF access for military members while promoting anti-IVF bills in the states.

Half of U.S. adults favor displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools while slightly less, at 48%, oppose the practice, according to a new study by Pew Research Center.

Jared Nuness resigned his position as Baylor University’s longest-tenured assistant basketball coach citing a “personal issue” that turns out to be placing illegal bets on collegiate athletics.

Thousands of Haitian immigrants who’ve lived in Springfield, Ohio, for years suddenly disappeared from their jobs, churches and schools after losing their Temporary Protected Status, drivers licenses and work permits last month.

The City of Quincy, Mass., may not install two statues of Christian saints in front of its public safety building, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled.

Log Cabin Republicans are removing the T from their advocacy for gay and lesbian and bisexual citizens.

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In other opinion this week:

In Texas, this math doesn’t add up to gospel — Eileen Monte

America’s Pyrenees — Richard Conville

Greg Abbott washes his hands of hospitality — Nick Mumejian

The tragic targeting of Christians by the Trump administration — Matthew Kolb

AI expands the propaganda against Talarico — Caroline Cook

Our words matter but our lives matter more — Brian Henderson

Hayden Panettiere, Lindsay Clancy and support for mothers — Julia Goldie Day

A final word

Yesterday I received in the mail an advance copy of Rick Pidcock’s new book, Weapons of Worship. I’m looking forward to reading it again and recommending it to others because it is so relevant for our time. It’s about how the songs of evangelicalism form the soundtrack of today’s political extremism.

This book is a direct result of Rick’s writing for BNG, so if you’re a fan of Rick’s writing for us, you’re going to want to order this book.

I’m so proud of Rick and the faith journey he’s been on while developing excellent writing skills. He’s a great asset to our BNG team.

Which brings me to another bit of transition news for some folks you never see but whose work benefits us all. Catherine Storke has finished her time with us as our social media director, a role she started while still in college. She’s now started law school and needs to devote her full energies to those studies. But I’m certain we will be hearing from Catherine again in the future.

We welcome to the social media role Katie Brewer, who is a junior at James Madison University, studying media arts and design with a concentration in creative advertising. She’s a perfect fit for us and joins us initially as a Clemons Fellow.

And with the start of school, we’ve said goodbye for now to our summer Clemons Fellow, Caroline Cook, who has returned to Baylor University.

The rest of us are still here and ready to keep the wheels moving: Lindsay Bergstrom and Jeff Brumley and Mara Richards Bim and Braxton Wade. And while I’m naming names, let me say thanks to four other unsung heroes of our enterprise who are contract consultants in grant writing and annual fund development, LeAnn Hampton and Debbie Meripolski, and in administration and technical support, Darlene Papa and Brandon Moore.

We’re a small but steady team, and we are grateful for your support.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

One morning last week, Alison found our next-door neighbors sitting on their front porch misty-eyed. As it was still 100 degrees outside, the water was not from the atmosphere. A brief conversation ensued, and the situation became clearer: The youngest of the five children in the household — our surrogate grandchildren — was starting kindergarten the next day.

That kind of change is hard for mamas and daddies. This year, all the kids are in school — which is both great and tear-inducing at the same time.

Change can be hard, even when it’s good.

What kind of parent would want to keep their child out of school just to avoid dealing with the emotion of separation? We commonly understand this is a good kind of change.

In today’s world, dealing with change drives so much of our political and theological conflict. And too much of it occurs under the banner of conservative ideology. Conservatives, by definition, seek to “conserve” things, which makes them more resistant to some kinds of change than progressives.

“The problem today is conservatives seeking to conserve the wrong things.”

The problem today is conservatives seeking to conserve the wrong things.

It is good to conserve water and electricity and the environment because we have limited resources available to us. But it is bad to conserve systems of oppression that once upon a time made white men comfortable and minorities miserable. We do not have limited supplies of kindness and compassion and participation.

There’s a meme going around on social media that purports to show the 1956 Republican Party platform. A visit to Snopes.com reveals that meme has been oversimplified but the reality is equally divergent from today’s Republican Party.

The 1956 platform pledged the Eisenhower administration would:

• “Continue to fight for dynamic and progressive programs which, among other things, will stimulate improved job safety of our workers, through assistance to the states, employees and employers.”

• “Continue and further perfect its programs of assistance to the millions of workers with special employment problems, such as older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups and migratory workers.”

• “Strengthen and improve the Federal-State Employment Service and improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system.”

• “Protect by law the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits.”

• “Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of sex.”

• “Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on federal and federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts.”

• “Extend the protection of the federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable.”

• “Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex.”

• “Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment.”

I don’t even have to provide a line-by-line counterpoint for you to understand the vast difference between 1956 Republicans and 2026 Republicans. The Grand Old Party has embraced change — but the wrong kind of change.

Today’s conservatism is driven by the grievances of white men who think they are losing their place at the top of the heap — as though they had landed there by divine fiat. And these changes are driven by a fear of modernity, which to them is the wrong kind of change.

All the anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-Black, anti-Muslim, anti-liberal, anti-education, anti-gay dogma is motivated by a desire to return to the way things used to be. There are some rabbit trails thrown in here, for sure — like Donald Trump’s obsession with gold and his impeccably bad taste in design. But the overall trend is clear and well-documented.

Today’s conservatives — at least the ones with the microphone — want to stop progress and roll back the clock to an earlier time they call “the good old days.” While not giving up their laptops, Apple watches or fajitas.

Edmond Davis gets at this far more gently than I would in today’s opinion piece about how Pete Hegseth reportedly is floating the idea of changing the name assigned to the future Ford-class aircraft carrier CVN-81. It is supposed to be named for Dorie Miller, a young Black sailor who was a hero of Pearl Harbor. But Hegseth reportedly wants to name the carrier for Donald Trump, who dodged military service.

The idea is outrageous and insulting and stupid. But it fits the MAGA mentality on two fronts: It honors their old white hero and it takes away honor from a Black man. Remember that Hegseth has been wiping the U.S. military clean of Black and female leaders while elevating less-qualified white men.

This racism is so blatant a fifth grader could explain it.

A decade ago, this proposal would have been so shocking it would be DOA. But in Trump’s world, the shocks are a dime a dozen and people just shrug and go on. Too many have become desensitized to the reverse progress happening everywhere around us.

Here are some other examples from this week’s news:

• Al Mohler blatantly wants a nation dominated by Protestant evangelical Christians and fueled by them having lots and lots of babies.

• Our nation has a double standard on missing children. Missing white girls get more attention than missing Black children, and Megan Black says that is wrong.

• Republicans and evangelicals keep pushing for posting the Ten Commandments in public schools as a means of rolling back time to enforce a Protestant majority culture. Our Mara Richards Bim is a pastor and mother who explains why this is a bad idea. See also our news article on new developments in the legal fight.

• Sean Feucht and Jake Lang are the new face of conservatives’ crusade against Muslims, whom they consider outside invaders who should “go home.” Rick Pidcock explains.

• In the 1950s, vaccines were seen as miracle medicine that saved children from the ravages of illness. Today, conservatives have glorified the pre-vaccine world as some kind of nirvana we all should return to. Josh Oldsbreaks down how bad data is driving this trend.

• The conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has empowered Trump’s hatred for immigrants and refugees and undone decades of progress all in the name of ensuring a white majority.

What we are living through today is the active dismantling of social progress opposed by those who want to conserve the wrong things. Today’s conservatism is alienating more than unifying. It labels more than it loves. And it fears more than it dreams.

“What we are living through today is the active dismantling of social progress opposed by those who want to conserve the wrong things.”

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One of the more fascinating story lines that carried over from last week to this week is about a Dallas megachurch being sued by its denomination. The church in question is Highland Park United Methodist, which is — by any measure — the most prominent Methodist church in North Texas and the wealthiest and the most influential. I cannot overstate this important point.

Last week we reported on how the Horizon Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church filed a surprise lawsuit against HPUMC over secret changes made to the church’s governing documents. If you missed that original piece, find it here. I’m flattered that a lot of people watching this unfold have found our coverage the most reliable out there. As one commentator said, “Leave it to the Baptists to explain the Methodists.”

Since then, church leaders have gone on the offensive, explaining how shocked and horrified they are by the lawsuit and reciting a litany of all the good deeds the church has done through the years. I explain all that in a new analysis piece that brings you up to date and offers a side-by-side comparison of the changes made to the governing documents.

One of the reasons a Baptist journalist intuitively understands this story is because it echoes other Baptist stories. We are living in the age of nondenominational churches and “denomination-light” churches.

And at the same time, secular courts are increasingly refusing to rule on such cases because of the ecclesial abstention doctrine. We’ve seen this recently in the Will McRaney case and the Second Baptist Houston case. And it popped up again this week in the sexual abuse defamation case against Gateway Church brought by Cindy Clemishire.

The HPUMC case is definitely one to keep your eye on.

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In other news this week:

Millionaire and superstar Paris Hilton has paired with congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to fight sexual deepfakes generated by AI with a piece of legislation called the DEFIANCE Act.

Leaders and members of a Minnesota Baptist church were stunned and angered to learn recently that an undercover immigration agent entered their facilities to spy on the congregation in May. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer reportedly entered University Baptist Church looking for dangerous leftists.

A Trump administration policy that gives immigration officers free rein to carry out enforcement actions at or near the houses of worship was blocked again by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Johnny Hunt isn’t done with the Southern Baptist Convention. The former convention president, megachurch pastor and denominational executive is appealing recent court decisions that found his defamation claims lacking.

A team of clergy sexual abuse survivors and their supporters announced the launch of a new website to help track predators and the churches that cover up for them. ProtestantAccountability.org already boasts a list of more than 2,700 accused perpetrators.

The auditorium of First Baptist Church in downtown Jacksonville, Fla., is being demolished to make way for an apartment tower that will include a Publix supermarket. The demise of the 10,000-seat worship space follows years of declining church attendance at the megachurch.

The Black Church played a role in a surprise upset in Florida’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Aug. 18. Angie Nixon upset the favored candidate, retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, to win the spot on November’s ballot against GOP Sen. Ashley Moody.

A coalition of nonprofits and local governments is celebrating a legal victory that blocks the Trump administration’s latest effort to disrupt funding that helps people escape homelessness. Just a reminder: Trump’s secretary of HUD is a Southern Baptist pastor.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt held a ceremonial signing of HB-1675, a camp safety law requiring summer camps and outdoor programs across the state to assess their site-specific hazards and prepare for severe weather emergencies.

American Baptist Churches USA has joined other major faith groups in the effort to provide humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans struggling with life-threatening water shortages.

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In other analysis this week:

At a Sunday rally in Atlanta, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., stirred up the ire of Trump supporters by mentioning in passing the president’s odd relationship with a young female aide. Rodney Kennedy has the scoop.

Hell is having a moment, again. But it’s not the driving force it used to be, says Cara Meredith.

We now have reached the stage in MAGA’s descent into depravity where they respond to criticism of ICE vigilantes shooting people by opting for the more humane practice of electric shock, writes Rick Pidcock.

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In other opinion this week:

What comes after ‘Post-Evangelicalism’? — David Gushee

Practicing gospel dissent: LIKE NOW? — Bill Leonard

What The Dr. Daf Show reveals — Nicole Wiesen

I shook hands with a transgender woman, and I’m fine — Michael Parnell

I broke up with my alma mater — Annette Miller

How the church can care well for the abused — Tima Humphries

Natalie Harp and Fox Connor: Comparison of two aides — Joe Marlow

The gospel of the pinball wizard — Richard Cizik

A final word

Thanks to all who’ve kept up with my cataract surgery journey and told me your stories. I had the second procedure Monday, which is one reason we’ve published less content this week than usual. Reading was a real challenge for a couple of days. But I’m on the way now!

While I couldn’t read on Monday afternoon, I could talk. So Ben Cole and I recorded two new episodes of “Stuck in the Middle with You.” One of those already is posted. It’s a conversation about Jordann McMahan’s opinion piece about her experience as a queer student at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. If you like backstory, you’ll love this episode.

We’ve also got more episodes of our mini-series on important sermons preached during the “conservative resurgence” in the SBC. In addition to the first one on Russell Dilday’s “Higher Ground” sermon, we’ve added a new episode this week on Roy Honeycutt’s “To Your Tents, O Israel.”

Upcoming we’ve got episodes on sermons preached by Joel Gregory, Jerry Vines and Adrian Rogers.

Over at “Highest Power: Church + State,” Rick Pidcock has new episodes on Christian nationalism complementarian polygyny and how Josh Howerton belittles his congregation.

The latest episode of “Bible Divas” is about women of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israelite religions.

As always, thanks for reading and listening this week. And if you find something you like or think is important, please remember to share it!

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

In the best use of the word, an enabler is someone who helps others accomplish good things. Teachers enable students to learn. Good supervisors enable employees to succeed. Tools enable us to do our work more easily or efficiently.

But there’s another side to the word “enabler” as well, and this one isn’t so good. Sometimes we enable people to do bad things. My friend recently stopped at a fast-food counter and was run down by an out-of-control child whose parent was enabling bad behavior. Often spouses and children inadvertently enable family members who drink too much, criticize too much, gamble too much, or whatever. And even churches can enable fellow members who behave badly by not ever confronting them or holding them accountable.

Eileen Monte gives us an excellent example of this principle in her column this week titled “When Silence Breeds Fear.” She tells us about growing up knowing she was somehow different but terrified to talk with anyone about it because she didn’t know who she could trust.

It’s not just that people were actively harming her but that many others did nothing to counter the fear she experienced.

The same is true of Jordann McMahan’s experience as a queer student at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. In another moving piece this week, she tells us not only of those professors and fellow students who demeaned her but also of professors and students who did nothing to challenge the abusive voices.

She tells of professors who wanted to help her and be sympathetic toward her but felt they could not — or else they would face the wrath of faculty bullies and administrators who are more concerned about keeping the peace than challenging the cruel. Thus, her experience at Truett was neither welcoming nor affirming.

“There must be accountability for those who have enabled and even inspired his cruelty.”

By now, surely you are seeing the connection to our national dilemma in which our mad president is being kept in power by the worst kind of enablers. That’s why when the day comes — mercifully — when Donald Trump no longer holds sway over us the problem will not be solved. There must be accountability for those who have enabled and even inspired his cruelty.

Sadly, that includes all Republican members of Congress who have not had the spine to oppose Trump’s actions and words and nominations most of them must know in their hearts are wrong. This kind of enabling is not just ego stroking — which it is — it is dangerous.

When Trump is gone, there’s a long list of enablers who must be removed from office as well and held accountable for the evil they have made possible.

That list includes outgoing Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose obvious lies have papered over Trump’s crimes and misdemeanors. But it also includes White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller; Vice President JD Vance; trillionaire Elon Musk; Project 2025 architect Russell Vought; trade representative Peter Navarro; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; former Attorney General Pam Bondi; new Attorney General Todd Blanche; FBI Director Kash Patel; Border Czar Tom Homan; FCC Chairman Brendan Carr; Franklin Graham; Robert Jeffress; several U.S. Supreme Court justices; Ron DeSantis; Greg Abbott — and the list goes on and on.

Trump could not do any of the evil he does without enablers. A functioning Congress would shut him down. A functioning Supreme Court would fence him in. A functioning evangelical church would defuse his worst impulses.

But instead of providing the intended checks and balances to prevent executive overreach, all these people — whether due to fear or opportunism — have handed matches to an arsonist.

J. Basil Dannebohm does an excellent job of explaining the connection between religious extremism and political extremism. “Far too much of American Christianity has assumed the role of conductor on the crazy train,” he says.

The majority of these people likely didn’t intend to become conductors on the crazy train — although some surely did. Instead, the majority boarded a train they thought was going somewhere else and slowly found themselves providing fuel for a runaway movement.

Stopping the crazy train first requires acknowledging you’re on the wrong track. Millions of Americans are awakening to this reality, but their ability to make a difference is diminished by all the enablers.

When you’re on the wrong train, the smartest thing to do is get off that train and find a better route. That requires taking the microphone away from all those who are shouting the wrong directions.

America will be better without Karoline Leavitt at the White House podium. But until we get a truth-teller at the microphone the crazy train will keep on rolling.

In the meantime, remember you don’t have to be a public figure to be an enabler. All of us are enablers when we remain silent in the face of wrong.

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In other news this week:

Johnny Hunt’s defamation case against the Southern Baptist Convention and its Executive Committee is dead, with a federal judge throwing out the remainder of the case Aug. 12.

One of the nation’s largest and most affluent Methodist churches is being sued by its denomination for previously unreported changes made to its governing documents four years ago.

A Southern Baptist church and school in South Carolina provided a known sex offender unrestrained access to childrenfor several years and silenced a teacher who raised concerns about the situation, according to a federal lawsuit filed Aug. 4.

The U.S. Justice Department has charged a former Southern Poverty Law Center executive in connection with the government’s ongoing fraud case against the civil rights organization.

Confidence in the reliability of 2026 midterm elections is lower than that of any national referendum since Pew Research Center began asking the question.

The Evangelical Press Association, which was founded in 1948 and counts more than 300 member organizations, publications and individuals that reach an audience of more than 20 million people, is weighing a name change and seeking a new executive director.

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has joined the faculty of Colorado Christian University as a visiting professor.

A coalition of civil rights groups has asked a federal judge to declare that a recent Supreme Court ruling protecting birthright citizenship strikes down two new executive orders President Donald Trump signed to limit the constitutional right he opposes.

Jewish groups are rallying around federal legislation that would establish 100-foot buffer zones around houses of worship to prevent demonstrators from interrupting services.

The U.S. State Department has announced a partnership with faith-based organizations to distribute nearly $2 billion in international humanitarian aid. The move follows the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Election denier Mike Lindell lost the Republican primary for Minnesota governor Aug. 11. The MyPillow founder had been endorsed by President Donald Trump, as Lindell has been among Trump’s most fervent defenders.

Nine years after Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared, his wife still has no answers about whether he is alive, where he is being held or when their family might see him again.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and President Donald Trump may get away with Islamophobic language, but the same language is backfiring on some Republicans in midterm primaries. Several Republicans who have drawn national attention for outrageous comments about Muslims lost their elections.

A federal judge said he had plenty of help figuring out how to deny the Trump administration’s bid for access to sensitive voter information from Washington, D.C.: 20 district courts and the Sixth Circuit Court.

A union representing Internal Revenue Service employees has joined a lawsuit to block a $1.776 billion slush fund for Donald Trump’s political allies and to prevent the president and his family from achieving immunity from tax audits.

Josh Burtram and Will Wright have launched “Church and State: 250+ Years of Faith in America,” a special project of the popular “Faithful Politics” podcast they started in 2020.

A predominantly Black denomination, a faith-based civil rights group and the nation’s largest union have joined forces to fight systemic racism and voter suppression.

Seven mostly Jewish Oklahoma taxpayers urged a federal court to uphold the state’s February denial of an application to open a publicly funded Jewish charter school.

Market Square Publishing, publisher of books by United Methodist authors, has acquired United Methodist Insight, a 15-year-old online news-and-views journal covering The United Methodist Church.

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In other analysis this week:

Braxton Wade wants to know if Jesus could preach in your church today without having a meeting called against him.

David Gushee examines a new book to better understand the mindset of some on the political right. The question boils down to asking: Who belongs to the nation?

Michael Catlett writes about the rare disease that has changed his life and compares that to advice on how to heal our nation’s moral wounds.

Rodney Kennedy sees danger in calling Democrats communists and Republicans patriots.

It’s a long read but you really need to hear what Kristen Thomason has to say about Manhattan Project 2.0. It will scare the hell out of you. And it’s all real.

Christian nationalist troubadour Sean Feucht is bragging about interrupting a peaceful procession of Muslims in Chicago Aug. 9. “We did a Jesus March right through the Muslim March in Chicago!!! This is crazy!!!” Feucht declared on social media. Rick Pidcock explains.

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In other opinion this week:

Reconsidering dissent amid the ‘conservative resurgence’ — Derek Crawford

In a world of bridge burners, we need more bridge builders — Patrick Wilson

The peace of Charlie — Brian Henderson

The danger of negative religion — Martin Thielen

The ‘Southern Strategy’ lives on — Sid Smith III

God, save us from jackasses and fools — Glen Money

How one manufactured story becomes a belief about millions — Eileen Monte

Please stop calling me the young pastor — Justin Cox

In praise of Ordinary Time — Ken Sehested

Is Theology Beer Camp right for you? — Alan Bean

One idea on how to limit the wealthy from buying elections — Dan Day

Not famous but eternally important — Bill Bruster

We must see faithfully before we can serve faithfully — Paris Lee Smith Sr.

A final word

We had an unexpected barrier to our work this week when the company that hosts our website experienced a power outage yesterday. We apologize for the difficulty as many of you wondered why you couldn’t access our articles. This was one of those things that was terribly frustrating but beyond our ability to fix.

Everything is available online now, so this is a good time to catch up on whatever you missed.

Thanks again for reading!

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Way back in 2003, before anyone associated Donald Trump’s brand with the American presidency, Al Franken wrote a bestselling book titled Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.

These were kinder, gentler times when George W. Bush was president and conservative lies were merely the seasoning on the meal, not the main dish itself.

The book’s subtitle, “A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right,” was a parody of the Fox News tagline, “Fair and Balanced,” of which Fox News is neither. Fox sued Franken — unsuccessfully — and in the process helped the comedian sell more books. That, dear reader, is an example of the Streisand Effect.

Oh, for such simpler times when the White House remained classic and elegant and the rest of the world did not look on us as hillbilly hucksters.

