Word&Way News: Sept. 15
Here’s the weekly roundup from Word&Way. In addition to a report on church politicking in Mississippi’s gubernatorial race that is free for anyone to read, paid subscribers to A Public Witness received a reflection for the 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Review: Eucharist and Unity. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Eucharist and Unity: A Theological Memoir by Keith Watkins.
Meet the Pastor Behind That ‘Quitting the Church’ Essay. Bob Smietana spoke with a Presbyterian pastor whose blog post about quitting went viral.
‘The Great Dechurching’ Explores America’s Religious Exodus. A new study looks at why millions of Americans left church — and what might bring them back.
At Sing! Global, a Faithful Pushback to the Spread of Megachurch Praise Music. Grace Beckner reported on Keith and Kristyn Getty’s recent hymn conference.
Christian Lawmakers Push Battle Over Church and State After Roe. Henry Larson and Francesca D'Annunzio reported on Christian Nationalism among state lawmakers across the country.
Dangerous Dogma
This week: David Gushee on Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies
Another noteworthy podcast this week:
A new podcast series takes listeners inside a fundamentalist school: Surviving Bob Jones University: A Christian Cult.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
In July, I wrote a piece critiquing Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler for claiming the school had a “major” plaque in a “prominent” place on campus to honor Black people enslaved by the school’s founders. The piece was cited in August by the Louisville Courier-Journal and Baptist News Global. But Mohler ignored requests for comment from myself and others. But he’s finally spoken up to defend the small (and inaccurate) plaque.
“I guess there are persons who could say it could be in a more prominent spot, but, frankly, I’d be hard pressed to find an area of wall on which a marker could be made that would be more prominent,” Mohler told the Christian Post.
That statement reveals a lot. He thinks the way to address the school’s legacy of slavery was to find a spot on some wall. But in my piece in July, I highlighted significant memorials at eight different schools that are much more than just hanging something on a wall somewhere.
Mohler also told the Christian Post that the seminary didn’t have a public ceremony when the plaque was installed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that doesn’t explain why there doesn’t seem to have been any public announcement about it. And other schools found ways to still publicly honor enslaved persons as they unveiled memorials during the pandemic. As the Christian Post article notes, a Black Baptist pastor who pushed for a memorial (and pledged to donate for it) wasn’t even told.
The Christian Post apparently didn’t ask Mohler about the inaccurate claim on the plaque that the names of the enslaved persons aren’t known. But even the issues he did address prove what I wrote in July: “Mohler’s shown himself philosophically and theologically unequipped for the moral reckoning with history that is needed.”
Survey Says…
Other News of Note
Ryan Burge wrote for Politico about how “the Religious Right’s grip on the GOP is weakening. That’s working to Trump’s advantage.”
Kim Roberts of MinistryWatch questioned why Evangelism Explosion is sponsoring a far-right political summit this weekend.
Amanda Tyler wrote for CNN about the problems with a new Texas law allowing public schools to replace counselors with chaplains.
Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky who invoked her religious beliefs when she refused to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, has been ordered by a federal jury to pay the couple $100,000.
“It shouldn’t need to be said that the Bible shouldn’t trump American law, but this campaign season it needs to be repeated, over and over again.” —Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons in a column for MSNBC about a Christian Nationalistic “Project 2025” plan.
A priest in India shared about leading a private communion service for President Joe Biden during a recent trip for the G20 Summit.
Jeff Hampton reported for Baptist News Global on the recent advocacy conference by Fellowship Southwest.
Wheaton College in Illinois released a report documenting its history of racism and calling for acts of repentance.
The president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States wrote in America magazine about the efforts of his tradition to address their legacy of slavery.
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