https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to complementarianism en https://religiondispatches.org/2024/09/19/good-enough-christians-russell-moore-atlantic-illustrates-limitations-christian As a transgender person who grew up evangelical and is now an atheist, I feel the consequences of the “ myth of Christian innocence ” that profoundly shapes American society in ways that many Americans do not. Fully two-thirds of… Thu, 19 Sep 2024 04:03:30 EDT Chrissy Stroop 73d35834-6832-4cfb-9b99-b0160d217e68 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/07/12/women-are-still-fleeing-church-and-cause-still-pretty-clear Eight years ago here at RD I noted that women were fleeing organized religion —as measured by attendance at religious services—faster than men, a trend that showed no sign of letting up. Historically, women have been a good deal more… Fri, 12 Jul 2024 02:30:30 EDT Patricia Miller 2b13db25-3d8a-4c68-8b59-314617af8e11 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/12/06/trans-talmud-could-1500-year-old-book-have-any-relevance-struggle-trans-equality-and To many, last month’s brutal attack on a queer nightclub in Colorado Springs, in which five people were killed and 25 were injured, was the logical conclusion of the Right’s increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric against the LGBTQI+ community. This tragic event… Tue, 06 Dec 2022 09:49:06 EST Shane Burley bdef2ab3-7f30-484b-95f0-77a712d467ba https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/03/sbc-sexual-abuse-scandal-success-story-theological-vision-and-social-structure I don’t recall the specific date in late summer 1985—but I remember exactly where I was standing. In the sunshine, near the windows in the library of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. I was pulling Gustaf Aulén’s Christus Victor from the shelves… Fri, 03 Jun 2022 12:12:58 EDT Diana Butler Bass 13516692-6b47-41b1-b495-92caeb55da62 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/31/sexual-abuse-inevitable-christian-patriarchy-just-take-look-doug-wilsons-christ-church On Sunday, May 22, a third-party investigation of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention released a nearly 300-page report detailing the cover-up of hundreds of abuse accusations and an overall failure of leaders in the SBC to make any… Tue, 31 May 2022 04:13:32 EDT Cait West 7c478a52-bf76-46ee-9218-c0cba6a2095d https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/24/its-theology-stupid-why-shocking-sbc-report-anything-surprising On Sunday, an investigation firm called Guidepost Solutions released a 300-page report recounting a disturbingly familiar pattern of abuse and cover-up in the Southern Baptist Convention, the mostly white, evangelical Protestant denomination that accounts for over 5% of the adult… Tue, 24 May 2022 05:22:59 EDT Chrissy Stroop, Jessica Johnson 2c4cfa52-e3ce-47fa-aafd-0aeba8705786 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/02/08/biblical-inerrancys-long-history-evangelical-activist-white-patriarchy Last week saw another clash about women’s (in)equality play out online between leaders in evangelical Christian culture. In the clamor for the high-ground of evangelical legitimacy, something happened that outsiders may not fully appreciate the implications of: the participants contested… Tue, 08 Feb 2022 05:46:10 EST Stephen Young 2737cee1-ea6d-4582-ad87-2cc9cded26f7 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/10/27/evangelicals-continue-speak-over-not-ex-vangelicals Christianity Today magazine just can’t seem to leave exvangelicals alone. On October 19, they published Tish Harrison Warren’s commentary “The Church Needs Reformation, Not Deconstruction.” Then, just two days later they published a column by former Southern Baptist Convention bigwig… Wed, 27 Oct 2021 05:52:19 EDT Chrissy Stroop 2e4c8f6a-02e3-4537-976f-dc26039a7f42 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/10/11/welcome-war-what-creationist-conference-can-teach-us-about-evangelical-vaccine When I signed up to attend a 3-day conference at the flagship young-Earth creationist organization Answers in Genesis, I assumed I would be the only person wearing a mask. I was right—kind of. Although none of my fellow attendees was… Mon, 11 Oct 2021 03:30:52 EDT Caroline Matas 1cbf7793-acb3-4b87-994e-056f8be677b3 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/10/01/sharing-many-same-flaws-its-subject-rise-and-fall-mars-hill-podcast-puts-blame-anywhere The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, a Christianity Today podcast hosted by Mike Cosper, begins with the query—”Who Killed Mars Hill?” This first episode ends by answering its own question, “we all did it,” upending the true crime genre… Fri, 01 Oct 2021 04:34:54 EDT Jessica Johnson aca35cc4-4b1d-4572-b941-b1cc54d46484 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/09/16/why-freebritney-exvangelical-cause Everyone knows Britney Spears. Her talent, popularity, and struggles with mental illness are ubiquitous. A widely celebrated artist dubbed “The Princess of Pop,” Spears has five No. 1 singles and six No. 1 albums. She’s sold 150 million records around… Thu, 16 Sep 2021 01:47:48 EDT R.L. Stollar 6df39262-f621-4d85-8e4d-24f515a0b61e https://religiondispatches.org/2021/07/21/evangelical-profs-biblical-comma-tweet-exposes-paradox-respectable-evangelical-anti After the Trump years and