You may recall that Franken went on to run for Congress from Minnesota and served from 2009 to 2018 as a Democratic representative in the U.S. Senate. He resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct were leveled against him — a decision he now says he regrets.

Please note the contrast here that when Democratic Congressmen and candidates are accused of sexual misconduct they routinely are sent packing while Republican officeholders and candidates just keep on going.

Which brings me back to the title of Franken’s 2003 book. Today’s conservative political and religious movements are based on lies told about lies told about lies. For example, Trump tells a whopper, and then Karoline Leavitt stands before the press corps and tells another whopper to justify the president’s whopper. And then Mike Johnson and other Trump bootlickers step up to the microphones to tell more whoppers that compound the original whopper. They really do want to have it their way.

In Trump’s MAGA world, there is no end to the lying. Lies are told to justify the lies already told.

“In Trump’s MAGA world, there is no end to the lying. Lies are told to justify the lies already told.”

Here’s an example from this week at BNG. I received several aggressive emails from Anne Schlafly Carpenter, the youngest daughter of Phyllis Schlafly, founder of Eagle Forum. In case you weren’t around in the 1970s, just understand that Phyllis Schlafly was one of the original purveyors of conservative evangelical outrage at modernity. She perfected the art long before Laura Ingraham or Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Eagle Forum lives on today and continues to advocate for ultra-conservative causes, including through its online Scorecard of politicians, tracking how they vote in alignment with Eagle Forum’s issues.

Here’s the problem that arose for us. We published an article headlined, “‘Pro-family’ groups stand by 3 scandal-plagued US Reps” that explained how groups like Focus on the Family and Eagle Forum had given high marks to U.S. Reps. Max Miller of Ohio, Cory Mills of Florida and Chuck Edwards of North Carolina — all of whom face serious allegations of sexual harassment or sexual abuse or worse. Stuff that makes Al Franken look like an underachiever. Yet unlike Franken, these Republican Congressmen refuse to stand down. Miller even went on a national news program and cited Trump surviving the Access Hollywood scandal as a sign that he, too, could prevail.

As originally published, our story implied that Eagle Forum had “endorsed” these three Congressmen currently in the news. We have corrected the story to indicate Eagle Forum’s distinction between an endorsement and the result of its Scorecard.

Anne Schlafly insisted Eagle Forum never endorses any of the three, and that is technically true. But Eagle Forum gave all three high marks on their Scorecard, which could lead voters to support the officials without additional knowledge.

Here is just one of many reasons such voter scorecards are dangerous: They highlight only the issues those publishing the scorecards care about. A candidate may get an extremely high rating for voting “the right way” while being a horrible person on every other front.

For more on the problem with voter guides, see this piece by J. Basil Dannebohm and this piece by Sam Williams.

Narrow-issue voter guides or scorecards do not help voters see the full scope of the candidates on the ballot. This is extremely dangerous and illustrates how we’ve come to be in the pickle we face today.

The same effect is playing out in Texas right now, as Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton has left a trail of destruction behind him for years yet has the support of political conservatives because he’ll carry their polluted water. My neighbors down the street who mount an outrageous Christmas display every December — with the American flag in red, white and blue lights waving above Baby Jesus in the manger — have their Ken Paxton yard sign planted right under the lighted flag in the spot where Jesus takes up residence every December.

To support people like Paxton or Miller or Mills or Edwards, you have to suspend reality and tell yourself some lies. You have to pretend you are voting for the “greater good” despite the evil of the candidates.

But what if the greater good is neither of those things? What if you’ve bought a lie that has been reinforced by another lie that is buttressed by yet another lie?

This stacked lying leads to horrific outcomes, as illustrated this week by the end of Temporary Protected Status for legal immigrants from Haiti, Syria and Yemen. Remember the lie JD Vance told about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs? Maybe you thought it was funny at the time, so outrageous that no one would believe it. Yet that lie helped feed the anti-immigrant fervor that now will send thousands of legal immigrants to danger and death.

Even when the lies start to unravel, Team Trump jumps into action to call the truth-tellers liars. Look at what happened this week with the debacle over the Reflecting Pool. When confronted with evidence that Trump’s claims about vandalism were bogus, one of his lackeys saw the light and dropped charges against the former Olympian who was wrongly accused of vandalism.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro — who acts like she’s in a skit on Saturday Night Live — tried to do the right thing, sort of, after parroting Trump’s lies. Yet she left the door open for future prosecution against David Hearn, which he and his attorneys realize is likely given Trump’s inability ever to admit a mistake.

A CNN columnist rightly said, “Jeanine Pirro faced a choice that all President Donald Trump’s team members confront sooner or later: Do they live in his world, or the real one?”

Say what you will about George W. Bush, but at least he lived in the land of reality. It was a lot easier to keep up with the lies then.

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In other political news this week:

‘Faithful Politics’ podcasters tackle special project

PCBC, Rainbow Push and AFL-CIO join to fight voter suppression

Federal court urged to uphold ban on religious charter schools in Oklahoma

Islamic group files suit against Broken Arrow for denying zoning permit

Faith groups organize for anti-nuclear war action this week

Adam Hamilton wins Democratic primary in Kansas

Impending deportation of legal immigrants called horrifying and cruel

Interfaith coalition launches 100-day ‘vision voting’ action

‘Pro-family,’ anti-vax: Focus-aligned groups push state restrictions

Hegseth continues to apply Isaiah 6:8 to US warfare

Americans view people of Israel and Palestine more favorably than their governments

Doctors warn against Tennessee death penalty protocols

Douthat leaves NY Times for 60 Minutes

Houston moms say Ten Commandments law violates RFRA and parental rights

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In our analysis section this week, Rick Pidcock writes about TV personality Jesse Watters and says given that white evangelicals have spent the last decade largely ignoring the sexual abuse being perpetrated by their pastors and politicians and even calling such allegations a hoax, it’s no wonder they’d celebrate sexually abusive pundits as well.

Steve Rabey looks at the “special relationship” between the U.S. and Israel, the largest recipient of U.S. aid since the 1970s. He tells us about a new book that says this relationship is a bad deal for the U.S.

Rick Pidcock also brings us the astonishing story of evangelists who think it’s smart to take advantage of captive audiences on airplanes. On the other hand, Rodney Kennedy laments the loss of authentic evangelism even by evangelicals.

Josh Olds says you’d think it wouldn’t be so difficult to ascertain the continued existence of one of the most powerful people in American politics. However, Mitch McConnell’s prolonged, unexplained absence from the U.S. Senate has raised awareness of how to discern AI.

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In other opinion this week:

One idea on how to limit the wealthy from buying elections — Dan Day

Not famous but eternally important — Bill Bruster

We must see faithfully before we can serve faithfully — Paris Lee Smith Sr.

Stop being press agents for Trump’s negativity — Catherine Meeks

Small things — Richard Conville

The White House is a crime scene — Edmond Davis

The gospel according to Bruce Hornsby and the Range — Jackson Campbell-Walker

Should joining a church be as easy as getting a prescription for Viagra? — Brad Bull

Pastoral care is not therapy — Tyler J. Parry

Can the church practice the spiritual virtue of contentment? — Stephen Shoemaker

Words about God matter most — Tom Cantwell

Texas needs a ‘detransition clinic’ like I need a hairbrush — Mark Wingfield

Tennessee gubernatorial candidate would ban mosques — Brad Bull

Building the new world: Pope Leo, ZekeUltra and AI — Julie M. Wenah

What if the voice you are ignoring is God’s? — Phyllis Harrington

The difference between can we and should we — Kevin Heifner

Half-truths and the Six Commandments — Brad Bull

A final word

In closing, I want to highlight two other pieces of important news from the week.

First, Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary will open a Dallas campus to complement its home campus in Waco, Texas, and existing satellite campuses in Houston and San Antonio. The Dallas campus will be located at Park Cities Baptist Church. This is bigger news than it might appear, and I encourage you to read the full article to understand why.

Second, a personal word of commendation to my friend Holly Hollman, who is stepping down after 25 years at BJC. Holly is a consummate professional and brilliant mind who has served BJC and all of us well for two and a half decades. Well done, Holly.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

On Wednesday this week, I had the first of two cataract surgeries. My left eye was the worst, so we started there. And yes, if you’re doing the math at home, I’m a bit young for cataracts. Never let it be said that I’m not an overachiever.

I’m struggling to write this today because my eyes are “unequally yoked,” to borrow a biblical phrase. What’s good for the left eye is not good for the right eye, and all my existing glasses aren’t suited for my present situation.

Without glasses, the distance vision in my left eye is better than I remember it being in decades. It is so good I can drive without glasses. But I can’t see the display panel inside the car. It’s a promising mess right now.

In two weeks, I’ll have the other eye done, and that should make a big difference. Even then, I’ll need to be evaluated for corrective lenses for reading — the thing I do most days all day.

Despite my impaired vision, I’ve just come from officiating a funeral for a lovely man whose two sons, two grandsons and best friend stood and gave inspiring remembrances. They told beautiful stories that gave us a snapshot of the man. But snapshots alone cannot tell the full story. They can point us toward the full story, but they are not the full story.

“Many of us experience times in life when our vision is impaired. Our old lenses of interpretation no longer work, and continuing to use them creates frustration.”

And so it goes for all of us. Most of the time, we know only part of the story but not the full story. Yet that doesn’t stop us from forming opinions and making them known. And many of us experience times in life when our vision is impaired. Our old lenses of interpretation no longer work, and continuing to use them creates frustration.

Think of someone raised in fundamentalism who wants to escape that narrow perspective but has not yet gained new lenses to match their new perspective. Or think of someone who has experienced any kind of trauma and keeps seeing all the world around them through the lens of their own trauma.

One of the reasons the MAGA base won’t abandon Donald Trump even as his administration teeters and his polling numbers head for the lower reaches is they have no other lenses to see the world. Although the landscape around them keeps changing, they insist on seeing it the old ways: Every immigrant is a threat, and the American Dream is a zero-sum game they’re afraid of losing.

At the funeral today, the deceased’s two young grandsons talked about sitting on their grandfather’s balcony near DFW International Airport and watching the sunsets and the planes landing. To some, that scene never changes. But to those with eyes to see, every sunset looks slightly different. You just have to have the eyes to see.

That’s a great life lesson from a grandfather whose faith now has become sight.

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Amid the many cruelties of the Trump administration, its immigration detention program remains one of the most heinous. As we have reported from Day One, the Stephen Miller-inspired effort never has been about removing “the worst of the worst” but has been a broad sweep of intimidation and terror.

Exhibit A this week is the story of a married couple — both pastors in the U.S. on religious worker visas — arrested by federal immigration agents at a Texas airport on their way to a Billy Graham Evangelistic Association retreat in North Carolina.

Exhibit B this week is the story of Christian Chinese human rights lawyer Wu Shaoping, who represented persecuted religious believers and other victims of government repression before fleeing China. He was wrongly arrested by ICE and spent nine days in ICE custody despite having been granted asylum in the U.S.

For any evangelicals reading this who still support this lawless administration, please understand this: Your guy is arresting and detaining pastors and newly baptized believers who have not broken any laws. Surely this is not what you want.

Meanwhile, ICE is rapidly expanding its partnership with red state law enforcement agencies, deputizing state police as immigration cops.

However, a growing number of states have adopted legislation to protect immigrant communities and American citizens from Trump’s violent deportation campaign, according to an analysis by American Immigration Council.

Also this week, a federal court has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release a key witness in the killing of a Mexican national by an immigration agent in Houston.

Members of Congress who toured the Dilley Immigration Processing Center July 28 were left stunned and outraged by the physical and psychological torture they say migrant families endure there every day.

A coalition of immigrant advocacy groups and federal legislators has launched “End the ICE Age,” a campaign urging Congress to defund and eliminate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mara Richards Bim urges us all not to look away from what’s happening because ICE and CBP are “getting away with murder.”

Caroline Cook details how Trump’s ICE agents are the least-trained law enforcement in America.

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In other news this week:

One of the nation’s premier watchdog groups concerning abusive religion says something is rotten about the recent state court ruling that allowed a pastoral takeover of Second Baptist Church of Houston. The Houston megachurch has been in the news due to member concerns about the ways its bylaws were amended and governance was effectively removed from the congregation and entrusted to a small group handpicked by the senior pastor. In an analysis piece, I explain why you should care about this.

Focus on the Family is seeking a “next-gen” president/CEO to replace the nearly 65-year-old Jim Daly, who for two decades has put a friendlier face on the influential conservative ministry founded by James Dobson.

A former Southern Baptist youth pastor was sentenced to 20 years in prison July 27 after confessing to attempted sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old girl — one of at least a dozen he targeted while serving Catawba Valley Baptist Church in Richmond.

Outgoing Baylor University Provost Nancy Brickhouse has been named vice chancellor for academic and health affairsat Texas State University. She will oversee academic planning and program review for the state system of four universities and three schools.

Southern Baptist Sen. Lindsey Graham’s memorial service at Washington National Cathedral Tuesday closed with a rousing evangelistic sermon from his pastor, Tim Tate, who told members of the Trump administration, congressional leaders and world leaders they needed to get right with God while they can.

The Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind Project 2025, announced its new Legal Action Center July 8. In its first case, the center will help conservative Christian groups defend a Colorado school district that enacted book bans.

A lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission has been dismissed by a federal court. A multifaith coalition filed the legal action in February to challenge the legality, secrecy and religiously narrow makeup of the commission.

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In other analysis this week:

Mallory Challis says it’s time to talk about domestic violence as it relates to sexual abuse and suicide.

Congress has a 9% confidence rating among Americans, according to recent data from Gallup. And yet, it’s more ethicalthan mainstream evangelicalism’s institution of complementarian marriage, says Rick Pidcock.

Braxton Wade is in conversation with George Mason about retirement, pastoral legacy and what matters most.

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In other opinion this week:

Letter to the Editor: Southwestern’s Music School endowments? — Benjamin Harlan

We have a moral obligation not to move on — Ben Huelskamp

Love can call us back — Cathy Payne Anderson

Anthony Fauci is MAGA’s devil du jour — Rodney Kennedy

Three Americas and the coalition we need — Stuart C. Lord

What are we to do with church voter guides? — J. Basil Dannebohm

Philadelphia pushes back against whitewashing history — Edmond Davis

There is no such thing as ‘the Baptist position’ — Brian Henderson

What Revelation teaches about ‘us’ and ‘them’ — Ethan Smith and Sarah Beam

Hegseth’s testosterone testing plays into MAGA mythology — Josh Olds

When the abused become abusive — Mark Wingfield

A final word

On the BNG podcast “Stuck in the Middle with You,” Ben Cole and I are beginning a brief series looking back at some of the most consequential sermons preached during the Battle for the Bible in the 1980s and ’90s. We begin this week with a 1984 sermon by Russell Dilday titled “Higher Ground.”

We also have a new episode of “Madang” with Grace Ji Sun Kim talking with Sun Uk Lim and Amy Lindeman Allenabout their new book on parenting.

On “Highest Power: Church + State,” Rick Pidcock has new episodes on Republican apathy about the midterms and about Anthony Fauci’s appearance before a Senate subcommittee.

On “Bible Divas,” our female scholars talk with Candida Moss about conservative Christianity’s misunderstanding of persecution.

And I’m pleased to let you be the first to know that in about a month we’ll launch a brand-new podcast hosted by Lucas Hall. “This Is My Story” will highlight the stories of LGBTQ Christians.

Wherever you’re traveling or whatever you’re doing at home, remember to take BNG and our “change-making conversations” with you.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Often I get questions about why BNG publishes the content we do and how our editorial decisions are made. Some accuse us of being leftists; others accuse us of being incendiary; and others accuse us of not being safe to recommend to fellow church members. Others wonder what in the world we’ll write about once Donald Trump gets deposed or dies.

To address these concerns and others, it’s helpful to go back to the beginning and remember how we’ve changed over the past 36 years. This is our birthday month, after all.

When we were founded in 1990, Associated Baptist Press was a response to an urgent need. Led by Paul Pressler, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee fired the two editors of Baptist Press, the SBC’s once-lauded news service. They were fired because Dan Martin and Al Shackleford refused to kowtow to Pressler’s demands for news coverage that masked his dirty tricks to turn the denomination to the far right.

“When we were founded in 1990, Associated Baptist Press was a response to an urgent need.”

In those days, the primary users of BP copy were the 42 state and regional Baptist newspapers — most weeklies — and the religion editors of the nation’s major daily newspapers. A group of those editors and others of us in the production pipeline believed BP no longer could be trusted, so a new autonomous news service was founded.

ABP was to collect content from the various state Baptist papers, combine that with a bit of original reporting, and then redistribute that content — via daily faxes, no less. That was the agenda for a few years, and at one point ABP even published a slick magazine and distributed a printable handout for church midweek fellowship meals and Bible studies.

Across the first decade or so, we went from supplying content to print newspapers to supplying content directly to churches to, ultimately, supplying content directly to readers like you with no middlemen. Three things drove that change:

First, the cowardice and then the death of most state Baptist newspapers. Those who courageously founded ABP often lost their courage to publish our content when their state conventions fell in line with the SBC. The political pressure was too great. And then in time most of the state papers either went out of business or became online shadows of their former selves.

Second, the idea of churches as mass consumers of news had its roots in the sales model of the old state papers. Many of us — and I was one of those editors — lived and died by the church newspage. That was a way weekly state papers sold the covers or back pages of their newspapers for church newsletter content, customizing an edition for churches in order to get them to purchase the newspaper. In its heyday, for example, the Baptist Standard of Texas published 400 editions every week, each with unique church newsletters wrapped around them. For a brief time, ABP embraced this model without the newsletters in hopes of getting churches to share our daily content with all members.

“Third, and most importantly, the internet changed everything.”

Third, and most importantly, the internet changed everything. With the rise of websites and emails and social media, ABP (now known as BNG) didn’t have to rely on any middle distributors of our content. We could deliver all our articles directly to the reader at almost no expense.

Even so, a decade ago, BNG’s content remained largely Baptist-specific. When we merged with the Religious Herald of Virginia to become Baptist News Global, our board and staff intended to reach beyond Baptists in the United States. But we also envisioned more global content in that we wouldn’t just write about denominational news.

Early on, some considered ABP to be the news service of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. That wasn’t true, but it was a common perception because of our close ties to CBF and the fact that we split off from the SBC just one year before CBF was created.

There’s a lot more water under the bridge, but let me jump ahead to the present day. When I assumed leadership of BNG in July 2020, my vision was to make us the premier news, opinion and analysis outlet for progressive Baptists and our adjacent communities. We added reporting on Methodists and Presbyterians and nondenominational groups. We began more frequently tackling larger themes such as Christian nationalism, women in ministry, LGBTQ inclusion, immigration, religious liberty, ex-vangelicals and writing about bigger trends in church and community life.

Then came COVID, which changed everything, including our coverage. Then came the second Trump administration, which changed everything again.

Because we owe no debt to any denomination or institution, we are free to report on what’s relevant right now. We do not have to keep the peace with denominational leaders or opinionated church members. We are free to faithfully document the times we’re living in and help you make sense of that.

We are engaged in “change-making conversations” every day. That’s our niche. And we do it from a center-left vantage editorially. We don’t try to hide that. We publish news articles about a lot of things I personally disagree with, and we publish opinion pieces written by people I disagree with.

There are some boundaries for us editorially, even though we don’t have a doctrinal statement like a school or denomination might have. We will not publish opinion pieces denying the reality that God calls women equally as men to ministry. We will not publish opinion pieces that deny the humanity and God-createdness of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. We will not publish opinion pieces that spread provable lies. We will not publish opinion pieces that deny the existence of God or the witness of Scripture about itself.

I had someone write me this week telling me we were out of line to publish an opinion piece that was negative about President Trump. We owe him respect and should not say mean things about him, the writer said. There’s no room for that in a “Christian” publication, the writer lectured me.

“Too many Christians believe their views of the world are the views we all should adhere to.”

And here is the problem: Too many Christians believe their views of the world are the views we all should adhere to. We all are to be judged by their standards. This is not only egotistical but wrong. We must — we are duty-bound — to sound the alarm when there is a fire. That’s what I tried to say in a brief opinion piece this week addressing why we keep writing about the dangers of the Trump administration. The world is on fire, and we cannot be silent.

I have concerns on the other side, as well, and this will get me skewered by my own people. We published a news articlethis week that in hindsight I wish I hadn’t written. It’s about allegations of sexual harassment against Baylor Universityprofessor David Pooler, whose expertise is researching survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

I had people pressing me to write about this, and I understand why. However, I’ve got some problems with the way this went down and should have listened to my instincts on this. I do not know David Pooler. He is not a friend. We may have met in passing once or twice. I know of his work.

Here’s the rub: The accusations against him originated with an anonymous online post on the Facebook page of a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping survivors of clergy sexual abuse. He had been named to a volunteer role on that group’s advisory board. His employer, Baylor, apparently knew about this former student’s complaints and had not found reason to take any action. But a third-party nonprofit hired an outside group, GRACE, to investigate — to investigate not their employee but a volunteer member of their advisory board.

I am trying to imagine a scenario in which my nonprofit organization would authorize spending money to hire a third party to investigate one of our volunteer board members. This is highly unusual.

GRACE is a reputable organization that has done a lot of good. And in this case, they did what they were hired to do. My question is why they were hired at all.

And my second question is this: Why does the 30-page report contain not a single name of anyone who did the investigation, wrote the report, requested the report or contributed information to the report? The only person named is the accused. That’s not fair. And it’s not a standard we would adhere to in reporting a news story. Which is why I now have second thoughts about publishing the article that is about a report based entirely on anonymous sources.

