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Southern Baptist Reactions to the Guidepost Report
I’ve noticed basically three kinds of reaction to the Guidepost report: (1) Shocking, but not surprising—this is what happens in overtly patriarchal subcultures;(2) This is horrific—we need to rethink our leadership culture and organizational structure;(3) The Guidepost report didn’t have Bible verses; we need more emphasis on male authority. My sense is that the folks…
Evangelicalism’s Intellectual Ghettoization
Do you find it at all odd that on an almost weekly basis, some pastor, seminarian or graduate student publishes an allegedly devastating refutation of a book written by a professional academic in the prime of her career? Suppose I told you that one day, as a college student in Chapel Hill, I was shooting…
CEWEM: Marginalized Among Elites
When college-educated, white evangelical men complain that they are marginalized among “elites,” what are they actually complaining about? ¹ Every modern U.S. President has claimed a commitment to some form of Christianity. ² All but two have been Protestant. Every U.S. President has been male, and all but one has been white. Observe the composition…
Anti-CRT rhetoric: common confusions
From what I’ve seen, much evangelical anti-CRT rhetoric suffers from three basic confusions. Clarity on these points is prerequisite to fruitful dialogue. The first confusion stems from different senses of the term ‘racism’—specifically, a conflation of ‘racism’ qua racist attitudes and ‘racism’ qua racist systems or institutions. The objection goes like this: “What do you…
Racism & Patriarchy: Two Strands of the Same Authoritarian Theology
Whether it’s organized by race or gender, authoritarian theologians baptize their preferred social hierarchy in biblical proof-texts that they alone have the authority to interpret and deem sufficiently clear to bind the conscience of all believers. The conservative evangelical conscience will remain fragmented as long as we attempt to derive morality from a curated collection…
Modernity, Evangelicalism and Moral Relativism
The reason that so many conservative evangelicals these days appear to be moral relativists is that they *are* moral relativists. They would deny this, of course. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Here’s why. They’ve bought into the premise that all statements are either fact or opinion: facts are objective and verifiable; and…
Faith, Philosophy & Politics: conversations about religion, ethics and social systems
Abuse & Authority: A Conversation with Susan Codone
Racism, Misogyny and Abuse: Why the SBC Keeps Getting it Wrong
Co-authored with Susan Codone “When Southern Baptists established the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1859, the prevailing orthodoxy of its white clergy included commitment to the legitimacy of slavery.” -Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of SBTShttps://sbts-wordpress-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/sbts/uploads/2018/12/Racism-and-the-Legacy-of-Slavery-Report-v4.pdf The phrase ‘prevailing orthodoxy’ is doing a lot of rhetorical work here: ‘orthodoxy’ evokes the safe…
Justice As Integrity
Every word that public evangelicals uttered in the 90s about the importance of integrity in leadership now serves as an indictment of their own unfitness to lead. Our conduct in the political arena serves as a public refutation of our witness. Unbelievers read the Bible, too; and they can see that we’re not living out…
A Man and His Inheritance (When Clarifications Fail)
Self-appointed spokesmen of the white evangelical church have no one to thank but themselves for the fragmentation of our political community. Instead of calling God’s people to do justice, they have been among the most reliable patrons of injustice.
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Faith, Philosophy and Politics 