It doesn’t take much real insight to recognize that things have changed around here. The America of 2025 is vastly different from the America of 30 or 40 years ago. And I often hear Christians use a verse from Psalm 11 to throw up their hands in despair. Psalm 11:3 says, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Let’s talk about what the righteous can do.

Thaddeus Williams, “An anti-gospel take on greed,” August 11, 2025.

Katy Faust, “The myth of ‘no difference’,” August 4, 2025.

_________, “The end of the rainbow?” June 30, 2025.

Janie B. Cheaney, “Times of testing,” May 15, 2025.

I call it, “Bumper-sticker Theology.” That’s my label for the kind of theology that involves no deep, contemplative, pondering or meditation of the weighty issues of faith. But rather it’s like a drive-by approach to significant issues where we just wave at them as we go past and summarize our conclusions in pithy phrases that fit well on t-shirts or bumper stickers. We have a plague of bumper-sticker theology in our generation.

Daniel Schreiner, “Engaging with ‘Practicing the Way’: Nine Thoughts on John Mark Comer’s Best Seller,” March 12, 2025.

Maybe you’ve heard of the website, Etsy. It’s an online marketplace where people buy quaint, homemade goods: jams, jelly's, quilt, all kinds of homemade items. But what you might not know about Etsy is it is now a place that has developed a full-blown cottage industry for selling magical spells to witches. What should we think about this biblically?

Katie J. McCoy, “The witches of Etsy,” July 30, 2025.

Mary Jackson, “Out of Darkness,” World Magazine, May 4, 2025.

A few weeks ago on May 25th, a man named Harrison Ruffin Tyler, died at the age of 96. You might recollect that the 10th president of the United States was John Tyler, Harrison’s grandfather. You heard that right, Harrison is his grandson. John Tyler was born in 1790 and died in 1862. He had 15 children late in life and the last one was Lyon Tyler who lived from 1853-1935. Lyon also saw a child born when he was 75 years old, Harrison Tyler. And so, with the death of Harrison this year, we see that the Tyler family has three generations that span 230 years. This is what historians call historical consciousness, that is, the awareness of how history unfolds and how the past in connected to the present.

I want us to talk about that because America is a nation with a great past, but today very little historical awareness of that past.

Carolina Lumetta, “Pastors ponder how best to exercise new freedom to politick,” July 10, 2025.

Lauren Canterberry, “Churches may endorse candidates from pulpit, IRS says,” July 8, 2025.

John D. Wilsey, “History’s enduring presence,” June 4, 2025.

Well, we’re halfway through the month of July and I realized the other day that I missed something. Apparently, I missed Pride Month. The month of June came and went and I heard almost nothing about it and so I decided to look into it. Where did Pride Month go? After years of being assaulted every June with an in-your-face publicity campaign, what happened in 2025? You need to know what I found out.

Glenn T. Stanton, “A deception exposed,” July 8, 2025.

Bekah McCallum, “The Pride Month that wasn’t,” June 30, 2025.

Bethel McGrew, “Playing hardball,” June 27, 2025.

Religious liberty is a topic that is always worth the time to think about and talk about because the concept is a uniquely American contribution to the history of western civilization. Also, religious liberty is a uniquely Baptist contribution to the history of the American experiment.

We know historically there is a give and take in the relationship between church and state and we are forever trying to assess in particular instances exactly how that relationship should play out. Right now, there are shifts being made by the United States Supreme Court and so, the proper understanding of government and organized religion is once again a topic worth examining. So, let’s talk about religious liberty.

Andrew T. Walker, “The scandal of compromising evangelical elites,” June 9, 2025.

Joseph Backholm, “The myth of secular neutrality,” June 3, 2025.

Colin J. Smothers, “Fuller Seminary’s untenable ‘third way’,” May 30, 2025.

Thaddeus Williams, “Tax money for some religions,” May 27, 2025.

One of the critical marks of Christianity is the willingness of God’s people to cooperate together in Kingdom endeavors. My church is a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC is defined by cooperation more than organizational structure or any of the things that bind other denominations together. The SBC is a convention of churches who have voluntarily associated with each other because we know that together we can accomplish more than we can apart.

Last week was the annual SBC meeting held in Dallas, TX. I want to share with you the state of Southern Baptists: the good, the bad, and the embarrassing.

Mark Wingfield, “Why won’t the SBC be more financially transparent?” June 12, 2025.

Lauren Canterberry, “SBC urges Supreme Court overturn of gay marriage ruling,” June 11, 2025.

Nathan A. Finn, “Confessional fidelity and denominational faithfulness,” June 10, 2025.

I had breakfast this morning with nearly 100 men who gathered together for fellowship and spiritual warfare. I pastor a church where men are enthusiastically involved in disciple-making and pursuing Christ-likeness. I hear from other pastors all the time, “How do you get men involved at church because we are not being successful at it?” And I tell them that muscular Christianity is the key to living out the call of the gospel for men.