These are the things that give ammunition to those who would deny the reality of clergy sexual abuse. And yes, I hear from those folks all the time too.

If you read the full report, you’ll see it is largely based on standards that sound reasonable at first but don’t always hold up to further evaluation. One of the accusations against the professor is that he was seen at conferences drinking socially.

Clearly these investigators have not been to the conferences I attend. They have taken a standard that exists only in the most conservative evangelical spaces and assumed it should carry over everywhere.

This is no different than readers who write to me explaining their personal views on journalistic ethics and assuming we should adhere to their assumptions.

From the beginning to today, this job leading ABP and now BNG has required discernment about what’s important and what’s not. This is what we struggle with every day, and that has not changed.

I feel like I got it wrong in this instance this week

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In other news this week:

Baptist preacher and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock said he is often stumped by evangelical Christians who claim to love Christ but blame the poor for being poor.

“Today, I can finally say the words I’ve been fighting to say for years: Provo Canyon School is officially shut down,” said Paris Hilton last Friday in response to a decision to revoke the institution’s residential treatment license.

Employees already suing U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins over religious freedom violations have urged a judge to stop her continued proselytizing through agency-wide emails as litigation continues.

A July 21 emergency ruling by a federal court saved thousands of lawfully present immigrants from losing work authorization and asylum seekers from the automatic rejection of their cases.

A coalition of Texas religious groups is demanding major reforms to how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcementcarries out its mass deportation operations. Dozens of faith leaders from across the state gathered for a July 22 news conference.

President Donald Trump’s lawsuit seeking $10 billion from the Internal Revenue Service was a total sham, a federal court has ruled.

An online influencer with a penchant for criticizing and lampooning the Trump administration sued the federal government for blocking her from attending a public event where Vice President JD Vance was speaking.

An FBI agent trainee is challenging the Trump administration and FBI Director Kash Patel’s attempts to quash his lawsuit against them for wrongful termination. David Maltinsky was fired in 2025 for displaying a Pride flag at his workstation.

Within the last week, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton has claimed his opponent holds views “antithetical … to historical Christian views” while refusing to answer questions about his own alleged illegal voting.

About a dozen clergy and conservative politicians pleaded with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to postpone an upcoming execution after another inmate’s lethal injection was botched in May.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected the Trump administration’s request to lift a previous ruling barring use of a voter database designed to investigate and potentially purge U.S. citizens from voter rolls across the country.

A historically Black denomination has opened an advocacy center in the heart of Washington, D.C., to protect civil rights, champion religious freedom and to be a voice for the poor and marginalized.

President Donald Trump’s doubling down on ICE traffic stops despite agents’ killing of two motorists proves deadly force is an integral part of the administration’s mass deportation campaign, an immigrant rights leader said.

Fresh from a Supreme Court victory affirming laws that restrict transgender sports participation in 27 mostly red states, Alliance Defending Freedom has a warning for 23 blue states that protect trans rights: “You’re next.”

What remained of a seven-year-old lawsuit filed by a former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary student against former President Paige Patterson has been settled out of court.

Finding the definition of a “biblical church” became a linchpin in the unsuccessful lawsuit filed by some members of Second Baptist Church of Houston against the leadership of their megachurch. Texas Business Court Judge Grant Dorfman dismissed the entire case.

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In other analysis this week:

Is Nolans’ Odyssey woke or a worthy warning? — Josh Olds

In 3 charts: White Christian nationalists’ love of ICE and concentration camps — Robert P. Jones

When we — Baptists and Methodists — were all evangelical — Lovett Weems

Reflections on In the Twilight of the Christian West — David Gushee

Trump’s war on ‘woke’ targets federal grants and foreign relations — Steve Rabey

Men-only gyms seek to protect Christian men from lust — Rick Pidcock

5 takeaways from PRRI on the 2026 midterms — Melissa Deckman

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In other opinion this week:

Supreme Court ruling annuls the idea of ‘Christian America’ — Bill Leonard

Why rural families need support now — Jose Montoya

Can AI help ancient Christian communities worship together? — Jack Nassar

When ‘patriotism’ turns to assault — Lee Enochs

‘Pastor, we’ve never been through this before’ — Tony Tench

America keeps mistaking Black children for threats — Nayo Johnson

Mark Driscoll is a fool who needs to read church history — and the Bible — Rodney Kennedy

Our legacy of dissent — Bill Leonard

When the president targets Muslim kindergartners, families like mine also pay the price — Noor Zoma

What I plan to talk about at Wild Goose Festival — Justin Cox

In conversation with Lizzie McManus-Dail — Greg Garrett

A final word

In closing, I’ve got one favor to ask this week: When you read a BNG article you like or that challenges you or helps you, please consider sharing it with a few friends. It’s easy to find the share icons at the bottom of each page and it just takes a few seconds. Your referrals are the best way to expand our readership and let others know what they’re missing.

Thanks for helping us spread the word.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Fair warning. I’m about to talk about the new epic film The Odyssey. But in reality, the chance of spoilers is low because this is a tale as old as time and most of you, dear readers, already know the outlines of the plot.

Having been educated mainly in Oklahoma, I somehow escaped reading The Odyssey in high school. As memory serves, it wasn’t until I got to Oklahoma Baptist University’s Western Civilization class that I gained a greater understanding of Greek mythology.

Some friends and I went last night to the premier showing of the new film, which is everything it’s hyped up to be and more. Be warned, however, it runs three hours and at times I felt like I was trapped back in Lord of Rings. But the last half hour of the film alone is worth the price of admission.

You may recall that some white supremacists like Elon Musk were upset that a Black woman was cast as Helen of Troy. It’s hard to be more blatantly racist than that. So don’t let that stop you from seeing this film.

Throughout the saga, major themes reverberate that remain oh-so-relevant 26 centuries after the tale was first told.

At the risk of sounding like a college English professor, here are some of those:

Nostos is the ancient Greek for “homecoming,” and that feeling transcends time. We see in the film the pros and cons of this pull toward family and the familiar. And the eternal question: Is it really possible to go home again?

“We, too, often long for times gone by but fail to account for how we have changed and home has changed.”

Odysseus has been gone from home 20 years. He has changed. His home has changed. Reconciling those two ideas is nearly impossible. We, too, often long for times gone by but fail to account for how we have changed and home has changed.

Just this morning, a younger friend called to tell me about a conversation playing out on social media where a former high school classmate wished for the 1990s to return. My friend, who is mixed race and attended a mostly white suburban high school, responded that the 1990s weren’t so great for Black people.

Odysseus learns while you can (eventually) go home again, lost time cannot be regained. This is why I grow impatient with those who say to female pastors and leaders, “Just wait a little bit longer; we’re not ready yet” and why I am frustrated with those who tell minorities, “Your time will come.”

Right now, we are watching the clock spin backward and so much of the progress we had made is being wiped away by evangelical white supremacist males.

Also, war changes us. Just as Odysseus is changed by the Trojan War, we Americans have been changed by five decades of culture wars that have deadened our senses toward what matters and what doesn’t matter. We are engaged in battles that don’t matter.

Odysseus reckons with the sins committed in his name; so we must do the same.

“Odysseus reckons with the sins committed in his name; so we must do the same.”

It’s also true that in a vacuum of leadership, suitors line up everywhere. This is what has driven evangelicals into the arms of Donald Trump. Like him, they are willing to deny reality, lie, cheat and ridicule others to get greater access to the palace.

And finally, there are consequences to our actions. Like Dumbledore at Hogwarts, Odysseus does what he believes he has to for the greater good, but not all his choices are noble, and many of them have dire repercussions.

This reminds me of all the eulogizing that happened this week about the late Lindsey Graham, for two decades a U.S. senator from South Carolina. Even those who sought to praise him admitted his policies and positions did tremendous harm — to the children and families he glibly voted to bomb, to the LGBTQ community he scorned while allegedly partaking on the side, to the children who are hungry today because of the bills he voted for.

Grady Throneberry did an excellent job unraveling these contradictions in an opinion piece I highly recommend. Edmond Davis echoed that in a piece about leaders who know better but choose the opposite path.

I also wrote about how one of Graham’s final public appearances was at a Baptist church in his home state of South Carolina. And Julia Goldie Day, who hails from that part of the state, has her own memories.

Josh Olds wrote about Graham’s temporary replacement in the Senate and the history of “widow’s succession,” which is oddly relevant to The Odyssey as well.

Joe Marlow examined the peculiar friendship shared among Graham, John McCain and Joe Lieberman. Again, echoes of The Odyssey.

J. Basil Dannebohm says Graham’s death is one of those moments when we have to choose between remaining silent or being blunt. He chooses the latter.

At the AMC Theater where we saw the film last night, they were selling large chocolate Trojan Horses — for $70! At least you got a bucket of popcorn with that. Imagine supersized chocolate Easter bunnies shaped like horses. The economics of that are a Trojan Horse of their own.

As one of the most enduring images of The Odyssey in literature, the Trojan Horse also is a metaphor for our time. White evangelicals have claimed for decades they were running on a platform of truth and righteousness and morality. Yet once inside the walls of government, their troops have come out swinging for the exact opposite. They wouldn’t know truth now if it fell out of a giant horse’s belly. And morality is a distant memory.

While we were at the theater, Trump was giving a national broadcast — carried by only one major news network — that was a masterclass in bald-faced lying. Y’all, we are now at the point where there’s no credible way to say you don’t understand what he’s doing. He’s not hiding anything. Every word that proceeds from his mouth is a lie — often a bodacious lie.

That’s no longer a Trojan Horse. The question is: How will you respond?

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Earlier in the week, the nation’s outrage was focused on two more people being killed by ICE agents. Jeff Brumleybrought us the story of how after 22 people being shot by ICE, the agency issued a directive to cease vehicle stops. Then the next day, Trump backtracked and said traffic stops are highly effective and must continue. That followed renewed calls for investigations, protests and demands that immigration officers stop terrorizing American communities.

The state of Florida has closed its “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention center roughly a year after it opened with more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States in general and the Trump administration specifically should not have to answer to the International Criminal Court.

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In other news:

Molly Marshall, one of the most consequential Baptists in modern theological education, will retire from the presidency of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in June 2027. This will be her second retirement, following her 2020 departure from Central Baptist Seminary.

The word “crisis” in the title of World Relief’s updated primer on refugees has a much wider and much more tragic meaning than it did a decade ago, according to one of the book’s authors.

Numerous recent attacks and threats of violence against Muslims have been inspired in part by Islamophobic statementsfrom Republican politicians, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Those who share in Christ’s resurrection “will reign with him for a thousand years,” says Revelation 20:6, but some believers want Christians to exercise dominion right now. That’s the heart of author Keri Ladner’s message in American Dominion.

James Talarico isn’t the only Democratic candidate making faith a calling card of his campaign this year. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed is campaigning openly on his Muslim faith.

Remember September last year when hundreds of educators across the nation were facing firing or disciplinary actions for posting personal comments about the death of Charlie Kirk? The rash and reactionary decisions by school boards, superintendents and university presidents have largely backfired, and those fired are netting large payouts.

Tucker Carlson is calling for Mike Huckabee to be fired as U.S. ambassador to Israel, after Huckabee did not defend a U.S. Congressman violently detained by Israeli settlers.

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In other analysis this week:

Democratic Socialists are on a roll with two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the mayor of the nation’s largest city and three June primary winners in New York and Colorado. Josh Olds breaks it down.

Mallory Challis explains how AI is being used to abuse children and what we can do about it

David Jordan says the American experiment continues as we keep on trying amid turmoil, division, distrust, confusion and misinformation. He tells the stories of major players in our history.

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In other opinion this week:

Rahab and the violence of Zionism — David Haddad

Belgian footballer set an example for men worldwide — Wainwright Acquoi and Sahar Jamal

She preached anyway — Phyllis Harrington

The hidden cost of always being available — Janelle Beiler and Marion Travers

’Round midnight — Braxton Wade

It’s time to listen to the prophets — Rebecca Johnson

10 reasons America is not a ‘Christian nation’ — Edmond Davis

Which side will you choose? — Nathaniel Manderson

The promise she kept; the promise we must keep — Richard T. Herman

Confidence doesn’t equal competence — Kate Hanch

Why the Black Church needs a national advocacy office — Lewis Brogdon

The saints we don’t pray to — Justin Cox

The real American religion: A July 4 postmortem — Stephen Shoemaker

Letter to the Editor: In the name and Spirit of Jesus, we are sorry — Chuck Poole

I am Nolan — TJ Williams Hauger

In conversation with Art Wright — Braxton Wade

A final word

Well, that’s it for another week of news, analysis and opinion. Remember all our content is available for free 24/7. Our archives are searched widely every day, so remember to use our handy search bar on the home page to look for anything.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Here at BNG, we’ve taken quite a beating this week over our coverage of one issue that has generated intense conversation — mainly among people who don’t know me or our writers or our organization. Yet these days, none of that stops people from spreading their certainty in online comments.

The issue is our coverage of the death by suicide of Ryan Stollar, a sexual abuse survivor and advocate for children. Many of our readers — like me — never had heard of him before, but some of our readers followed his work and had been helped by his writing and speaking. And then there are those who claim to have been close to him who stumbled on to our website because of our coverage and became immediately convinced we are evil incarnate.

We broke the news of his death in a story I wrote. Then Mara Richards Bim wrote a follow-up piece, and that’s what generated the most online heat. Later, Josh Olds wrote another analysis about how hurt people hurt people.

It’s worth noting that the one piece written by a female writer got the most criticism. Just sayin’.

One online commenter posted on Facebook: “The words in this article are harsh and harmful to the family and friends of a dead man. I’ve watched them suffer from this piece. I can’t believe it was published. There’s nothing kind or gracious about it. This is death we are talking about. Real loss. And this article might as well have punched them all in the face.”

Another chimed in: “This is a terrible piece of writing and reflects poorly both on its author and your publication. What’s worse than the writing is the armchair diagnosis by the author and her total lack of research. She quotes mostly other people who didn’t know this man. She herself didn’t know him and had just learned of him. None of us has a right to judge, least of all the people who don’t know us.”

And yet another: “Did you seriously publish the work of someone who didn’t even know him?! How is that wisdom? How is that compassion? How is that even remotely respectful for the family he left behind? You guys normally do better. But this really is inappropriate.”

And my favorite: “This piece is but another indication of just how insularly myopic Baptists generally are, and I was a Baptist pastor for 35 years. At best, retract; at minimum, publish a public apology to Ryan’s family, friends and memory!! Better yet, PAY for his memorial expenses!”

Let me just point out that there’s no evidence any of these critics knew Ryan either. Yet they are armchair therapists and journalists telling us in no uncertain terms how we should run a national news service.

Sadly, this kind of criticism comes with the territory, and we get it from time to time. This is not the first time, but it has been an intense time.

There are several things at play here worth commenting on.

First is the difficulty we Americans have in talking about suicide. Ben Cole and I have a new episode of “Stuck in the Middle with You” coming out early next week that addresses this stigma and how it plays into the Stollar story. Lots of people think they are experts on how to react to suicide and what’s proper to say or not say.

In this case, Stollar left a detailed suicide note that not only was published to his website but emailed to all his subscribers. The note is very hard to read and specifically accuses his estranged wife of being a reason he took his own life.

When you are a public figure and you publish a suicide note online, that’s fair game for news coverage and commentary. You are inviting conversation. We did not violate anyone’s privacy by writing about this tragic death. This is, by definition, news. And it already was public.

Second, and this is where the most criticism against us has come, some think we shouldn’t have talked about Stollar’s wife even though she is a central part of the suicide note. How could we not have mentioned her?

Mara wrote specifically about the trauma too many women endure, including those whose husbands repeatedly threaten to kill themselves if the wife leaves them. This is a real thing, and Mara knows and has heard from women who have walked this road.

She wrote: “Sometimes people choose suicide, not out of grief and pain, but out of rage and vengeance — not as an act of escape, but as an act of violence.”

Well, to our armchair critics out there in social media land, that was a word they were unwilling to hear. In some cases, our critics took after us because they read our analysis through the lens of their own experiences. They are like the friend you’re trying to tell about your cancer diagnosis who keeps interrupting with, “Well, once upon a time when I had a migraine …”

We talk about all this in the podcast episode, so I encourage you to look for it next week. But back to my main point: Too many people who wander by our website and find an article do not understand how a national news service operates. They expect us to be something comforting to them and not challenging.

Sorry, folks. We are not here to make you feel comfortable. We are here to keep you informed and cause you to think about hard things.

But we do that from a wealth of life experience that shapes how we write. What none of these critics know about me is that I have firsthand experience with suicidal ideation. I’ve written and spoken openly about this many times before. And on the podcast episode, I explain it all again.

Writing about and editing commentary about Ryan Stollar’s suicide was not a cold and calculated exercise in abstractness for me. It hit home — hard. Not only because of my own life experiences but because I have officiated more than a few funerals for people of all ages who have died by suicide.

I know something about this. Which is why I determined we had to write about it. Several friends will verify that on the night we published my first article about Stollar’s death, I agonized over it. I wrote the article, called trusted friends for counsel, went for a long walk, called some more friends, and weighed the pros and cons of the whole thing. None of this happened lightly.

We cannot truly know most people and what motivates them, but we can listen to their own testimonies about themselves. And that’s what seems to be the hardest for some readers to hear.

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In this post-July 4 week, our writers still have had a lot to say about democracy, religious liberty and the nation’s 250th birthday.

Caroline Smith writes about the spiritual discipline of losing.

In a republished article from our archive, Doyle Sager looks at the difference between Patriotism and nationalism.

J. Basil Dannebohm says Donald Trump’s self-aggrandizement resulted in a ‘Code Red’ environment on July 4.

America’s 250th birthday prompted researchers at Navigator to ask Americans how they define America, patriotism and what our country should aspire to. The result was 82% of Americans across all generations saying they believe freedom is an extremely important value.

Rick Pidcock explores how Christian nationalism shows up in patriotic worship services.

Richard Conville says the president has spread abroad a kind of patriotism that is foreign to this great nation. His actions have mimicked King George III of England, for whom patriotism was obedience.

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In other religio-political news:

Both a Democratic Socialist and a Republican ministry leader who worked with James Dobson will be on Colorado’s ballot this November. But primary voters rejected candidates affiliated with Ryan Dobson and health-and-wealth preacher Andrew Wommack.

Back then it was Beverly LaHaye and Phylis Schlafly. Now it’s Alex Clark and Allie Beth Stuckey. To be a female conservative Christian leader is to navigate the contradictions in making careers of saying women shouldn’t have careers, as illustrated in a new film.

Democratic presidents have targeted Christians and attacked religious freedom for decades, but Donald Trump is making everything right, claims By Dawn’s Early Light, a taxpayer-funded movie starring Trump administration officials that praises the president’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.

Graham Platner’s campaign to dethrone Susan Collins as one of Maine’s two senators has come to an abrupt end following allegations of sexual assault. Josh Olds examines how this fits a larger trend.

The stories of Graham Platner and Roy Moore, although unfolding in different parties and different eras, trace the same institutional pattern: Modern political parties elevate outsiders when they are useful and abandon them when they become inconvenient, says Joe Marlow.

The Association of Christian Schools International is promoting a new Education Freedom Tax Credit that it lobbied for and was included in Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” he signed into law last July 4.

Will McCorkle says it’s time for churches to directly defy unjust immigration policies.

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In other news this week:

What Ryan Burge sees in America’s megachurches

As worldwide deaths mount, Musk insists DOGE cuts didn’t kill anyone

Safe Summers Foundation launches parent pledge campaign

US megachurches report strong rebound from pandemic

Amid flurry of rulings, habeas corpus spells trouble for Trump immigration policies

Robert Sloan, Baptist educator, dies at 77 and see also the opinion piece by Carey Newman: Remembering Robert Bryan Sloan

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In other analysis and opinion this week:

What in hell became of heaven? — Alan Bean

Theologizing with Larkin Poe, 10 years after Reskinned — Steven Harmon

What I learned July 5 at church — Linda Wilkerson

What Willy Rice once knew — Christa Brown

The night I saw God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven — Kelley Kennedy

All the Marys and women with the power of words — Julia Goldie Day

We are a nation of immigrants — Richard Cizik

The wicked are punished — or not — David Gushee

Dear Trump-supporting Christians, are you really OK with this? — Mark Wingfield

Eradicating DEI hasn’t made anything better — Trudy Bayer

What sports patriotism teaches us — Cara Meredith

3 views on Donald Trump held by American Christians — Mark Wingfield

Baptists need to speak up again for religious liberty — Matthew Kolb

Order, mystery and the proper use of Occam’s razor — Joe Marlow

Crossing the ‘Red Sea’ in a VW Bug on the way to an Arkansas revival — Jimmy R. Coleman

Between Isaac and Ishmael: An American family divided, hope unbroken — Jack Nassar

How much is enough? — Grady Throneberry

How your church can respond when the love of your life dies — Mike Queen

A final word

If you’ve not yet discovered our BNG podcasts, summer is a great time to get started. They’re good listening as you’re traveling. I mentioned above “Stuck in the Middle with You,” which you can find here.

Our newest podcast is “Bible Divas,” which you’ll find here. Then Rick Pidcock hosts “Highest Power: Church + State” twice a week, which you’ll find here. And our limited series on child sexual abuse at Kamp Kanakuk by Mallory Challis may be found here.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Twice in my life, I have watched fundamentalism destroy things dear to me.