the January 6 insurrection , in which recognizably evangelical prayers and symbols featured prominently, America’s conservative, mostly white evangelical Christians aren’t exactly popular. But just when you think your expectations for this authoritarian demographic can’t… Wed, 21 Jul 2021 05:29:16 EDT Chrissy Stroop 869bc87b-5ac8-4b20-b55e-86df3868e924 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/06/25/new-patriarch-same-patriarchy-despite-glowing-praise-new-sbc-president-theres-just-one In the midst of tense debates around race, gender, and partisan politics, the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention made waves by narrowly electing Ed Litton, a white Alabama pastor known for his commitment to racial reconciliation, to serve as its new… Fri, 25 Jun 2021 01:24:11 EDT Caroline Matas 66e6a665-b284-4915-98a4-06ee635c0e54 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/06/10/less-moore-if-russell-moore-left-sbc-due-conscience-and-convictions-his-next-move The departure of Russell Moore from the Southern Baptist Convention has been a long time coming. As I noted here on RD last March, since the completion of the right-wing coup known in SBC circles as the “conservative resurgence,” the… Thu, 10 Jun 2021 02:53:06 EDT Chrissy Stroop d1ff60f6-8560-43dc-916e-124c8cf66cbe https://religiondispatches.org/2021/04/12/dear-beth-moore-your-apology-complementarianism-reeks-complementarianism Dear Beth: Confession: I am a clergywoman ordained in the Southern Baptist tradition who has completely denounced complementarianism as an institutional, theological, and scriptural concept. I am also an author who has examined her own sin and complacency in the… Mon, 12 Apr 2021 04:35:56 EDT J. Dana Trent 0c6f3342-a99c-46c8-b5fc-32fc7d83bcbc https://religiondispatches.org/2020/02/24/new-lds-handbook-cements-anti-trans-policy-and-it-doesnt-make-whole-lot-sense I was raised in the LDS Church. In fact, I’m a sixth-generation Mormon. Or, rather, I was a Mormon until just over a decade ago when I left the church for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to… Mon, 24 Feb 2020 10:49:01 EST Kelli D. Potter 7a9d2c1f-f264-4b21-93c2-fd467ea04859 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/09/05/new-book-details-harms-evangelical-purity-movement-and-obstacle-change In ‘Pure,’ Klein tells the stories of women wrestling with anxiety, sexual dysfunction, crises of religious identity, and even a kind of religious-based PTSD. Wed, 05 Sep 2018 01:19:44 EDT Elizabeth Shively aa4d3c45-9728-473c-9a1a-27ce1d4bbb6e https://religiondispatches.org/2018/06/08/metoo-misogyny-unbiblical-southern-baptist-women-test-limits-biblical-inerrancy If conservative Christians want to challenge the misogyny in their institutions, they should be applauded and supported. But their call for change will remain problematic as long as they claim Biblical inerrancy as their reason for this call. Fri, 08 Jun 2018 03:52:59 EDT Karen E. Park 262dae4a-291d-4c73-ad5f-bbaaf4c69b66 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/06/04/sbcs-metoo-problem-isnt-rotten-apple-its-rotten-theological-tree-0 While abuse exists in all circles and all faiths, there is a unique theological problem that creates a culture of apology for abuse within the SBC. Mon, 04 Jun 2018 01:20:37 EDT Dianna Anderson 3e81e87e-46dd-4986-b310-0d3214be52dd https://religiondispatches.org/2018/06/04/sbcs-metoo-problem-isnt-rotten-apple-its-rotten-theological-tree Albert Mohler, known colloquially as “Al,” is the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He’s also one of the most prominent voices in American evangelicalism, representing the Southern Baptist Convention on the national stage through his radio… Mon, 04 Jun 2018 12:59:09 EDT Dianna Anderson c369f8eb-0c96-4c6e-922c-5cdfb6b05926 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/12/21/popesplaining-women-remain-strawberries-franciss-book-happiness As we inch toward Christmas, it’s no surprise to hear that Americans are miserable. Any amount of time spent in line at a Target as the holiday approaches will swiftly reveal that we’re a mess. Not only has our happiness… Thu, 21 Dec 2017 03:57:07 EST Kaya Oakes 9529f61c-d041-4acb-b7a0-b91679bd89f1 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/05/20/do-arguments-against-bathroom-equality-hold-water Let the backlash begin. The arguments against President Obama’s historic directive that public schools allow trans students to use the bathroom of their choice has met with the expected opposition, with the arguments against running the gamut from libertarian to… Fri, 20 May 2016 11:14:38 EDT Patricia Miller d1fc184c-cd8a-439d-9532-f99c8328c1e5 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/09/24/conservative-points-popes-speech-include-liberal-chasers The narrative going into Pope Francis’ historic speech to Congress was that it wouldn’t be political, focusing instead on the “pastoral,” or “partisan” because Catholic social teaching cuts across issues identified with the left and the right. Writing in the… Thu, 24 Sep 2015 04:37:53 EDT Patricia Miller e25cc2d4-d3d9-40a3-92e4-a0ded79ee405 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/04/14/conservative-evangelicalisms-gender-role-rift-whither-women While most wait for evangelicals to shift on marriage, a more salient debate is taking place. Tue, 14 Apr 2015 04:39:09 EDT Jacob Lupfer f0fad211-2e62-4ee8-9dce-1a02f18e5769