The first was the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention that began (publicly) in 1979 and culminated in 1991. I was raised Southern Baptist, was proud to be a Southern Baptist, worked for Southern Baptists — until Southern Baptists became something I could not abide: Cruel, cold, heartless, condemning, restrictive bigots and misogynists.

Maybe that had been the modus operandi of the SBC all along and I just hadn’t seen it. In hindsight, the fundamentalism and Calvinism Southern Baptists had fought off in the mid-20th century roared back to life and took over the faith.

Having shunned the Fundamentalist Controversies of the past, the SBC was on its way to what the great ethicist T.B. Maston called “being conservative but liberal in our application of it.” But that got cut short.

Somewhere in the final days of hope for the SBC, I recall being at a meeting — maybe a Baptist Women in Ministry meeting — where someone — maybe Molly Marshall or Bill Leonard, but I can’t recall for sure — preached a sermon based on the opening line of Psalm 137: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.”

That sermon recalled the Babylonian Exile of the Jewish people and their anguish over all they lost. The preacher compared that despair with what we who were being exiled from the SBC felt in our spirits that day.

“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

The Psalm continues: “We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

I recall the preacher comparing us to those who were being asked to show mirth and sing happy songs in a strange land. We, too, were ready to hang up our harps.

That’s how I feel again today as we live through the second great disappointment of my life: The threatened death of democracy in the United States of America. This threat is even more devastating because there are no alternative countries for us to retreat to. Unlike when many of us fled the SBC rather than succumb to its new fundamentalism, we disaffected Americans are captives in our own land. We are being held hostage by a political fundamentalism that has aligned with narcissism and grifting and incompetence to create a situation that would be laughable if not so deadly serious.

And once again this weekend, we are being asked to be full of mirth and sing the songs of Zion in a strange land.

I have no interest in singing patriotic songs this Fourth of July because the memory of those scandalized words is too painful. The very concept of patriotism has been hijacked by those who do not more than self their country love. Flag-waving has been captured by those who seek to destroy the diversity that has made our country great. In their hands, the flag has become a weapon of mass destruction, not an invitation to liberty.

This year, I’ve hung my harp by the rivers of Babylon and I’m not full of mirth. I am worried sick about the future of the land of my birth and terrified we may never recover from the scandalous actions of Donald Trump and his enablers.

Much like the history of the SBC, the United States was on its way toward becoming a more perfect union when conservatives threw on the brakes and created a Blacklash against the Civil Rights Movement, health care for all and our first Black president. Remember it was Trump’s false claims about Barack Obama’s birth certificate that set him on the path toward being racist in chief.

Some days, the mental and spiritual anguish of what’s happened to America is too much to bear. The best I can do is keep telling the story of where we’ve come from and where we were going before political fundamentalism took the wheel of our Freedom Train.

“We who remain faithful to the founding ideals of our democracy need to learn some new songs.”

Here’s what I’ve come to believe: We who remain faithful to the founding ideals of our democracy need to learn some new songs. We need to take up the instruments we have and play them wildly and with abandon until the true song of our Founders is heard again.

The old songs have been corrupted and misappropriated. Beloved as they were, they have been twisted into the service of corruption. This Fourth of July, as we cringingly celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, we need to sing new songs, light new candles, give new gifts and keep telling the true family story loudly.

I am thankful to Carol McEntyre and Braxton Wade, who have pulled together our monthlong series on Christianity and Democracy 250. This weekend would be a good time to catch up on these dozen articles, which also are suitable for small-group discussions or even family dinner table conversations.

One of my favorites of the series was written by Juan Garcia and is titled, “Why Coercive Religious Politics Undermine Christianity and Democracy.” Among many excellent points, he writes, “The church’s task is not to conquer the state for Christ but to bear witness to Christ before the state.”

Earlier this year, I had opportunity to see a revival of the Broadway musical Hadestown. It’s now one of my favorite musicals of all time. In this mix of Greek mythology, Orpheus aims to write a song that will “fix what’s wrong, take what’s broken, make it whole.”

He believes his music has the power to give life — to bring back the disappearing spring season, end poverty and provide a secure life for his lover, Eurydice. But he is forced by Hades to do something that puts his dream and his song at risk.

The powers of darkness and death do not like new songs. Which is exactly why we need to keep singing our new song.

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One of the areas both the church and the nation still need help in processing is understanding sexuality and gender. To that end, we’ve published some hugely important pieces this week.

First, read my analysis of the conversation generated when Matthew Vines (God and the Gay Christian) wrote an op-ed for The New York Times about why he does not embrace the term “queer.” The backlash against him from the gay and transgender community was swift and harsh.

I try to make the case that this is an important conversation we should have. Words matter and can be a help or a hindrance in moving people toward inclusion. I’m sure we’ll have more on this next week.

Another of my favorite pieces of the week was written by Stephen Aber about his experience and the experiences of his husband as gay men in public. They get treated differently because one of them presents more “queer” or feminine than the other. This is a great companion piece to consider alongside the Matthew Vines piece mentioned above

Also, Eileen Monte writes about her experience as a transgender woman in Texas. If you want to understand what it’s like to live in her shoes, please read this with an understanding ear.

In a similar vein, Michelle Rayburn writes about the reality behind churches that put out “All Are Welcome” signs. We all should check our ability to deliver what we promise.

Ben Huelskamp says Pride Month, just ended, really is about all kinds of families.

On the other end of the spectrum, Al Mohler still contends without evidence that same-sex marriage is somehow bad for children.

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Another tough topic this week centers on child liberation theologian Ryan Stollar, who took his own life and left behind a hard-to-read suicide note posted to his website and emailed to all his newsletter subscribers. For starters, read my news report here.

Then, read Mara Bim’s excellent analysis of the damage Stollar left behind through his troubled life and the way he departed.

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Realizing this is a holiday weekend you may have limited time to read, here are a few of my other top picks for the week. If you only have time to read a few pieces, these are the top of my list apart from what I’ve highlighted above:

This Fourth of July, will you get your hands in the dirt? — Braxton Wade

The contemptible case of Clarence Thomas — Joel Bowman

The permanent paradoxes of Christian thinking about war — David Gushee

Dear Mike Johnson, be careful what you ask for — Mark Wingfield

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In other news this week:

Focus marks US 250th with patriotic video, booth at Trump’s Fair

PCUSA declares Israel’s actions in Palestine genocide

As Owens spins conspiracies, Kirk’s alleged killer gets day in court

Four years later, anti-abortionists battle on other fronts

Supreme Court’s support for birthright citizenship draws partisan reactions

BNG introduces ‘Bible Divas’ podcast

High court says feds can deny reentry to Green Card holders

PNBC plans ‘Freedom Sunday’ this weekend

Charlotte church adopts new name

Judge bars Tennessee from revealing immigration status of sick children

High court allows Trump to deport Haitians and Syrians

Conservatives press FCC to crack down on kids’ LGBTQ content

Dan Patrick reiterates: ‘No separation of church and state’

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In other analysis this week:

Louisiana pastor beats a man and thinks he’s following Jesus — Josh Olds

Supreme Court slides into partisanship — Stan Hastey

The realists’ war and a call for strategic restraint — David M. Hatami

A Baptist reading of Pope Leo’s Magnifica Humanitas — Derek Hatch

How Baptists helped end slavery in the United States — John B. Carpenter

There is no safe space in John Piper’s cruel theology — Rick Pidcock

At this VBS, a skit simulates a violent execution — Rick Pidcock

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In other opinion this week:

Conscientious AI objectors: HR’s role in keeping workplace human — Ema Sol

Before the fireworks, be careful what you drink — Gloria Swindler Boutte

The transmogrification of the SBC: When Baptists no longer are Baptist — Stephen Shoemaker

In conversation with Scott Cairns — Greg Garrett

First they came for the Mormons — Bill Leonard

Churches, pay attention: Americans gave $617 billion last year — Roberto Rueda

Democracy and prophetic witness — Preston Clegg

Don’t let John Piper determine whether your loved one ‘should’ be cremated — Brad Bull

What, to the white Christian, is America 250? — Kristopher Norris

Christian nationalism is neither Christian nor patriotic — Michael Chancellor

Baptists know better than this — Heather Deal

A final word

Well, I made a mistake I need to correct. In the latest episode of our “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast with Ben Cole, I was asked how people get elected to committees and boards in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. I muffed the answer.

Thanks to Kristin McAtee for setting the record straight.

CBF’s Nominating Committee is not self-selected. The current moderator of the Governing Board, along with the current chairs of Nominating, Missions Council, and Ministries Council form a committee for the purpose of choosing the Nominating Committee.

Kristin also added this context: “We ask all CBF to nominate people they think would be good at serving on Governing Board, Nominating Committee, Ministries Council and Missions Council. Our committee will go through that pool each year to determine who we ask to move into the pool of potential nominees. We assess candidates based on skills and knowledge and needs expressed by each board. We also consider geographics, gender, orientation, rural vs. urban church, and lay/chaplain/clergy. Our hope is to get boards with a diversity from across the life of CBF. When we determine who we want to ask to serve, we do vet them with CBF for conflict of interest.”

If you want to know more about how this conversation came about and how CBF differs from the SBC in its processes, take a listen to the podcast here.

We do attempt to correct our mistakes as quickly and publicly as possible. Thanks for your indulgence.

And now, here’s wishing you a meaningful holiday weekend with hopes that you will find a beautiful new song to sing.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Two unusual news headlines from the week are metaphors for our time.

First, Gracie the giraffe has been found, and she’s safe and sound.

In case you missed out on the internet’s fascination with this Texas-sized story, here’s a recap: Gracie is a 3- to 4-year-old female reticulated giraffe whose identifying features include a long neck, spotted body and rounded ears. She went missing Monday afternoon from Cedar Hollow Ranch in the Texas Hill Country west of San Antonio.

You’d think the 10-foot-tall animal (she’s still young) might be easy to spot, but she eluded searchers until today. News outlets gave us clear descriptions to identify her if anyone spotted her — just to be sure we were seeing Gracie and not some other random giraffe. The tell is her ears: they are curved and not pointed.

As of this writing, details are not yet available about how Gracie was found, but authorities say she wandered about 4 miles away from home and will be airlifted home with a special harness.

How does a giraffe go missing for a week without being seen? Hard as it is to imagine, the Texas Hill Country offers miles and miles of wide-open spaces where it’s easy for a giraffe to blend in — as a giraffe’s very coloring is intended to do.

Folks on the internet had a grand time creating memes of Gracie in all sorts of places, including floating down a river and visiting Texas landmarks. Thankfully, this is a story with a happy ending.

The second story of the week is the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Unless you’ve been in outer space, you’ve heard about this latest boondoggle of the Trump administration. You Know Who bragged he could do what no Democratic president ever could do and rid the shallow pool of algae. In typical fashion, he awarded no-bid contracts to some cronies and claimed to have expertise he doesn’t have.

The result, of course, is that the pool is worse off than it was before — even as the White House has directed other agencies to lie about the situation and claim the water is crystal clear and that unknown liberal vandals used a box knife to cut a 350-foot-long gash in the new blue lining.

The administration’s explanations are so absurd as to be laughable, and they have spawned countless memes as well.

Sadly, this is not a story with a happy ending but is emblematic of how Donald Trump ruins everything he touches while proclaiming himself The Greatest of Everything. Spotting his narcissism is easier than finding a giraffe on the loose.

Josh Olds penned an excellent analysis piece for us about how the Reflecting Pool mirrors the dangers of the Trump administration and the MAGA mindset.

“Look into the Reflecting Pool fiasco and see with clarity the Trump administration’s brash and ineffective approach to governance and public policy across the spectrum,” he writes.

“There is no clearer mirror of the fraud of this administration than the Reflecting Pool.”

He’s right, of course. There is no clearer mirror of the fraud of this administration than the Reflecting Pool. And the outrageous lies the president and his allies have been forced to create to justify themselves are beyond laughable.

What is sad, though, is that so many national media outlets have reported on Trump’s claims of vandalism without stating the obvious: What the president claims happened could not have happened in real life. It is absurd.

What do these two stories have in common? If Americans searched for truth as fervently as they searched for Gracie, we might have a chance. Trump has taken our nation on a runaway jaunt, and the search party needs reinforcements.

Thankfully, there are groups like Democracy Forward and people like Skye Perryman who are on the job and ask us to join them. Skye was the keynote speaker at our breakfast last Friday during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly. Read Jeff Brumley’s summary of her comments here.

“We have to do more than just reflect, we have to act,” she said. “The people whose shoulders we stand on, they’re not here anymore and what happens next is up to us and our faith communities. I believe that people, ordinary people, the American people in this community, are up to the task.”

Democracy is being stolen and the thieves are on the run. It’s time for all of us to join the search and rescue mission.

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Speaking of the CBF General Assembly, we continued our coverage of this year’s event:

A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Missions and Ministry budget of more than $16 million was adopted June 19 during CBF’s General Assembly in Jacksonville, Fla. The $16,118,827 spending plan for 2026-2027 is close to the previous year’s budget.

Women have served in ministry throughout the history of the church even as their courage and tenacity have been mostly overlooked and forgotten, said theologian Yolanda Pierce, dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

Fighting authoritarianism doesn’t require being violently forced to the ground and handcuffed by police outside an immigration detention center, said Michael Woolf, a Chicago-area Baptist pastor, author and activist who experienced that very thing.

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And our writers and readers are still reflecting on what happened the previous week at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. Here are those updates along with other SBC-related news of the week:

Jim Holladay says Al Mohler’s “truth and unity” amendment at this year’s SBC meeting reminds him of Pilate asking Jesus, “What is truth?”

Lucy Cauthen says her Southern Baptist home church always will feel like a home to her because of the people there, even though they might view her ordination differently than she does.

Kathy Hoppe explains why she stays in the SBC as an ordained woman.

Matt Johnson contends nobody dislikes Southern Baptists more than Al Mohler, based on his actions and words.

Angela Yarber says despite whatever the SBC declares, marginalized leaders already are leading.

Michael Friday says it’s bad interpretation, not the Bible, limiting female pastors.

It is not possible to be a “gay Christian” or a “transgender Christian,” the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission says. In a new social media reel posted by the ERLC, that question is answered by RaShan Frost.

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In other news:

An online news organization sued the Trump administration June 24 to win the release of documents related to a federal database established to retaliate against protesters and others exercising constitutional rights.

Israel committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by intentionally injuring and killing children in military operations in Gaza and surrounding areas, a United Nations task force charges.

Four theological schools, including the flagship school of conservative Methodists, have been removed by the University Senate from the list of theological schools approved for United Methodist candidates for ministry.

The Southern Baptist Convention isn’t the only national denomination attempting to sell its headquarters building amid changing dynamics. The Episcopal Church announced June 17 that its 12-story Church Center building in New York City is on the market.

As Britons digest Monday’s announcement that another English prime minister is resigning, conservatives and Christians from the U.S. were meeting in England June 23-25 to return the country to “traditional family values” by promoting right-wing politics.

A federal court has ordered the Trump administration to dismantle a massive database created to investigate and potentially purge U.S. citizens from voter rolls nationwide.

A Texas court has awarded $640,000 to a Waco judge who sued the state after it disciplined her for refusing to perform same-sex weddings because of her evangelical Christian faith.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 23 that inmates cannot seek damages if their religious rights have been abused or denied by prison officials. The 6-3 decision along ideological lines came in the case of Damon Landor, a Rastafarian.

In another instance of the Trump administration punishing companies for past demands that workers get vaccinatedagainst COVID-19, Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay $358,000 to resolve a dozen claims.

The former president of Truett-McConnell University has filed suit against the North Georgia school for breach of contract in his firing last year. Emir Caner filed suit June 5 in the State Superior Court of White County, Ga.

Their conversation began around the dinner table, a gay married couple in ministry pondering the mysteries of faith and life. Now their conversations have gone public in a podcast they hope will inspire United Methodists and other spiritual seekers.

United Methodist novelist Jessica Brodie always starts her “redemption” stories with the characters. Her strategy has proved successful, since her third novel recently topped Amazon’s bestseller list for new releases in Christian fiction books.

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In other analysis this week:

Melissa Deckman of PRRI explains new data that portend a troubling sign for Gen Z’s faith in America.

Josh Shepherd says the most improbable fantasy moment in Toy Story 5, Pixar’s latest entry in its unavoidable animated film franchise and likely one of the year’s biggest box-office hits, comes at an unexpected juncture in the story.

David Gushee acknowledges the end of white liberal Christian optimism.

Christian nationalism is not only an insidious force in the far-right policies of the United States but is gaining influence across Europe, explains Caroline Cook.

Rick Pidcock sees in the new film Disclosure Day a revelation about evangelicals’ fears.

Doug Haney and Steven Follis offer simple ways for all people — and especially senior adults — to protect themselves against cyberfraud.

In the wake of the violence of January 6, 2021, some observers wondered why the insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitolweren’t charged with domestic terrorism. The reason is simple: There is no standalone federal crime on the books for domestic terrorism, which has allowed the Trump administration to invent one, says Mara Richards Bim.

Recently, 42 athletes from 24 countries gathered in a temporary, ad hoc stadium built in a casino overflow parking lot to compete in what Donald Trump Jr. called an example of “excellence, innovation and American dominance on the world stage.” Josh Olds says these “Enhanced Games” were another MAGA grift.

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We offered three new installations in our Christianity and Democracy 250 series:

Democracy: A political response to human sinfulness — Austin Carty

Democracy offers a way for Christian’s to express God’s will — Kyle Reese

Love of neighbor is a democratic ideal — Timothy Peoples

Also in opinion this week:

Insufficient — Mark Wingfield

Anecdotal stories do not tell the full tale of race in America — Catherine Meeks

The roots of Christian nationalism — Richard Conville

Bourdain Day at the Farmer’s Market — Justin Cox

Why hymns still make us cry — Leslie Park

On telling a brother he is going to hell — Joe Marlow

What I wish Christians knew about Sharia Law — Nick Mumejian

Cage matches and Christianity don’t go together — Richard Cizik

Presence is not a lesser ministry — Gregory C. Smith

The Black Church was not meant to save America — Paris Lee Smith Sr.

Congregational responsibility to LGBTQ members during pastoral transitions — Josh Bledsoe

In a broken world, there always will be more to do — Michael Chancellor

Purple churches and ‘moderate’ Baptists: A theological response — Paul R. Gilliam III

Let’s tell a new story: Juneteenth and the Fourth of July — Robert P. Jones

The arrogance of Jeffress’ claims about James Talarico — Rodney Kennedy

Shaving Dad goodbye — Brad Bull

Good Friday 2026: Learning from the preachers — Bill Leonard

A final word

We’re still catching up from back-to-back weeks of the SBC and CBF meetings, so there’s a lot more to come next week that’s been on hold. Please keep reading and sharing wherever you are this summer. There is no summer slump for the news.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

One of my favorite scenes from this week’s Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly happened this morning. Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward was the keynote speaker for our BNG breakfast co-sponsored with Good Faith Media and Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists. She was brilliant, as always.

As people were leaving, many stopped by to meet Skye and take photos with her. That’s when I captured the photo below which shows Ryon Price, pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, with his college-age daughter, Gabby. Ryon didn’t want to be in the photo; he wanted a photo of his daughter with a female role model.

And my, oh my, is Skye Perryman a role model! She and her team in Washington, D.C., are leading the charge against the injustices and cruelty of the Trump administration. They’ve filed hundreds of lawsuits against the administration and have won far more than they’ve lost.

Today being Juneteenth, Skye also honored one of her female heroes — Opal Lee of Fort Worth. She’s the inspiring 99-year-old who advocated for Juneteenth to be a federal holiday and is creating a Juneteenth museum. She wanted to make sure future generations heard the story of Juneteenth and carried the light.

It is especially important for young women today to see other female role models. That’s why, for example, it is urgent for your church to hear from female preachers in the Sunday morning pulpit. Your daughters need to see role models who inspire them to understand all God might call them to be.

Especially given the Southern Baptist Convention’s retreat into the 17th century, the rest of us need to keep giving women platforms to be seen and heard — to the glory of God. As Martin Thielen wrote for us this week, it’s way past time for people seeking role models to leave the SBC.

As a member and former staff member at a Baptist church that has ordained women since 1991, I can tell you the life-changing difference it makes for girls and women to see someone like them in leadership. When you see it, you can dream it.

“The SBC doesn’t want your daughters to know they can prophesy. So the rest of us have to keep saying it louder.”

The SBC doesn’t want your daughters to know they can prophesy. So the rest of us have to keep saying it louder.

On Wednesday this week, BNG sponsored an op-ed writing workshop exclusively for women. Twenty-three female writers spent the day learning from female coaches why their voices matter and how to be heard. This, too, was about role models. And the workshop was made possible by funding from another female role model, Ella Prichard. As a tribute to her, the Prichard Family Foundation underwrote the workshop.

For the past six years, one of my key goals as BNG executive director has been to publish more women’s writing, especially as opinion and analysis pieces. We’ve made some progress, had some setbacks and then made more progress again.

Many years ago, Amanda Hiley (before she was married to Todd Heifner) was the young pastor of a Baptist church in Kentucky. I was the young managing editor of the state Baptist newspaper, and I’ve never forgotten one thing Amanda told me then.

I naively asked how a female pastor would respond to some situation compared to a male pastor. She quickly let me know that it’s possible a female pastor might not have gotten in the same situation as a male pastor and my question was therefore impossible to answer. Lesson learned.

Her point was that women may fill the same roles traditionally held by men but may approach them with different mindsets. And that’s a good thing.

Which is one more reason women need great female role models as well as great male role models.

There’s an old joke going around in CBF circles about the daughter of a female pastor who is shocked one Sunday when a male is the guest preacher: “Mommy, I didn’t know men could be preachers!”

Do not let anyone tell your daughters or sons they can’t be anything God might call them to be. Al Mohler is wrong. The SBC is wrong. The Catholic Church is wrong. Doug Wilson is wrong. God still speaks — to boys and girls and women and men alike.

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In other news this week:

Christians who vilify the poor, LGBTQ people and women practice a version of the faith that is heavy on the Bible but light on words of Jesus, said Howard-John Wesley, senior pastor of the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church.

Opposing American authoritarianism will require dedicated action and avoiding the temptation to fall into “grim despair” over its advances, said Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

The Washington, D.C.-area offices of nonprofit groups that provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children were recently visited by federal agents in what some of the organizations described as a campaign of intimidation.

An average of 25 children age 3 or younger are in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody daily while no fewer than 500 infants and toddlers have been detained since President Donald Trump took office last year.

More than 30 years ago, when Terrence Minor was incarcerated, a young man began speaking to him about Jesus. Minor cannot recall the man’s full name but does remember the influence he had.

Religious freedom is a radical invention that allows all Americans to believe or not believe as they choose, but on the condition that others are not harmed, said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

A federal court granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Trump administration from establishing a nearly $1.8 billion slush fund for the president’s political allies as a lawsuit against the account moves ahead.

A group of Baptist pastors announced formation of The Baptist Network to foster collaboration and encouragement between minsters and congregations in a time of intense social and political conflict in the American church.

“Something that gets lost in the process is we don’t often get to hear the voices of the very communities that are experiencing the most hardship in the midst of the situation,” Jonathan Calvillo told Baptist scholars, historians and ministry leaders.

“Immigrants are not numbers, not statistics,” Pablo Juarez told Baptist scholars, historians and ministry educators gathered in Stone Mountain, Ga. “They are human beings that are running for their life.”

“All we do is just believe the Bible,” Marcus Jerkins said, recalling a familiar claim from his childhood church. “And I came to find out that is a Baptist way of thinking. We just believe the Bible.” He was one speaker exploring how Baptists have read, interpreted and argued over Scripture across four centuries.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to overrule two lower courts that prohibited Alabama from executing a prisoner using nitrogen gas. The state was set to execute Jeffrey Lee June 11.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says James Talarico will “go to hell” for his beliefs about the Bible. Talarico is an ordained Presbyterian minister and seminarian who is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas.

The COVID-19 outbreak helped unite the nation’s anti-vax movement, with evangelical Christians convinced that vaccine mandates, masking requirements and social distancing violated religious freedoms, religion scholar Kira Ganga Kieffer said.

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In other analysis this week:

Al Mohler cozies up to Doug Wilson

Social media was abuzz this week with reaction to Southern Baptist Convention leader Al Mohler appearing on a podcast with Christian nationalist Doug Wilson. The mere fact of them being in conversation is the most notable thing, I explain.

Eric Metaxas has a new book, Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World. He is not a historian, and while there have been any number of good books written by non-historians, Revolution is not one of them, says Rodney Kennedy.

Elon Musk has become the world’s first trillionaire, attaining a net worth of $1,100,000,000,000, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list. The tipping point was the release of SpaceX’s initial public offering at $135 per share. Josh Olds explains why this is a problem.

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In other opinion this week:

From the South Side to the South Lawn and back again — Edmond Davis

Democracy as a moral practice, not just a system —Jason Edwards

Why are we still calling ourselves ‘moderate’ Baptists? — Braxton Wade

A chance encounter, a life transformed — Henry Peabody

The stories we tell define us — Greg Garrett

Whatever happened to heaven? — Brian Zahnd

Y’all means all — Brian Henderson

The CBF witness is more important now than ever — Jackson Campbell-Walker

Consider the cost of staying in the SBC — Martin Thielen

The SBC is afraid of women who come to the tomb — Mallory Challis

Democracy and religious freedom — Carol McEntyre

I grieve for SBC women — Chuck Strong

How a ‘good kid’ makes a catastrophic choice — Joe Marlow

We also need a reckoning with racist words that cut like a knife — Mark Wingfield

A final word

Next week, we’ll have a lot more coverage from the CBF General Assembly. Be on the lookout for that. There’s also a lot more news and opinion and analysis in the hopper ready to inspire you. Lots to come.

If you’ve not yet discovered our Christianity and Democracy 250 series, please check it out. I’m thankful to Carol McEntyre for curating this insightful series that is suitable for use in small groups. So if you’re looking for some free and faithful way to consider the nation’s birthday, this could be for you.

Happy summer, and please keep reading and sharing wherever you may find yourself in this season.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Last night I went with friends to see Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi flik Disclosure Day. What I was not expecting was its outstanding use of religious faith as a character in the film.

Search Google and you’ll be told this: “Religion plays a foundational role in framing the existential and philosophical impact of alien disclosure on human faith. Screenwriter David Koepp and Spielberg explicitly use religious institutions, characters and biblical motifs to explore how humanity handles ‘ontological shock.’”

That is 100% true. I couldn’t have said it better, Google.

The film sets up a conflict about whether sudden, definitive proof of extraterrestrial life will destroy humanity’s religious institutions. Some characters fear full disclosure because they believe it will destabilize society and cause people to abandon their faith in God. Others believe full disclosure will expand belief in an ever-more-powerful God.

The two characters who embody these ideas are both Catholic:

• Jane is a former novice nun who walked away from her vows because she doubted her calling, not because she no longer believes in God. She fears humanity will face a crisis of faith if people stop believing in God and start viewing aliens as deities.

• Sister Maura, reminiscent of the mother superior in The Sound of Music, is a wise mentoring nun who challenges religious orthodoxy by saying God’s omnipotence cannot be limited to a single planet. She ponders why God would build such a vast universe if it were only meant for humans.

Without ruining the plot, I’ll just say Sister Maura’s view wins out, best we can tell, and speaks for an underlying message of the film: Faith in God and belief in extraterrestrial life are not mutually exclusive. But that’s just my take on what happens after the final scene; it could be the opposite in some viewers’ imaginations.

Spielberg fills the frames with other religious imagery that helps people of Christian faith immediately lock in: When a character named Margaret is visited by a cardinal (of the bird variety), her mind is unlocked to speak in the alien language — a sort of speaking in tongues — and relay cosmic wisdom. The film is set against an unraveling world plagued by “wars and rumors of war,” as we’re told in Revelation.

Emily Blunt and Wyatt Russell in Disclosure Day (via IMDB)

The central question of the film, however, is whether full disclosure of alien life will be an act of grace or an act of chaos. You can almost hear Jack Nicholson screaming, “You can’t handle the truth!”

While the film is technically sci-fi, it’s soaked in real life. Remember just recently the federal government began releasing reams of documents on possible alien encounters and some far-right religious leaders immediately claimed extraterrestrial life is demonic.

I also kept thinking about the recent encyclical released by Pope Leo on artificial intelligence. These questions swirl around each other and intersect.

Spielberg is right in suggesting most Christians cannot handle ontological challenges to their rigid faith. “Ontological” is the consideration of what it means to exist, what is real and how we categorize the world.

“Spielberg is right in suggesting most Christians cannot handle ontological challenges to their rigid faith.”

This very week, the world watched as the Southern Baptist Convention met in Orlando and dialed up the time machineto return to the 17th century. The “Doc” driving this Delorean is Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

As I explain in an analysis piece, Mohler always frames debates the same way: He names an issue that bothers him, then finds a Scripture to support his bias, claims his interpretation of said Scripture is the only orthodox view, then finds some historical precedent he claims is definitive in supporting his position and urges listeners to return to the old ways of truth and joy.

As we see in the film, those in power who think they are “protecting” the rest of the world can easily resort to extreme measures to serve their cause. In the film, that’s federal agents who remind us of ICE agents for whom the ends justify the means.

We saw this same attitude at this week’s SBC annual meeting where Mohler choreographed placing his storm troopers at every microphone to immediately call the question and block any debate or amendments to his motion against women in ministry. This was done, of course, because they determined no more discussion was needed.

The last thing they wanted was full disclosure of what their boss is hiding in his self-righteous interpretation of Scripture.

Where the SBC has been headed in recent years is backward — back to a past where white men have absolute control and everyone else is trained not to question their authority.

Maybe one of the reasons I liked Disclosure Day so much is that as a journalist, I’m usually on the side of full disclosure. Professional journalists believe “democracy dies in darkness,” as the Washington Post once believed. And Christian journalists should believe, as one of our forebears wisely stated, “Trust the Lord and tell the people.”

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Here’s all our coverage so far of this week’s happenings at the SBC annual meeting:

Bulletin: Debate cut short on Mohler amendment

Come on, ring those bells — Analysis by Mark Wingfield

Conservative reformers win SBC presidency

To understand today’s SBC, listen to history — Opinion by Braxton Wade

Beauty, ashes and the Southern Baptist Convention — Analysis by Ben Cole

What was there left to argue? — Opinion by Cara Meredith

The ridiculous attack on women in ministry — Opinion by David Cassady

The denomination that protected predators just banned prophets — Opinion by Andrew Daugherty

Why I feel betrayed by the SBC — Opinion by Kelli Kirksey

How to read the Bible in a time of biblical authoritarianism — Opinion by Stephen Shoemaker

We ordain women because we baptize girls — Opinion by Chuck Poole

Behind SBC’s missions agenda: Eternal conscious torment — Analysis by Rick Pidcock

How can you afford not to? A Southern Baptist timeshare presentation — Opinion by Justin Cox

Praying for my Southern Baptist siblings about women in ministry — Opinion by Mary John Dye

Speak on behalf of SBC women who have no voice — Opinion by Rebecca Johnson

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It has been another stormy week for the Trump administration, with a few successes and a whole lot more setbacks.

We begin our coverage with a report on the more than 800 lawsuits filed against Trump and his administration — many of which he is losing.

Immigrant and civil rights advocates condemned the $70 billion immigration bill Trump signed into law June 10. That bill narrowly passed both houses of Congress with Republican votes only — which helps explain why the GOP is so aggressive with gerrymandering right now.

The Trump administration continues to deny legal benefits to some immigrants based on national origin and in direct violation of a federal judge’s June 5 ruling to halt the practice. Again, this is a matter of overriding Congress because Trump believes he knows better. Earlier we reported on this ruling that the administration must resume asylum processing and providing immigration benefits to immigrants regardless of national origin.

Open and joyful expressions of faith are being replaced by fear and isolation due to immigrant enforcement raids at American houses of worship, according to an amended lawsuit aimed at the Trump administration.

A lawsuit filed against the Pentagon seeks to reverse its takeover of Stars and Stripes, the news organization that provided independent news coverage for the U.S. military since 1861.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slashed the number of religious affiliations recognized by the Pentagon from more than 200 to 31 and set off a political firestorm in the process.

Greg Bovino, the former face of Trump’s immigrant roundup, says he’s considering running for president in 2028.

Josh Olds writes about Trump, the White House, the UFC and our history of violence.

Steve Rabey tells us how evangelical Trump loyalists are claiming he enjoys “broad support” when in fact his polling numbers are tanking.

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In other news this week:

All sanctions against Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary have been lifted by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

A federal judge permanently blocked Alabama from putting inmate Jeffrey Lee to death with nitrogen gas two days before his June 11 execution date.

When Stefania Leão first began writing to overcome a dark time in her life, she never expected she would publish her devotions. Nor did she anticipate they would be translated into six languages.

Most adults in three dozen countries harbor negative attitudes toward Israel, Including the United States, Canada and all of Europe, according to a new study by Pew Research Center.

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In other opinion this week:

Mary Alice Birdwhistell — Democracy as the practice of loving our neighbors

Bill Bruster — Is God binary?

Brian Henderson — Who taught us to march?

Edmond Davis — Why I will boycott the UFC pay-per-view from the White House

Emily Hull McGee — The church as school for democracy

Mark Wingfield — Those who would ‘own the libs’ need to own this president’s actions

A final word

That’s all for a very busy week of news. We’ll be in Jacksonville, Fla., next week for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly. If you’re there, please find any of us from BNG and say hello. We’d love to talk with you.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

One month from yesterday, the United States of America will celebrate its 250th birthday. Sadly, too many of us are not in a celebratory mood. It’s not that we don’t love our country; we are horrified by what it has become.

A bare majority of American voters determined it would be wise to hand the birthday planning over to Donald Trump,who has promptly made the entire celebration about himself.

Not only should an important birthday like this be a time to recount our national history — both good and bad — it should be a time for truth-telling. But as we’ve reported over and over, Trump and his allies are twisting the tale.

I’ve been thinking about this more deeply lately because in a week, our church will celebrate its 75th birthday. As someone who used to get paid to keep track of these things, I could tell you the church’s official history backward and forward. I know the dates and the key players. I know the official story, and I know snippets of the unofficial stories that didn’t make the table-top book.

“The real story, though, is to recall the names of the people who were the church in every generation.”

Most churches — ours included — tell their histories around pastors and buildings. As if the entirety of a church’s story resides in construction and clergy. The real story, though, is to recall the names of the people who were the church in every generation.

In our case, I think of Candy Post, who was a life force in church and community and a cheerleader for both. I think of Joe Summerfield, who was a faithful greeter at the porte cochere door for years. I think of Clemmie Waters, who was the tireless lifeblood of a senior adult Sunday school department now all gone to glory. I think of Al Hagler, who gave himself to working out an agreement with our residential neighbors about property usage. I remember Dot Laux, who was the greatest force to be reckoned with on most anything, but who led the way in advocating for our columbarium when most people couldn’t see the vision.

Like you, I could go on and on about the people who made our church what it is today — including some who left the church when it became something they didn’t want. Our histories are made up of people more than buildings, laity more than clergy. These are the stories that matter most.

The brilliant Broadway musical Hamilton includes a memorable song about this very thing. The opening lyrics go like this:

Let me tell you what I wish I’d known
When I was young and dreamed of glory
You have no control
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

Someone suggested this week that the reason Trump wants to plaster his name everywhere is because he fears no one will honor him when he’s gone. And it’s true that just as quickly as his staff changed the White House website and attempted to threaten the Smithsonian museums, the next president can erase Trump’s vanity with the stroke of a pen.

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?”

Think about the names you know from history. You’ll likely find they are two kinds of people — scoundrels and saints, those who became infamous for their evil and those who became famous for their good.

One of my favorite articles of the week was written by Braxton Wade. It’s titled “We are manna.” He tells four stories of encounters he had recently that challenged and changed him. Each one poignant. And each one will become a memory in someone’s family history.

Likewise, Savannah Green reminds us how we may be the answer to the prayers of others. God does have a plan, and the plan is you, she says.

To borrow from Hamilton, the truth is our stories should be shaped more by how we live than by how we die. We the people are the plan. And we the people are the story.

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Southern Baptists are set to make history next week when they descend on Orlando for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. We’ve had a lot of coverage of the issues leading up to this meeting.

For a general overview, check out the latest episode of our BNG podcast “Stuck in the Middle with You.” Ben Cole and I preview the issues and people you’ll be reading about.

Also, Ben recorded interviews with both the SBC presidential candidates. You can hear his conversation with Willy Ricehere and his conversation with Josh Powell here.

Meanwhile, over at “Highest Power: Church + State,” Rick Pidock has three recent episodes that address some of these issues. One is about the theology and politics of “mean men.” Another is about Al Mohler’s contention that young men are attracted to conservative churches. (You can also read Rick’s column on the same topic) And another, in case you missed it last week, is his conversation with Meredith Stone of Baptist Women in Ministry. We also published an edited transcript of that conversation.

By the way, BWIM has put up a billboard in Orlando to greet SBC messengers.

One key piece of business next week will be consideration of 11 resolutions proposed by the SBC Resolutions Committee. Here is my summary of those resolutions.

In related opinion pieces:

• Joe Alain remembers the way things were once before

• Brad Bull explains what’s wrong with the proposed SBC resolution on euthanasia

• Ben Cole gives the low down on the hotly contested presidential race

• I wonder what would happen if Al Mohler spoke about women’s bodies in the vague way he speaks about his own health

• Amy Sims says it’s that season again when VBS and the SBC’s debates over women collide

• Wade Burleson and Lee Enochs explain why they think Mohler’s proposed amendment on women misses the mark

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In other news this week:

Tens of thousands of children in the United States have been cut off from parents in the Trump administration’s aggressive detention and deportation campaign, according to a report by the Brookings Institution.

James Talarico’s pastor is pushing back against reports in The Daily Wire that attempt to smear the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas by criticizing his church.

Members of the Religious Liberty Council have elected a full slate of RLC officers in addition to representatives to the board of directors of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

More than 300 detainees at a Newark, N.J., immigration detention are continuing a hunger strike launched Memorial Day weekend to protest insufficient and spoiled food, lack of sanitation and bond denials, Human Rights Watch reported.

The influence of the Religious Right may overpower and obscure that of other faith groups, but a veteran religion sociologist says progressive believers promoting peace, justice and social reform have been an active and surprisingly effective force.

Understanding the nation’s founding requires insight into the religious context in which the framers lived and worked, political scientist Mark Hall said during a webinar hosted by Religion News Service.

Living into its new identity, The United Methodist Church has a prime opportunity to liberate Wesleyan theology from past conflicts to become a vital framework for today’s world, says one of Methodism’s most noted theologians.

Complacency has become one of the biggest threats to marriage equality since the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the constitutionality of same-sex unions in 2015, according to a report by Interfaith Alliance.

A federal judge has reopened President Donald Trump’s $10 billion IRS lawsuit to determine if the action was a ruse to create a nearly $1.8 billion slush fund to secretly pay political allies. This happened after a federal court temporarily blocked the administration from establishing, funding or using the fund.

Most people who attend religious services regularly have heard clergy speak on at least one social or political issue in recent months, according to a new survey by Pew Research.

A Black Baptist pastor in Arkansas was suspended from Facebook May 30 without explanation. Wendell Griffen, however, believes he was removed from the social media platform because he proposed a 12-month moratorium on permitting data centers.

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In other analysis this week:

Austin Albanese tells the story of what happened in 1886 when members of Nashville’s First Baptist Church gathered for what would be their final prayer meeting inside a synagogue on South Vine Street.

Mara Richards Bim reports an extremely important story about how Love Field, owned by the city of Dallas, is being used for ICE Air deportations.

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In other opinion this week:

Javian Baker: What Pope Leo’s encyclical demands of Louisiana

Brett McKinley Pardue: Spiritual formation is how churches learn whom to hear

Martin Thielen: Full gospel Christianity

Andrew Daugherty: What the church got wrong about queer people

J. Basil Dannebohm: Trump’s birthday is an opportunity for semiquincentennial ‘pride’ and also Be still and know a keyboard crusade will not ‘save’ the church

Gregory C. Smith: The older brother was exhausted

Paris Lee Smith Sr.: The Black Church cannot remain America’s emergency moral infrastructure

Paige Davis: The best way to change is to be put in community

Edmond Davis: From cannabis to marijuana: The racializing of weed

Scott Gilliland: Islamophobia is the next bogeyman

Brad Bull: Orange you aware of the problem with banning Roots?

Nicole Wiesen: Blessed is the one who resists

Caroline Smith: What is democracy? The first in a new series on Christianity and Democracy

Brett Younger: The fascinating people who make us happy

A final word

Summer is here, but we’re not letting up on the news, analysis and opinion you’ve come to trust from us. We’ll be serving up reports from the SBC next week and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship the next, as well as keeping you up to speed on all the rest of the news.

Stay with us all summer!

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

A week ago tonight, I unexpectedly ended up taking a dear friend to the emergency room at one of our big, well-known hospitals in Dallas. We thought he had a disc problem in his back because the pain there was excruciating.

To cut to the chase, it turns out he had a kidney stone, which has been described as one of the most painful things you can experience. I’ve talked to women who have given birth to multiple children and also had kidney stones, and they all said the kidney stones were more painful than childbirth.

When we got to the emergency room on Friday night late, it was urban chaos as usual. Thankfully, they got my friend in quickly for triage, where the deadpan technonurses said, “Oh, it could be a kidney stone, but it could be something else, go wait in the waiting room until we can find a bed for you.”

Meanwhile, my friend was doubled over in pain on the floor of the waiting room and several times I had to go back and beg someone to help him. At one point, a triage nurse came out and gave him three Tylenol. None of this was helping. Honestly, I’ve never seen anyone in so much pain.

While my friend was writhing in pain on the floor, straddling chairs and contorting himself into positions that did not help, the emergency room staff was calling back other people who were ambulatory, clearly not in pain, maybe had a cough or a fever.

“It became obvious the entire triage system had broken down in this nationally recognized hospital.”

It became obvious the entire triage system had broken down in this nationally recognized hospital. My friend was in urgent need of relief, and he was not getting prioritized at all. This went on for an hour. At one point, he begged me to take him somewhere else, and so we began to leave. And at that point, the smarmy clerk at the front desk said, “Oh I’ve got a bed for him now if he wants to come back.” And so I went and grabbed him from outside and brought him back in, and we waited in the waiting room some more until they finally took us back and put him on a gurney in the hallway because there was no room for him.

My point in all this is to focus on the word “triage.”

The dictionary definition is this: “The systematic process of sorting and prioritizing individuals, tasks or issues based on the urgency of their need and the resources available, ensuring that critical problems are addressed first to maximize efficiency and positive outcomes.”

In a health care setting, this means prioritizing the people who have impossible pain or are bleeding or in danger of dying from those who are there with a cough or a cold. And this is where the entire system broke down last Friday night.

In that, I see an illustration of the situation both our nation and the church face in the present moment.

“The White House does not need a vanity ballroom more than working Americans need health care.”

The Trump administration and Republicans in leadership there and in Congress are focusing on their pet projects that are not the most important things Americans need. The White House does not need a vanity ballroom more than working Americans need health care. The United States does not need to be bombing Iran more than working Americans need to be able to afford gas to drive to work. And we do not need to be persecuting desperate immigrants more than we need to be creating sustainable jobs for all people anywhere who want to work.

So it should not be surprising that a recent poll of Latino voters found a majority of them believe the Trump administration is not focused on the things that matter most to them, beginning with the economy and health care and a respectful immigration process.

The same could be said for Congress and its lack of priorities on anything. This is the most unproductive Congress in recent history because those in charge have such a narrow and partisan agenda.

While vainly attempting to “rededicate” America to God, this administration is robbing from the poor, not welcoming the stranger and not being good neighbors to anyone but themselves. Their priorities are wrong on both politics and religion.

Thus, we see the same problems plaguing American evangelicalism in general and the Southern Baptist Convention in particular.

Exhibit A this week is Al Mohler of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who might as well be arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. He has declared that a woman should not speak on a church podcast commenting on a male pastor’s sermon because that would give her spiritual authority.

I hope you can see how insane this is. It is so insane that even conservative Southern Baptists think it’s nuts.

Both the Trumpian iteration of the Republican Party and the Mohlerian iteration of the SBC are obsessed with doctrinal purity to the exclusion of real-life functioning. They are leaving people writhing in pain in the waiting room — then mocking them to boot — while pursuing vanity projects few other people care about.

Not only are they failing at triage, they are gleefully harming people in the process.

I’m reminded of the beautiful words of Howard Thurman, who said the “work of Christmas” is to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among others, to make music in the heart.

There is irony in an interview we published this week with David Gushee and Logan Morrison. Morrison was fired from a Christian college coaching position for being gay and now has confounded critics even more by coming out as transgender. But this trans man’s passion remains sharing the gospel with people and — gasp! — evangelism.

When you read Logan’s story, you’ll see more of Christ in him than in Donald Trump or Al Mohler.

Here are some specific examples from this week’s news of how the triage has gone off the rails and we are majoring on the minors:

• The Trump administration is being challenged in court for removing anti-discrimination policies in lending.

• Redistricting battles in states — demanded by Trump — are disenfranchising minority voters.

• The Southern Poverty Law Center has called out Trump and his henchmen for “farcically” targeting them for prosecution.

• Democracy Forward has filed suit to stop Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund to give away taxpayer money to January 6 insurrectionists.

• Rather than seeking to save lives through prevention, the Trump administration is now going after companies that required their employees to be responsible and get vaccinated against COVID.

• A federal judge finally dismissed criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia after determining the Trump administration concocted the case to justify the immigrant’s deportation to El Salvador.

• CNN documented Trump telling 28 distinct lies during five days.

What the nation and the church need today is a reprioritization of things that matter most. We need a kind of triage that will serve first the needs of the people.

“We need a kind of triage that will serve first the needs of the people.”

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There’s been enough going on in Texas this week to devote an entire section to it. Unless you’ve been asleep, you surely know that the most-watched Senate race of this year’s midterms now has its contest set. Here in Texas, Democrat James Talarico will face Republican Ken Paxton.

I explain the basics of this in an opinion piece showing the faith component to the race. Pay attention and you’ll see Paxton described routinely as the most corrupt politician in Texas. That’s quite an accomplishment. Yet a surprisingly large number of Texas Republicans turned out to vote for him.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller sank to new lows this week when he weighed in the Texas race by calling Talarico transgender — a ridiculous claim but one that feeds the fear of Trump’s base.

Alan Bean addresses why evangelicals seem so drawn to transgressive politicians.

Stay tuned. We’re sure to have lots more coverage of Paxton v. Talarico.

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In other news this week:

Union University is partnering with Alliance Defending Freedom to create Union Academy, a Christian college preparatory school approved by a Tennessee school board last month to receive public funds.

The United States Senate unanimously passed the federal version of Trey’s Law, known as the “Terminating Restrictive Enforcement of Youth Settlements Law.”

Election-denial celebrity Tina Peters will leave prison early thanks to Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who was rebuked by nearly 90% of state party members for shortening her prison term by seven years.

The Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M., is fighting the Trump administration’s attempt to seize a portion of its property to build a border wall.

United Methodist bishops, social justice leaders and a racial-ethnic caucus have spoken out against the April 29 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va., will financially support the Legion of Black Collegians after the University of Missouri ended designated funding for several affinity organizations amid federal scrutiny of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

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In other analysis this week:

Wesley King addresses the curious case of Republican “nones.”

Josh Olds explains why Elon Musk thinks Christopher Nolan has “desecrated The Odyssey.”

Rodney Kennedy examines Pope Leo’s first encyclical and finds it downright evangelical.

Rick Pidcock tells us how at Rededicate 250, Chris Tomlin emerged as a worship warrior.

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In other opinion this week:

Michael Friday: America is imperiled, but Baptists can save it

Heather Malkawi: The human side of health insurance

Rick Pidcock: In conversation with Meredith Stone about Mohler’s amendment

Brian Henderson: Surprised by the breath of the Spirit

Paula Garrett: ‘As the Spirit enabled them’: Pentecost, Al Mohler and tired old arguments

Marv Knox: ‘A mighty lick with a crooked stick,’ or how James Robison changed my life

Charles Hawkins: How the SBC defended inerrancy but couldn’t face the truth

A final word

For any of you who plan to attend the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Jacksonville, Fla., next month, please plan to join us for breakfast on that Friday as we sponsor Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward as our speaker. The deadline for signing up is fast approaching. Read more here.

Also, don’t forget to check out all our BNG podcasts. Rick Pidcock is creating brief news-based podcasts twice a week through “Highest Power: Church + State.” And Ben Cole and I have a new episode of “Stuck in the Middle with You” that discusses the rise of the Religious Left in American politics. Grace Ji-Sun Kim has a new episode of “Madang” that features a conversation with James McGrath.

We’ve got a new podcast series launching this summer that will drive Al Mohler nuts. Without giving away all the details, I’ll just say it’s a podcast by women discussing theology.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Last night, a friend and I went to see a local production of the stage musical Always … Patsy Cline. It was good but not great. And that’s a shame because the story of Patsy Cline told through the voice of her Houston friend Louise Seger is a compelling tale embroidered by beautiful music.

Here’s my beef with this production: They unnecessarily updated the time period for the characters, costumes and set without updating the script. For reasons unknown, Louise and Patsy were dressed — and coiffed — to appear in the 1990s. A Garth Brooks poster hung on the wall of the set — also oddly set in a diner — where the action takes place. Garth was in diapers at the time Louise and Patsy first met in that Houston club.

And the able-voiced actress who played Patsy looked more like Taylor Swift than Patsy.

To quote Shakespeare, the whole thing was clever by half. And for what purpose? These modern characters were still talking about The Arthur Godfrey Show and black-and-white Muntz TV drinking Schlitz beer and putting on 45s.

And then they added to the script two female backup singers who looked like ghosts of Karen Carpenter dressed all in chestnut clothes from some era unknown.

“To the surprise of many of you, I’m now going to make a case for conserving some traditions.”

I’m all for theater helping us see old stories in new ways. But that needs to be done with a purpose that is coherent. To the surprise of many of you, I’m now going to make a case for conserving some traditions.

Watching this show last night made me think of churches that have attempted to jump on the contemporary worship bandwagon without the talent or resources to do it well. And it made me think of Christians who want to be hip but can’t pull it off.

Sometimes we need to keep telling the story the way it has been. Revisions are not necessary.

That’s certainly the case with the modern evangelical attempts to recraft the story of our nation’s founding. It’s not even clever by half; it’s deceptive.

This was on full display last weekend on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as the Trump administration used public funds to sponsor an evangelical festival of rewriting history. According to this narrative, all the Founders were evangelical Christians who wanted the Bible to inform the Constitution.

Our Rick Pidcock was there and reported on what he saw. Read his summary here. And then read his account of what conservative Baptist leaders said.

Robert P. Jones also was there and offered his take on what he saw.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson also weighed in with reasons what was said on Sunday was historically wrong.

We told you in advance what was going to happen, with a story on the lack of diversity among the speakers and a story about the heavy influence of evangelicals.

In a timely release, Warren Throckmorton’s new book is out soon. Jeff Brumley caught up with him for a conversation about The Christian Past that Wasn’t. Warren also wrote a piece for us asking “one nation under which God?”

All this fits in the efforts of the Trump administration to recast the very meaning of “religious liberty” as well.

Mara Richards Bim gives us a detailed look at what’s wrong with the final report of Trump’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. We previously reported on how the anti-bias task force was full of its own bias.

There’s a story of America’s founding that needs to be told over and over again, but it needs to be told correctly and truthfully. There’s no need to embellish and no need to reshape it — unless you have an agenda to push.

Always.

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Ben Cole and I have a new episode of “Stuck in the Middle with You” out this week, in which we dialogue with my friend Liam Gent, who is a transgender man. I invite you to listen to Liam’s own testimony of faith and freedom.

In other transgender news this week, Turning Point USA postponed an anti-transgender event at the University of Washington amid backlash over the recent murder of a transgender student near campus. Originally planned for May 13, the “Pick Up the Mic” session was to feature Chloe Cole.

Patrick Wilson remembers Juniper Blessing, the 19-year-old transgender student at the University of Washington, who was murdered in the laundry room of an off-campus apartment complex.

The Colorado Supreme Court has issued a ruling siding with transgender patients who sued a hospital that stopped providing gender-affirming care due to fear of retaliation by the Trump administration.

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In other news this week:

There’s a whole lot of litigation going on among churches these days. We’ve got updates this week from Second Baptist Houston and McLean Bible Church.

Tennessee botched the high-profile execution of Tony Carruthers yesterday, resulting in Gov. Bill Lee granting the prisoner a one-year reprieve and inciting more calls for ending the death penalty.

Iran was the primary driver behind an 87% increase in executions around the world last year, according to a new report by Amnesty International. The human rights organization said it tallied 2,707 people executed in 17 nations in 2025, with Florida leading the increase in executions in the U.S.

Salem Media, which offers conservative and Christian content via radio, digital media, streaming, podcasting, television and publishing, will be acquired by WaterStone, a Colorado Springs nonprofit that pioneered donor-advised funds.

Peter Rodriguez has been named 15th president of Wake Forest University. An economist by training, he currently serves as dean of Rice University’s School of Business.

It’s hardly a surprise that the shooters who killed three people at a California mosque May 18 were motivated by hate, said the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

This year’s legislative session has marked more victories for Trey’s Law bills across the states, with seven states enacting the laws.

Al Mohler will propose a new variation on the “Law Amendment” when the Southern Baptist Convention meets in Orlando next month. The goal remains to outlaw SBC churches having women serve in any pastoral roles.

Statute of limitations reform legislation died last Friday after the Missouri Legislature adjourned without passing at least one of the companion bills.

Last week, the Oklahoma legislation known as the “Cindy Clemishire Act” died after the state Senate adjourned early, without calling the bill to a floor vote.

Chick-fil-A’s practice of closing on Sundays did not spare one of its franchisees from being sued for religious discrimination by the federal government. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced May 14 it has sued Hatch Trick, a Chick-fil-A franchise in Texas.

James Robison — a fiery Southern Baptist evangelist who became a Pentecostal TV personality — died May 17 at age 82. Robison began preaching as a teenager, growing up mainly in the Houston suburb of Pasadena.

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In other analysis and opinion:

Josh Shepherd reviews a new episode of ca op drama that attempts to bring the immigration debate to television,although maybe missing some nuances.

Ten months after Stephen Colbert announced CBS was canceling his top-rated Emmy- and Peabody-award-winning late-night show, his joke- and tear-filled farewell entered its final week and May 21 finale. Steve Rabey explains.

Catherine Meeks notes Jesus had a lot to say about putting new wine in old wineskins, and those words need not be lost on us as we imagine our way forward in our racial healing work.

If Malcolm X were alive in 2026, he would likely be less shocked by America’s contradictions than many Americans are. Why? Because Malcolm spent his life warning us, says Edmond Davis.

Phawnda Moore writes about Theo of Golden and the power of love.

Rodney Kennedy tells us about the “outrage prophets” roaming the land today.

David Gushee: After Primary Day, where are we?

Richard Conville: Voting my Jesus values

David Breckenridge: Because I shook John Lewis’ hand

Rodney Kennedy: Harry Fosdick wants a word with Seven Mountains Dominionists

Bill Leonard: Is the SBC still haunted by the slavery hermeneutic?

Paul Gilliam: McDonald’s and the church

Tom Steagald: Reflections on being made imago Dei

A final word

As I have written repeatedly, America has reached a tipping point that is undeniable. Yet too many Christians and too many pastors want to act like there’s a fair moral equivalency between the political parties today. There is not.

We must acknowledge this truth. The world has indeed changed. Trump and his allies are trying to rewrite the script and tell us what’s wrong is really right.

Edmond Davis expertly says American history has known flawed, scandal-ridden and even disgraced presidents. But no modern American president has accumulated the sheer volume of legal exposure, ethical controversy, civil judgments, criminal proceedings, public deception and democratic instability surrounding one individual quite like Trump.

And in a piece sure to have rankled some readers and thrilled others, I wrote today about the misnomer of “purple churches.” The “red” in your purple mix is not about the classic Republican Party but about a single man who is the most corrupt, un-Christlike president in American history. Trump undeniably has complete control over the Republican Party. How is your church responding to this truth?

As I said in that article, I really would love to hear from pastors and lay leaders in self-described “purple” churches about where you draw the line.

Thanks for reading and sharing this week! And I would love to hear from you.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

In a brand-new episode of our “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast, Ben Cole and I discuss this weekend’s upcoming events on the National Mall in Washington, the Trump administration’s “Rededicate 250” rally. As you might imagine, we see this thing quite differently.

At BNG, we’ve also written a lot about this already and will have more next week, as our Rick Pidcock will be in attendance at Sunday’s day-long rally.

To get up to speed, start here:

• Evangelicals will dominate at ‘Rededicate 250’ this weekend

• One nation under which God? by Warren Throckmorton

• When government claims God by Amanda Tyler

• Religious freedom is for Christians only, says Jenna Ellis

• Is pluralism possible under an evangelical Christian God? by Rick Pidcock

In my podcast conversation with Ben, after I call him a “smug conservative” who routinely makes fun of people who disagree with him, he challenges me — being older — to think back to how our nation celebrated the bicentennial in 1976.

For the record, I was 14 years old in the summer of 1976. And yes, I do remember some parts of the bicentennial but other things I had to look up. The weirdest memory that popped in my head was that the family of one of my best childhood friends had made a trip to Washington, D.C., in 1976 and brought back bicentennial drinking glasses — sort of old-fashioned glass mugs with patriotic decorations embossed all around. Every celebration needs kitsch.

My strongest memories are tied to music, however. The year before, in anticipation of the bicentennial, our little middle school show choir had traveled all over town singing a patriotic program dressed in red, white and blue uniforms that included a weird 1970s-era scarf. I can still hear the melody of one song that began, “Connecticut, are you for independence? Are you for life and liberty?”

But the bigger production happened at First Baptist Church, where our minister of music put on an all-skate that included the Youth Choir and Sanctuary Choir and anyone else passing by in a production of a brand-new musical called I Love America! It was written by John W. Peterson and Don Wyrtzen.

Now, if you know anything about 1970s church music, you’ll immediately recognize those were two big names in the biz. The musical was published by Singspiration, another powerhouse publisher of the day.

Songs in this flag-waving musical for church choirs include: “I’m Just A Flag-Waiving American,” “In God We Trust,” “America the Beautiful,” “God of Our Fathers,” “Praise the Lord and Give Thanks, America,” “It’s Time to Pray,” “If My People” and “Jesus Is Calling America.”

The musical ends with a rousing rendition of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

“We were Christian nationalists before anyone ever used that term.”

As I’ve said before, we were Christian nationalists before anyone ever used that term. That’s just the way things were in Oklahoma. At church, we mixed church and state freely. I did not learn about the Constitutional separation of church and state until I was in college.

However, challenged by Ben to look at how the nation celebrated the bicentennial, I turned to the internet for help. Here’s what I learned: While churches like ours celebrated the nation’s founding, the federal government did not sponsor religious events. Even though a Republican, Gerald Ford, was president. Of course, in those days being a Republican meant something quite different than today.

Here’s what Google told about the bicentennial celebrations:

Churches across the U.S. held 1776-style worship, rang bells and conducted community picnics. There were interfaith services and special masses, notably a “Thanksgiving Mass” on Patriots Day in Boston. The American Bible Societyencouraged churches to join in ringing bells on July Fourth for two minutes to honor the ringing of the Liberty Bell.

More than 1,000 religious events were reported, including a cross-country Christian “wagon train.” These were not sponsored by the government, however.

What the Trump administration has planned for this semiquincentennial is much different. It begins and ends with the false notions that America was founded as a “Christian nation” and that evangelical Christians should have special privileges.

Had Gerald Ford attempted in 1976 what Donald Trump is doing in 2026, both Republicans and Democrats would have come out of the woodwork to condemn it. But now, 50 years later, conservative evangelicals have gained the political power they so craved and are rewriting our national history.

Listen to the podcast and you’ll hear Ben and me take opposite sides on this question, with him contending the majority of the Founders were Christians and therefore envisioned a Christian-influenced government. My position is that the Founders were Christians and theists — none of them like today’s evangelicals — who purposely chose not to enshrine religion in government.

Christian nationalists and conservative evangelicals want us to believe what the Trump administration is doing is normal, but it is not. It is abnormal. And it is wrong.

I love this line from Amanda Tyler: “When governments claim the mantle of God, they find perdition instead of salvation.”

Yes, Christians can and should be patriotic. But government must not — according to the First Amendment — endorse any one religion over others and must not “establish” religious practice.

“We cannot ‘rededicate’ America to God because the nation never was ‘dedicated’ to God in the first place.”

We cannot “rededicate” America to God because the nation never was “dedicated” to God in the first place. To claim otherwise is revisionist history that serves only one purpose: To justify the political power grab evangelicals want to maintain.

When you see church and state merge, it’s never to the advantage of the church. It’s always about controlling the state.

What would be a more appropriate way of celebrating America’s 250 years of existence? Showcasing the very things MAGA doesn’t want to talk about: The rich stream of diverse people who have shaped our country, the struggle for freedom, a celebration of education, the arts, science and medicine and more.

But the Trump administration is seeking to dismantle all those things: They’re against diversity and inclusion, they’re against education, they’re don’t want to talk about slavery, they want to send away all immigrants, they want to rebrand the arts with Trump’s name, they don’t believe in science, and they question common-sense medical truth. No wonder they’re left worshiping a god of their own making.

Which brings us to Doral, Fla., where Pastor Mark Burns recently prayed over and dedicated a golden statue of Trump that looks a whole lot like that golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar described in Daniel chapter 3. Stephen Shoemakersays Daniel and his three friends would like a word.

As our Steve Rabey documented this week, that’s just one of many ways Trump is branding America in his image.

Likewise, evangelicals are trying to brand the nation in their image, which is what Sunday’s events are all about. And no, this is not normal.

If you want to know where this leads, look no further than Robert Jeffress, who without flinching proclaimed last week that Trump understands the Bible better than Pope Leo.

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We write every week about how American democracy is threatened by the Trump administration — which functions more like an autocracy. The dangers are real and cannot be laughed off.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showed up last Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and spoke about faith and the Voting Rights Act.

Likewise, Edmond Davis writes about the “failed narrative” of Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry when it comes to voter suppression.

The Trump administration has proposed a new rule that could devastate Christian higher education by tying student loans to the earning potential of degree programs. Charlie Fuller, a former dean of fine arts at a Baptist university, writes to explain the inherent stupidity in such a federal rule that fails to comprehend the reason for education.

Cynthia Astle writes about how democracy’s decline is having a bad influence on The United Methodist Church.

A faith-based advocacy network has launched a tour of six red states where overwhelmed activists need encouragement and support in opposing Christian nationalism.

On a happier note, David Gushee points out some ways the guardrails of democracy are still working. Steve Rabey adds to that with a report on how courts are sometimes pushing back on Trump’s vengeance campaign against his enemies.

And a group led by a 19-year-old is pushing back against Turning Point USA by forming campus chapters of a group called Dream for America.

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This week marked the 10th anniversary of BNG publishing my column on seeking to understand transgender people. I heard last night from the mother of the 8-year-old girl I mentioned in my TEDx Talk that resulted from that column. Claire is now 18 and about to graduate from high school.

Hearing about that graduation was wonderful news. And it reminded me that most trans folk seek to live normal lives and just want to be left alone. None of them seeks the publicity our fearful politicians seem to desire.

Liam Gent and I co-authored a piece this week to mark the 10-year anniversary of our friendship, which began with that BNG column. We also recorded a podcast with Ben Cole yesterday that will drop next week.

One of the things we talk about is how much harder it is to be a transperson today than it was 10 years ago. As evidence of that, read this article about how the Trump administration has labeled transgender people a national security threat on par with drug cartels and Islamic militant groups.

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In other news this week:

A Tarrant County, Texas, jury awarded Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary $7.1 million in damages from its insurer, related to the case brought by Jane Roe against the seminary and its former president, Paige Patterson.

Caroline Cook has been named a Clemons Fellow with Baptist News Global for the summer. She has just completed her freshman year at Baylor University and is exploring a career in communications.

Nationals from 10 African countries face the steepest barriers to entering the U.S. for business, study, tourism or residency, according to a new study by a Florida law firm specializing in immigration.

The Southern Poverty Law Center pleaded not guilty to 11 fraud-related charges and is tentatively set to face trial Oct. 5 in an Alabama federal court.

Joe White, the embattled leader of Kamp Kanakuk in Missouri, will retire at the end of this summer’s camping season, he announced. That does not mean he will relinquish ownership of the camp, however.

No More Victims Alliance launched a new advocacy campaign called “Against the Clock” in response to the stalling of two statute of limitations reform bills in Missouri. Patrick Marsh, whose daughter died at Camp Mystic, writes about why reform is needed in Missouri.

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In other analysis and opinion this week:

Joe Marlow says the St. Ives Riddle illustrates the challenge of understanding moral imagination.

David Bumgardner explains how a 2024 court ruling set the stage for The United Methodist Church to escape liabilityfor clergy sexual abuse.

Rodney Kennedy reviews a new book titled Putin’s Altar Boy.

Based on his work in disaster relief, Gregory C. Smith explains how some wounds are spiritual before they are emotional.

Brad Bull writes about the journey with his father through a terminal diagnosis.

Ben Norquist says understanding Nakba Day could help Americans understand the plight of Palestinians.

Bobby Smith and Mary Frances Phillips draw from the past to advise how to survive a “skinny” farm bill with creativity and action.

Amanda Smith tells about the joy of co-preaching a sermon with a 10-year-old girl.

Josh Olds makes a case for why Tanner Horner — although clearly guilty of a heinous crime — should not be executed by the state.

A final word

I want to preview for you a new project coming soon from BNG. As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, BNG, in partnership with Carol McEntyre, is developing a series to help congregations reflect on the relationship between Christianity and democratic life.

At a time when many Christians feel exhausted, cynical, or unsure how faith speaks into public life anymore, this series will offer thoughtful, theologically grounded perspectives for churches and small groups.

Look for the series to being the first week of June.

For now, blessings for your weekend ahead. And thanks for reading and for supporting our work.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Many of you, dear readers, have been kind enough to send me a link to the new Texas Monthly piece on Paul Pressler. You’ve wanted to make sure I saw it, which is always appreciated. I love good tips from readers.

In this case, not only have I seen it, I was part of the story behind the story. The 12,000-word piece was written by Rob Downen, who is a journalism colleague. We first met when he wrote for the Houston Chronicle, then he moved to the Texas Tribune (an online publication) and now to Texas Monthly — the Holy Grail of journalism jobs in the Lone Star State.

Rob is an excellent journalist — one of the very best. He was behind the “Abuse of Faith” series in the Houston Chronicle that broke open the conversation about clergy sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. Rob spent months working on this latest article and did extensive research. I was one of his sources and referred him to other sources as well. He spent days digging through Pressler’s papers housed at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina.

What Rob has done in this omnibus article is tie together so many threads that have been dangling loose for decades. He not only paints the picture but documents it. This is hugely important for the historical record.

“What Rob has done in this omnibus article is tie together so many threads that have been dangling loose for decades.”

Ben Cole and I had the pleasure of talking with Rob about all this on a new episode of our “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast. It’s an insightful conversation I hope you’ll listen to. In that conversation, Ben made the astute observation that Pressler might be the Jeffrey Epstein of the SBC.

I’ve said for years there is a direct connection between the SBC’s “conservative resurgence” and Republican politics. Rob’s article proves that beyond the shadow of a doubt. And Ben’s observation shows how rotten the core of this movement has been — both in the SBC and national politics.

Let’s be clear about one thing: I don’t know what Pressler’s sexual orientation was, and I don’t care. What matters is that he was a predator, a sexual abuser who preyed on people who were vulnerable and needed his influence and help. As I say on the podcast, this predation is not about sexual orientation; it is about abuse.

Of course, as Ben points out, in the ecosystem of the SBC a lot of folks will be more turned off by the male-on-male factor than by the act of abuse. How do we know this? Because the SBC still can’t come to terms with the sexual abuse of women by clergy and lay leaders and pretty much refuses to talk about the abuse of boys and men.

I’ve heard from more than a few of you who have listened to the podcast and found the conversation distressing and difficult to hear. It needs to be difficult to hear.

Understand this: Both the conservative juggernaut in the SBC and the MAGA movement in the nation have been led by sexual abusers whose followers care more about gaining power than stopping sexual abuse. If this were not true, Donald Trump’s “grab ’em by the pussy” comment would have ended his political career and the world would be a better place.

One story illustrates this fully: In 1989, then-President George H.W. Bush nominated Pressler to serve in the federal government as head of the Office of Government Ethics — a hysterical hypocrisy if ever there was one. The nomination was withdrawn later that year after an FBI background check uncovered unspecified “ethics problems.”

“Many of us in the Baptist press corps strongly suspected what those “ethics problems” were but no one could prove it.”

Many of us in the Baptist press corps strongly suspected what those “ethics problems” were but no one could prove it. There was smoke everywhere, but no one could document the fire. And conservative leaders in the SBC didn’t want to know the truth because then they would have to deal with it.

Let me remind you that 1989 was a pivotal year in the attempt to wrest control of the SBC. SBC moderates were mounting their final attempt to regain the presidency, and the outcome weighed in the balance. Defeat of the moderates was sealed one year later, in 1990, and the first thing Pressler did was use his position on the SBC Executive Committee to fire the two editors of Baptist Press.

What had Dan Martin and Al Shackleford done? They had refused to twist the news to Pressler’s liking — that’s the public story — but they also had been digging into why Pressler was rejected by the Bush administration. They got too close to the truth.

It was during the conservative takeover of the SBC that Adrian Rogers, two-time president of the convention, preached a sermon at an SBC annual meeting where he called on other leaders to “cover our brother’s nakedness” — a reference to a bizarre story about Noah found in Genesis 9. His point at the time was when fellow leaders of the conservative movement were exposed for impropriety, it was the job of true believers to cover them. This was an explicit reference to members of the media who were digging too close to the truth at the time.

If Pressler’s predilection for abusing young men had been made public in 1989, that likely would have made a difference in the success of the “conservative resurgence.” Other leaders of that movement swear they didn’t know what was going on, but I find that hard to believe. I was a young reporter then, and I could figure out what was going on. You’d have to be blind as a mole not to see the signs.

Then as now, conservative leaders who cared more about power than protecting the vulnerable looked the other way and didn’t ask questions. That’s why the Texas Monthly article is so relevant still today.

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This thirst for power — and absolute power — continues to motivate the conservative political sphere in America today. What the MAGA-fueled Republican Party is doing to rig elections — while accusing the other side of doing the very thing they’re doing — reached new heights with the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest ruling all but killing the Voting Rights Act.

Now, gerrymandering is reaching a fever pitch as Republicans believe they have a mandate to exclude others from representation. Look at Tennessee for an example as Republican legislators there seek to redraw already skewed legislative maps to give themselves total domination.

And Donald Trump continues to seek revenge against those who will not go along with his demands for redistricting, including Republicans in Indiana who got primaried this week.

Stuart Lord explains that the high court must be counting on Americans’ historical amnesia. The court’s ruling is dangerous not only for what it does legally, but for what it reveals nationally, he says.

TJ Williams Hauger added his lament that the Supreme Court “effectively dismantled the Voting Rights Act. The very legislation for which John Lewis bled on that bridge, for which Fannie Lou Hamer was beaten in a Mississippi jail.” Americans must listen to the ancestral voices, he urges.

At the same time, the Republican Party “is facing a political mirror it can no longer avoid,” says Edmond Davis. Every Black Republican currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives is leaving.

And then there’s Trump’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. This week we finally saw the report of this Trumped-up task force that real experts in religious liberty say is full of anti-Christian bias itself.

Robert P. Jones calls this report “theater of the absurd” as it seeks to blame the Biden administration for upholding the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Trump and Vice President JD Vance continued their international fight with Pope Leo XIV. Vance insanely declared the Trump administration seeks every day to embody Christian “moral principles.” That made me wonder what Vance thinks such principles are.

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In other news this week:

A federal judge refused to block immigration actions near Minnesota schools while other courts consider Trump administration appeals to rulings in other lawsuits against raids at or near sensitive locations. That’s just one part of the confusing state of knowing what’s allowed and not allowed today.

Legislation moving through the Louisiana Senate would punish unhoused people with fines, incarceration, forced labor and compulsory treatment they would have to pay for themselves.

Death penalty abolitionists in Ohio and Tennessee are hard at work trying to prevent the executions of Death Row inmates in those states.

How to Become A Christian in Seven Days, actor Russell Brand’s story of finding faith, is among the first books published by Tucker Carlson’s new publishing imprint.

Donald Trump said his National Garden of American Heroes would open by July 4 for America’s 250th birthday. It won’t, but thanks to a fundraising brochure, we can see the not-yet-approved plans for a space celebrating “freedom, patriotism and American exceptionalism.”

The Trump administration is now preventing detained immigrants from submitting photos, fingerprints and other biometric measures because without that information immigration cases are automatically denied.

Lerone Martin has written a biography of Martin Luther King that focuses on the Civil Rights leader’s childhood and formative influences. Young King tell’s MLK’s backstory.

At least a dozen clergy were arrested in New York City April 30 while protesting against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ten rabbis and two Christian ministers were taken away in handcuffs for blocking traffic.

Thank You Jesus Yard Sign founder Lucas Timothy Hunt pleaded guilty to a felony charge of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor in Randolph County, N.C.

Texas executed James Broadnax April 30 despite DNA evidence and another inmate’s confession showing he did not kill two men in 2008.

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In other analysis this week:

Rodney Kennedy reports on a new book by Juha Meriläinen, church historian at the University of Helsinki, Putin’s Altar Boy. In it, he sounds a warning about the dangers of a church under the influence of the state.

In perhaps the oddest article of the week, Rick Pidcock tells us about a group of end-times prophets and pastors who say they were briefed by the Trump administration on forthcoming data dumps about UFOs and alien life. These religious leaders claim aliens not only are real but are demons.

Kristen Thomason opens our eyes to the horrors happening in Sudan right now that you likely aren’t hearing about. It’s the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

Joe Marlow explains why the United States is a “constitutional republic” more than a “democracy” and what is required to keep it that way.

Josh Olds tells us how to have an AI-assisted conversation with Jesus through a new website.

Although the Southern Baptist Convention remains the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, only about 3.6% of the 342 million Americans were members of SBC churches in 2025. Not only has membership in SBC churches been on the decline for two decades but the proportionate influence of Southern Baptists continues to decline as well. I explain what this means.

Rick Pidcock explains how the Newsboys lawsuit lays open the ugly reality of money driving the Christian music business.

David Haddad goes back to the Balfour Declaration as a marker for how different decisions should have been made about who controls Palestine.

Lovett Weems examines what has happened inside The United Methodist Church two years after a fourth of its churches disaffiliated.

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In other opinion this week:

David Gushee: A report from the Post-Evangelical Collective meeting in Boston

Steve Shoemaker: Letting go of our ‘wish dream’ for the church

Martin Thielen: A life-giving alternative to Religious Right religion

Janelle Beiler and Marion Travers: When the shepherd grows weary

Edmond Davis: Ted Turner: The maverick who changed the world

Braxton Wade: In conversation with Jim Somerville

Alan Bean: What I learned from a month of MAGA immersion

Brad Bull: Ben Sasse’s courage, grace and metastasized Calvinism

Josh Olds: What I would say to Sam Allberry

Mara Richards Bim: Jesus Was a Migrant illuminates America’s theological crisis

Deborah Reeves: ‘This is not a drill’

Michael Chancellor: Where is the outrage?

Brett Younger: Self-centeredness is having a moment

Lee Enochs: Sensationalism and the Shroud of Turin

Kris Aaron: Let’s change what we tolerate, accept and expect

A final word

In case you haven’t paid attention, this Sunday is Mother’s Day. Take appropriate action. Follow me for more helpful advice like this.

In honor of that special day, Justin Cox has written a beautiful piece I highly recommend. Check it out here: Proof that I was worth the trouble: A story of my mother.

Here are some other good Mother’s Day reads from our archives:

Brett Younger: The light in my mother’s eyes

Mallory Challis: How Hagar shows us the meaning of divine motherhood

Braxton Wade: Letter to my mother, my pastor

Thanks for another week of reading and sharing and commenting with us. Remember we’re in the middle of our spring fundraising drive and your financial support is essential to us. Give anytime here.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

One of the pithy sayings attributed to Jesus is, “Those who live by the sword, die by the sword.” He spoke this as an admonition to the Apostle Peter to put away his sword as the disciple attempted to defend Jesus against those who would arrest him, try him and crucify him.

As with all the great sayings of Jesus, there is truth beyond time here. And there is truth for our time.

There’s a lot of talk about political violence today, and that conversation came back to the forefront when an alleged gunman attempted to enter the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last Saturday night.

“Make no mistake: Donald Trump remains the chief instigator of political violence in the world today. He is the source. He is Patient Zero.”

While not too visibly shaken by the purported attempted assassination of Donald Trump and members of his cabinet, the president and those around him immediately blamed all political violence on Democrats.

In reality, the epidemic of political violence we are witnessing is not the product of the Left’s cruelty, as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt cravenly asserts. It is the product of evangelical Christians and their “fight, fight, fight” presidential hero.

Josh Olds explains how American religion actually inspired the violence at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Make no mistake: Donald Trump remains the chief instigator of political violence in the world today. He is the source. He is Patient Zero. The list of his insults and demands for violence is so long I can’t enumerate it here. But we all know about it. Or least we should if we’re honest.

That’s one reason a truly disturbing video put out this week by Erika Kirk would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic. She wants us to know she’s still really mad someone shot and killed her husband — that’s a reasonable anger — but she is incapable of admitting the source of our culture of violence.

And then she has the audacity to say this: “If you strip someone of their humanity long enough, you will arrive at the chilling conclusion that they don’t deserve to exist at all.”

By Jove, she could be a raging liberal! This is what we’ve been saying all along in critique of Trump and MAGA as they have dehumanized immigrants, women, Black people, Hispanic people, Muslims and Democrats. Trump and his supporters are the very definition of those who dehumanize others. And they are propped up by people like Erika Kirk. She needs to turn her outrage inward.

Remember that Public Religion Research Institute has found over and over again that those most prone to believe physical violence may be necessary to get their political way are Republicans and MAGA conservatives.

Yet the cry of cruelty gets twisted to apply only to those who criticize the president and his party. Erika Kirk joined a constellation of Trump lovers this week condemning Jimmy Kimmel for a joke he told two days before the alleged attempt on the president’s life. The difference is Kimmel was telling a joke and Trump says outrageous things that are neither jokes nor funny at all.

Once more with feeling: The double standard conservatives hold about protecting themselves and their president is hypocrisy beyond measure.

And this kind of verbal cruelty is contagious. Consider the smarmy attitude of the president of the Turning Point USAchapter at Baylor University who last week mocked “the ops” while presiding over a small crowd assembled for his controversial rally. His comments were so out of line that the founder of Baylor’s TPUSA chapter wrote a letter to the editor of the student newspaper condemning him.

In case you missed it, we got access to audio recordings of most of the speakers at that TPUSA rally that was closed to the press (thanks to Baylor’s NoZe Brothers). Read about the outrageous things Benny Johnson said (including calling liberal women pigs) and the twisted tales of Border Czar Tom Homan.

TPUSA is such a toxic organization that I still can’t believe Baylor administrators allowed it to have a platform on campus. In doing so, the administration allowed TPUSA not only to spread lies on campus but to take advantage of Baylor’s undeserved hospitality. Read my analysis piece from last week explaining all that.

I hear Baylor professors often brag about their students and how transformative the “Baylor experience” is for them. If the three officers of Baylor’s TPUSA group are any indication, there’s still work to be done.

For more on the Baylor/TPUSA issue, be sure to check out the latest “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast with me and Ben Cole. We get into more background on this story.

Not all violence is physical, too. Trump is a master of tearing people down with words and accusations, and his minions have learned to mimic this.

Exhibit A this week is the report of Trump’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. This bonkers report prioritizes evangelical Christians and claims the Biden administration was targeting them for discrimination. This is so upside down as to be nonsensical.

American evangelicals today are like Peter, believing they are taking up the sword to protect Jesus. The reality is Jesus doesn’t need their protection, and they are succumbing to the tactics of the empire rather than the teaching of Jesus.

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In other news this week:

Although Steven Curtis Chapman is best known for his songwriting and singing, he and his wife, Mary Beth, have taken on a new adventure in writing a book about their 40-year marriage.

United Methodist Pastor Adam Hamilton announced April 30 he will run for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat. The founding pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan., took the Lenten season to traveling the state in listening sessions first. Also, the Kansas GOP claims Hamilton and his church have violated the Johnson Amendment, a rule Republicans generally are trying to get rid of.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling April 29 severely limiting a key element of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protects minorities from voting discrimination.

Conservative groups claim there’s a migration of U.S. residents from Democratic-led states to Republican-led states due to politics and “family values.” Others say that claim is overblown or misinterpreted.

Wes Campbell, co-founder of Newsboys, has filed a lawsuit against 31 individuals and entities he alleges conspired to put him and Newsboys out of business in the Christian music world.

The Southern Poverty Law Center filed two motions in federal court in response to a federal indictment accusing the civil rights organization of fraud.

Suicide rates among American youth and young adults have taken a sharp drop, resulting in thousands of saved lives, according to a study published last week by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide another case about LGBTQ rights in Colorado. At issue: Are Catholic preschools that close their doors to 4-year-olds with LGBTQ parents eligible to participate in a state-funded program requiring preschools not to discriminate?

Grace Ji-Sun Kim’s podcast, “Madang,” has found at new home with Baptist News Global.

The current surge in anti-Muslim hatred from elected Republicans can be traced to a social media post by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott early last year, according to a new study by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate.

Those concerned about current threats to democracy and religious freedom in America need to express more joy and less oy, Rachel Laser told the 2026 Summit for Religious Freedom.

Comedian John Fugelsang brought some sober truth to participants at the Summit for Religious Freedom. While cracking joke after joke, he highlighted the dangers of Christian nationalism and offered tips on how to move beyond Project 2025 and the destruction of democracy.

Those Americans who leave behind MAGA loyalty are going through a form of deconstruction, according to Nadine Smith, CEO of Color of Change.

A group of Texas high school and college students received the David Norr Youth Activist Award from Americans United for Separation of Church and State this year — recognizing a well-organized youth movement making a difference.

A nationally coordinated day of volunteerism next month is an opportunity for congregations to live into their callings to serve others at a time when issues of religion, government and society are hotly debated, said Walter Kim.

Ryan Blackwell, 42, has been named 11th president of Lifeway Christian Resources, the publishing house of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Two proposed bills aiming to reform the civil statute of limitations in Missouri for child sexual abuse and trafficking claims have stalled.

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In other analysis this week:

Rick Pidcock gets a lot of strange ads on social media because his research for us messes with the algorithm. But he was shocked when he got an ad to create nude images of anyone he could imagine.

Thomas Jay Oord’s new systematic theology focuses on God’s love, according to Halley Kim.

The journey of the word “remigration” from secretive meetings of Europe’s fascist fringe to President Donald Trump’ssocial media posts reflects the growing influence of white nationalist Martin Sellner on the administration’s immigration policy, says Kristen Thomason.

When The United Methodist Church was formed in 1968, theologian Albert C. Outler preached an opening sermon in which he extolled “an aura of hope” for the new denomination despite its challenges. Cynthia Astles sees a similar hope today.

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In other opinion this week:

Bill Leonard: “A tale of two Leos”

Jennifer Butler: “Criminalizing truth”

Edmond Davis: “What King Charles didn’t say about the Magna Carta”

Rodney Kennedy: “Trump’s ’60 Minutes’ interview shows why we need a free press”

Richard Conville: “Confederate Memorial Day, 2026”

J. Basil Dannebohm: “Change for me, but not for thee”

Meredith Stone: “The slippery slope of allowing insults to women”

Ginny Brown Daniel: “A moral clarity on femicide”

Brian Henderson: “Listening to a bell that no longer rings”

Shannon F.R. Small: “We are a nation of bullies”

A final word

It’s that time of year again when we gently remind you that BNG has no corporate or denominational sponsors. We are entirely reader-supported. That means your generous gifts keep us going. If you’re a previous donor, you should have received a letter from me in the mail this week about our spring fundraising drive.

But the invitation to give is open to all!

We need $50 gifts and $200 gifts and even some $10,000 gifts — or more. We’re publishing and podcasting more than ever, and all that takes money. Your support makes this all possible.

It’s easy to give online.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Yours truly cannot tell you what happened inside Waco Hall on the campus of Baylor University Wednesday evening because I was not allowed in. Not only was I excluded as media, but all sorts of other people also were kept out.

Baylor blames Turning Point USA and TPUSA blames Baylor. There’s plenty of fault to go both ways in the sad sage of TPUSA bringing its “This Is the Turning Point” tour to the Baptist university campus. But we do know this for a fact: TPUSA has a history of lying about all sorts of things.

And in this case, I’m going to give some grace to Baylor administrators who, as I wrote Wednesday night, got run over by the TPUSA bus not once but multiple times. TPUSA is not a trustworthy organization — and not just because they prop up the most corrupt president in American history. They are not trustworthy because they do not tell the truth. And because they platform horrible people.

You just can’t get much more ethically challenged than Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was a last-minute substitute at Baylor for presidential son and grifter Donald Trump Jr. Someone asked me which of these two men I thought was more ethically challenged, and I couldn’t choose.

Keep in mind that on the very day of the TPUSA event at Baylor, the U.S. Secret Service publicly accused Erika Kirk of lying about why she didn’t go on stage at the tour stop at the University of Georgia. She claimed there were security concerns and she didn’t feel safe. But the Secret Service said there were no security threats, as was evidenced by the fact that Vice President JD Vance was there and went on stage as planned.

“At Baylor, TPUSA lied about so many things it would take an extra bear paw to count them all.”

At Baylor, TPUSA lied about so many things it would take an extra bear paw to count them all.

For all the handwringing over those of us who inconveniently pointed out that Charlie Kirk also was a liar and a bully, there is constant vindication. Because without Charlie’s “charm” — if that’s what you call it — all that’s left of TPUSA is the meanness.

Part of the ongoing lie about TPUSA is that the organization is committed to open dialogue. That’s always been a charade. And it’s no wonder they didn’t want media in the room
Wednesday night because the crowd was — once again — small and the language was toxic.

Based on reports from students who got in, the evening featured all the standard MAGA lies and disinformation — such as claiming the redistricting vote in Virginia was swayed by “illegal aliens.”

But something much worse happened, and this has been confirmed by multiple people who were present. And oddly, TPUSA posted a social media clip confirming the exchange but twisting into something else.

Thanks to the intrepid student journalist at the Baylor Lariat, we have a report directly from a Truett Seminary student who was involved in this episode, Kyle Perry.

Far-right podcaster Benny Johnson — again confirmed by multiple reports — compared dealing with liberal women to wrangling pigs.

“I think about biblical Scripture that talks about not letting any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up,” Perry told the Lariat. “That doesn’t seem like that fits the bill for me.”

The report continues: “During the Q&A portion, Perry asked Johnson, ‘If you are going to say something like this and you believe, as the Bible says, that you’re going to have to give an account for the words that you use before God on Judgment Day, how do you see this conversation going?’

“Johnson didn’t answer the question. But the Turning Point USA organization did use Perry’s introduction on their Instagram to promote the Baylor campus stop. ‘It felt like they were trying to present the event as “this is a place where pastors are welcomed,’” Perry said. He said that felt very dishonest and not in line with Baylor values.”

What Johnson’s comment exposed — yet again — is how freely and frequently conservatives in America devalue women and just think that’s normal.

Why would any speaker on a public stage compare women to pigs? Jesus answered that question: “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” It seems like I’m quoting that passage of Scripture every week now.

“It starts at the top with Donald Trump, who has such a long rap sheet on this affront that even CVS could not print it all on a receipt.”

There is a moral rot within the MAGA movement that is multi-layered. One of those layers is disrespect for women. It starts at the top with Donald Trump, who has such a long rap sheet on this affront that even CVS could not print it all on a receipt.

And think about this: Of all the utterly incompetent people in Trump’s cabinet, the only ones to have been fired so far are all women. Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are just as crazy as Kristi Noem, but they’ve not been given the boot. In Trump world, men get a pass on incompetence and embarrassing actions while women are criticized.

And let’s be clear about what keeps this double standard going: Lots of Republican women who keep voting and rooting against their own interests. Chalk that up as another mystery of the universe.

Meanwhile, the Baptist General Convention of Texas keeps threatening Baylor for acknowledging the existence of gay Christians, while trying to claim they’re champions for women in ministry. Which is only partially true. Baylor’s Truett Seminary champions women in ministry so long as they aren’t lesbians and don’t want to work in churches that are fully inclusive.

I’ve explained this before but it’s important to hear again: Truett Seminary will not allow students to take field placements in churches that are inclusive. And that knocks out field placements in any Baptist church in the region with a female pastor as a role model.

Also, while a reported 40% of Truett’s students are women, most of them cannot get hired in Texas Baptist churches that are clouds without rain on the issue of women in ministry. Those female Truett graduates find placements out of state — which means BGCT churches will help educate them but won’t hire them.

Further, Truett Seminary will not work with Baptist Women in Ministry — and doesn’t want its faculty showing support for BWIM — because BWIM supports all called Christians in ministry, including gay Christians. That’s how deep the fear of gay people runs in the BGCT and at Truett.

Now, to add emphasis to this disconnect, Truett Seminary has announced its own event for women in ministry to be held this fall. And they are not working with BWIM, which is based in Waco. Why? Because … gay people.

The one thing TPUSA did for Baylor this week is make them look better by comparison.

And in fairness, we must acknowledge there are many forces for good at work on the Baylor campus. On one front, Truett Seminary is the tail that wags the dog, but across the university there are signs of welcome.

That was evident at the “All Are Neighbors” event planned as a counter to the TPUSA event. Although this event drew attention because of two gay Christian speakers, they were not the most impressive part of the program. An array of students spoke — all articulate and thoughtful and hopeful. I was seriously impressed by each of them. And their focus was not sexuality.

One of the things “All Are Neighbors” illustrated is the beauty of a fully inclusive program of high-energy, forward-looking men and women — Christians, Muslims, Hindus, atheists — working together for good.

If that kind of collaboration can ever take hold at Baylor instead of drawing lines based on sexuality, it will be a golden day indeed.

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In other news this week:

Median in-person worship attendance in U.S. congregations has increased for the first time in a quarter century as post-pandemic church shows signs of rebounding, according to a new study by Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

A federal appeals court lifted an injunction that ordered Florida to dismantle its “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta ruled against environmentalism groups and the Miccosukee Tribe.

Texas’ Ten Commandments law may be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court after an appellate court ruled it does not violate church-state separation under the U.S. Constitution.

The DIGNIDAD (Dignity) Act could put long-term, law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying immigrants and families on a pathway to U.S. citizenship. But it has divided evangelicals, illustrating divisions over Trump’s immigration policies six months before midterm elections.

Trustees of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary elected Scott Pace the school’s new president.

A Baptist journalist is responsible for identifying Pete Hegseth’s prayer as cribbed from Pulp Fiction, and his attention to detail has gone around the world.

Going to work for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma was a natural fit for civil rights attorney Veronica Laizure, despite the fact she isn’t Muslim.

President Donald Trump is either “not too religious” or “not religious at all,” according to 70% of U.S. adults polled this month by Pew Research Center.

Democracy Forward wants to know if the Trump administration’s cancellation of an $11 million grant to a Catholic organization resulted from the president’s spat with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.

The Trump administration’s secretary of Labor, who has used the office to promote Christian nationalism and idolatry of Trump, has been removed as “multiple scandals and investigations closed in on her.”

Unfortunately, Gregg Phillips’ claims that he was twice teleported from one place to another aren’t the biggest problems for this top government official with a long history of shady deals, charity scams and false claims of voter fraud.

Because “covered wounds don’t heal,” American Christians must continue to expose the truth of their harmful past, Michael Woolf told the Alliance of Baptists annual gathering. That message was echoed in a second address by Kelly Brown Douglas. In a separate analysis piece, I wrote about the mood at the Alliance meeting and what lies ahead for the nearly 40-year-old denomination.

“America Reads the Bible” kicked off in Washington, D.C., Sunday morning, April 19, with actress Patricia Heaton — of Everybody Loves Raymond — reading aloud Genesis chapters one and two.

Many of those tasked with shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development last year were completely unaware of the agency’s purpose and effectiveness, a former USAID official said.

Tennessee now will recognize June as “Nuclear Family Month” instead of following the national trend of recognizing Pride Month for the LGBTQ community.

We originally reported that Mark Driscoll would preach at Donald Trump’s “Rededicate 250” event on the National Mall in May, but it turns out Driscoll was not invited to that event. What really happened here is hard to sort out.

The federal government’s move against Southern Poverty Law Center is also an attack on religious pluralism, freedom of conscience and First Amendment safeguards for all American people and religious communities, said Amanda Tyler.

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In other analysis this week:

Melissa Deckman and Diana Orcés of PRRI tackle an important question about religious life in America today: What’s really going on with Gen Z? They compare PRRI data and Gallup data.

Stephen Aber isn’t a fan of the saying, “You can believe whatever you want. Just don’t force it on me.” It just doesn’t work, he says, in an evaluation of evangelical guilt.

Josh Shepherd reviews the new animated version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm from “values-centric” Angel Studios. He urges caution.

Lewis Brogdon recently traveled to the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, an advisory body to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. He was impressed with a UN resolution declaring American slavery constituted “crimes against humanity.”

Richard Hester recounts what happened in 1987 when the faculty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary faced the takeover of their institution by outside forces determined to impose ideological litmus tests.

Braxton Wade tells the inspiring story of Alfred Street Baptist Church giving away $1million to keep local residents from being evicted.

Robert P. Jones says he doesn’t believe President Donald Trump understands the political risk of picking a fight with Pope Leo XIV. Jones has the data to make his case.

Rick Pidcock tells us about Trust Me: The False Prophet, the latest docuseries from Netflix exposing the dark underground of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Josh Olds warns us about Palantir and its parallels to Lord of the Rings.

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In other opinion this week:

Eboni Delaney and Julienne Louis-Anderson: “Women need less religious shame, more leadership”

Michael Chancellor: “Protecting the gift: A call to parental vigilance”

Norman Jameson: “Unearthing an unnecessary death”

Justin Cox: “When Al Mohler takes up serpents, I’ll listen to his views on women”

Brad Bull: “Church names the FCC might fine you for saying on TV”

David Gushee: “Post-evangelical churches are succeeding”

Edmond Davis: “The Bible is not just a white man’s book”

Cynthia Astle: “Confessions of a cancer caregiver”

Rodney Kennedy: “When baptism becomes a carnival”

Ken Sehested: “Resurrection’s joy ascends, but so, too, its detractors”

Richard Conville: “Backfilling history”

Catherine Meeks: “It’s time to try a new approach on racial healing”

Will McCorkle: “The blame for Trump’s messiah complex lies with Franklin Graham”

Braxton Wade: “In conversation with my grandmother”

A final word

We’ve crossed a surprising and happy milestone this week at BNG. We’ve had the largest-ever readership in any 30-day period in our history. By the time the month of April ends, we will have had more than 1 million pageviews of content on our site for the month. That’s about one-sixth of all our website traffic last year, by comparison.

A couple of articles hit the big time — particularly the one about Pete Hegseth firing the U.S. Army chief of chaplains, which we broke nationally. But a whole lot of our content is getting read widely right now, and we are thankful for that.

Thank you for reading and sharing and supporting this vital work. We are glad to be in this educational partnership with you, our readers. Let’s keep having these change-making conversations.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global

Remember the classic children’s board game called Chutes and Ladders? It’s a simple game where all the players are trying to get from the bottom of the board to the top of the board to win the match. But along the way there are some squares you hit that are chutes that send you backward and there are some that are ladders that let you skip ahead. Obviously, you want to land on the ladders and avoid the chutes.

It’s a fun way to teach kids about the ups and downs of life. Not really a game to teach responsibility, though. This game’s more about good luck — or fate, if you believe in predestination.

In real life, sometimes we end up on wrong paths and need to take the nearest available chute to get back to a better starting point. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this last week as we’ve seen an unusual number of Trump supporters and Trump reality deniers jump off the Trump Train down the nearest available chute.

Here’s part of a really gracious email I received from a Southern Baptist pastor friend this week: “I try to admit it when I’m wrong, so I’m announcing that I’m jumping off of the Trump train. Your warnings, which I scoffed at, are now coming to pass before my very eyes. I now see that he’s a wicked, pathetic excuse of a man. I’d like to see the 25th invoked, but Vance is just as bad.”

“Your warnings, which I scoffed at, are now coming to pass before my very eyes. I now see that he’s a wicked, pathetic excuse of a man.”

My conservative pen pal isn’t ready to vote for any Democrat, he said, but he realizes he climbed the wrong ladder with Trump. In my book, that’s progress.

He’s not alone. Other evangelical leaders also denounced Trump over the AI-generated image of him as Jesus.

I’ve also been shocked at seeing quite a few Baptist pastors who have kept their heads down and tried not to offend church members suddenly come out with bold statements about the president’s blasphemy.

For example, Jeff Warren is pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, a church that once upon a time helped launch the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship but now eschews all national denominational groups and claims affiliation only with the Baptist General Convention of Texas (more on them in a moment).

This is a wealthy tall-steeple church with a mix of Republicans and Democrats in the pews.

Warren posted this on Facebook: “On Easter Sunday (the most sacred day of the year for those us who proclaim Jesus as our Risen Lord), the president of the United States posted a profanity-laced message that threatened what amounted to war crimes against the Iranian people. Later he came after Pope Leo who (like every pope before him) was calling for peace and added that ‘a delusion of omnipotence’ was driving the war.”

Then he linked to the AI-generated image Trump shared of him as Jesus healing a man.

“This picture epitomizes what some of us have been warning the American church about for years. Christian nationalism, and white Christian nationalism in particular, is the greatest barrier to the true gospel in America today. This is a blatant display of idolatry and a mockery of our Lord Jesus Christ. The conflation of political power and the church is not the kingdom of God. There are times when those of us who have been entrusted by God with the gospel should not be silent. I know many of you are infuriated by this, and if Christ is Lord of your life, you should be.”

Warren rightly pointed out the problem with “the silence of Christian leaders in the face of such blasphemy.” He invited others to join him in renouncing Christian nationalism and, by extension, Trump.

“I’m sure he caught hell from some of his Trump-supporting members for that post, but he also was applauded by others for a bold witness.”

I’m sure he caught hell from some of his Trump-supporting members for that post, but he also was applauded by others for a bold witness. I agree. Bravo to this “purple church” pastor for drawing a line he won’t cross.

One person I know has proposed that what we’re seeing now is a whole lot of people who have been desperately searching for an exit ramp from the Trump Show and are latching on to this obvious blasphemy as the chute they needed.

And I’m fine with that. Anything that can make this horror stop is a step in the right direction.

I mean, even Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Dallas, posted a video calling Trump to account for blasphemy. Never thought I’d see that.

Rick Pidcock explains why this one AI-generated post is the last straw for quite a few folks.

Of course, the president’s usual sycophants keep climbing the ladder higher and higher. Chief among those is Franklin Graham, whose devotion to Trump defies imagination. At least this time, Adam Kinzinger took Graham’s defense of Trump apart piece by piece. That’s a good read.

Amid all this, Trump has picked a fight with Pope Leo. Vice President JD Vance has picked up the fight as well, trying to school the pope on Catholic theology and separate it from politics. Which is stupidly ironic, because Vance wants to coopt theology as a political weapon. Even Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Southern Baptist, has gotten involved in this charade.

Others who have not climbed the Trump ladder remain vigilant in sounding the alarm, especially now. Among those is William Barber, who this week declared: “We need the moral courage to stand where Pope Leo stood this morning when he said, ‘I am not afraid. I do not fear the Trump administration.’” At another event, Barber said Trump has a “God complex.”

Things are so nutty right now that Marjorie Taylor Greene is the voice of repentance for empowering Trump, says Bill Leonard.

Greg Jarrell responded to Trump and Vance and Johnson by reminding them yes, the pope is, in fact, a politician.

David Gushee says Trump’s attack on Pope Leo has made an argument over values into a personal dispute. But the issue between the two men is not a personal dispute. It is instead a powerful illustration of the value of a moral tradition when brought to bear on transgressions against it.

Trump’s pronouncements these days are so outrageous that it would be a form of parody if it were not for the fact that he is commander in chief of the most powerful army in the world, says Jonathan Kuttab. He calls this “insanity in the name of God.”

There was some good news this week, too, from Hungary.

Rodney Kennedy says the defeat of Viktor Orban in Hungary holds promise for America. In one way, Orban’s demiseis a lesson in Political Science 101: Political leaders, even in a quasi-democracy, can’t beat a bad economy. Trump should pay attention, he says. The economy always beats culture wars for attention.

Meanwhile, the advance of Christian nationalism in America continues unabated.

Shock jock preacher Mark Driscoll will be one of the preachers at Trump’s “Rededicate 250” event on the National Mall May 17, he said in an email to supporters.

The idea that the U.S. Constitution promotes separation of church and state is patently untrue, according to the chair of President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Michael Chancellor says Patrick must have skipped U.S. History classes.

Michael Friday makes a 10-point case for why there is nothing Christian about American nationalism.

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And another week with Baylor University in the news. By the way, I used to describe Baylor as the nation’s largest Baptist-affiliated university but that’s not technically true anymore. Liberty University wins that title these days based on enrollment, but its Baptist roots are quite different from Baylor’s.

And therein lies part of the rub. Once upon a time, it was easy to distinguish between the politics and theology of these two Baptist schools. Liberty was founded in fundamentalism and Baylor was founded in Baptist freedom. But critics see Baylor is capitulating to fundamentalist influences. Baylor’s defenders see things differently, believing the Texas school remains “centrist.”

That’s part of what’s behind the ongoing drama over Baylor allowing a Turning Point USA event on campus next week and the subsequent approval for a counter-event that will feature two prominent gay Christian speakers.

For those of you who may be scratching your heads over all this drama, let me summarize this way: Had Baylor administrators not approved the TPUSA event, they would not have been backed into a corner and forced to allow the counter event. But in the current political context in which the far right is accusing Baylor of being “woke,” administrators would have caught hell had they stood up to the fascism of TPUSA.

From the outside, it’s easy to say this is because Baylor has walked the line too long and now the line is on fire and too fragile to hold.

Allowing TPUSA on campus gave LGBTQ advocates a perfect opening to claim free-speech discrimination, and they were right.

Now we’re in a tit-for-tat argument when the right gets a concession that requires a concession to the left, the right claims they’re being violated. Meanwhile, those caught in the crossfire keep calling themselves the “centrists.”

As I’ve written before, “centrist” is always a self-defined label. In the minds of too many, being a “centrist” in Texas means eschewing both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as polar opposites and identifying with the Baptist General Convention of Texas as a safe harbor. That assumes the BGCT is in the center, and it is not.

The self-described center in Texas is to say you affirm women in ministry (whether you actually do so in practice or not) and disaffirm LGBTQ inclusion. Sorry, folks, that is not the center of American Christianity. You cannot be a centrist while still empowering Christian nationalism and racism, for example. And you cannot claim to support women in ministry while distancing yourself from Baptist Women in Ministry, as some at Baylor do.

With all that long setup, consider now that the BGCT is upset that Baylor will allow two gay Christian speakers at the counter-event. Read about that here. Never mind that Texas Baptists had no complaint about Donald Trump Jr., Tom Homan and other TPUSA right-wingers speaking on campus.

And if that wasn’t enough for one week’s news cycle, Baylor’s provost announced her retirement amid what’s clearly a pressured exit. Read my analysis piece on what Nancy Brickhouse’s departure means. Hint: It’s all related to that refused Baugh Foundation grant.

I’ll be in Waco next week for both the TPUSA event and the “All Are Neighbors” event. So stay tuned.

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In other news this week:

A federal court ruled the Trump administration may continue to prioritize Somali asylum seekers for deportation while a lawsuit against the practice continues.

Conservatives were “inches from losing the Southern Baptist Convention” before the “conservative resurgence,” Al Mohler told SBC President Clint Pressley in a new podcast where they say there’s no biblical basis for women to have a seat at the pastoral table.

Pastors for Texas Children, a statewide advocacy group that has become a national movement, will give its founding executive director to the national movement and seek a new state leader.

Two ministry leaders from Colorado Springs qualified Saturday for the top two spots in June’s primary to determine the Republican candidate for Colorado governor in November’s election.

The second stop on Turning Point USA’s “This Is the Turning Point” college tour didn’t go so well April 14. Erika Kirkcancelled her appearance at her own organization’s event, citing security concerns, but U.S. Vice President JD Vance attended and spoke.

A new report by human and immigrant rights groups documents horrific conditions and treatment of families at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center located about 70 miles south of San Antonio, Texas.

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In other analysis and opinion this week:

Stan Hastey says whatever its specious rationales and eventual outcomes, one underlying fact about the war in Iran is clear: What is largely fueling this dangerously combustible conflict is essentially a clash of fundamentalisms — Islamic, Jewish and Christian.

Josh Olds reflects on the changes in Americans’ perceptions of the Space Race over time and the role evangelicals have played in that. The question now is whether the U.S. will continue to value cooperation.

Basil Dannebohm gives us a line-by-line breakdown of the cuts proposed in Trump’s 2027 budget request to Congress.

Carson Hollis tells the heartbreaking tale of a Palestinian girl caught in the crossfire of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and how her story was immortalized on film.

Dwight Moody wrote a lovely tribute to Pastor Jeremy Shoulta, who died last Sunday of cancer.

Greg Garrett interviews John Fugelsang, author of the New York Times bestselling book The Separation of Church and Hate, about Turning Point USA and all the latest Trump administration news.

Rodney Kennedy reviews the new book Why Didn’t Evangelicals “See Him Coming”? and concludes that, yes, we do need yet another Trump book.

Mahan Siler has some observations on preaching from both sides now.

Brad Bull witnessed an unexpected lesson in the parking lot at Buc-ee’s.

A final word

This weekend I’m attending the Alliance of Baptists annual gathering in Evanston, Ill. We’ll have reports from there over the weekend and first of next week. The event is off to a good start with an opening message by Michael Woolf,pastor of the host church, Lake Street Church, and now a national figure in the resistance to ICE cruelty. Lots to tell you about soon.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global