That’s the title of a new book written by Joani Schultz and Thom Schultz. And it’s a question those leaving are more than ready to answer. The problem is, few insiders are listening. And, of course, that IS the problem. In a recent issue of Christianity Today, for example, Ed Stetzer wrote an article entitled,“The State of the Church in America: Hint: It’s Not Dying.” He states: “The church is not dying… yes… in a transition… but transitioning is not the same as dying.” Really? What... Read more

TEXT OF POEM:What if I told you God is gay?Do you think belligerent bible-beltersWould still holler hate speech to the hilltopsIn His name?Or do you think they would reread the scripturesThey say they swear and survive bySee, I’ve been reading the Bible again latelyAnd I think I’ve taken a leaf from their holy book,Picking passages for my purposeWhich is in shortTo let you know it’s very possible God is gay.I mean think about the book of GenesisIn the beginning God... Read more

The cable network known for such programming fare as Love Games: Bad Girls Need Love Too, My Big Fat Revenge, Girls Behaving Badly and Too Young to Marry? premiered a new “reality” show last Wednesday that has some Christians upset at how it presents their faith. Okay, so The Oxygen Network, created in 1998 and co-founded by Oprah Winfrey — though now owned by NBCUniversal — isn’t exactly PBS, or even HBO. There is not much on the channel likely to inspire the devoted following and highbrow... Read more

This is just a quick post to recommend this new book by Carolyn Dupont: Mississippi Praying: Southern White Evangelicals and the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1975, just out with NYU Press. I had the pleasure of reading this in manuscript form a few years ago, and since then the author has gone through a lot of revisions to make an excellent manuscript even better!This is, for my money, right at the top of the heap for works dealing with southern white churches... Read more

We recently had the opportunity to chat with Jefferson Bethke about his new book Jesus>Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough. Jefferson is best known for his spoken word YouTube video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus,” which, at this time, has been viewed nearly 26 million times. Back in August, Jefferson and I were on Al Jazeera America together talking about the state of religion in America—and it went well, largely because he was... Read more

by Carol Howard MerrittR3 Contributor*This post first appeared in Tribal Church Every once in a while I get an invitation to speak at an event. I look over the names and see a dozen people who look so similar that the conference brochure might as well be served in an egg carton. I call the organizer and ask if I could provide them with some options so that there’s a bit of diversity on the docket. I always keep a... Read more

by Andre E. Johnson R3 Editor As the government continues to be stuck on shutdown and coming perilously close to defaulting on our loan payments which all the experts say would be a cataclysmic failure, an overwhelming majority of voters blame the Republican controlled House and Republicans in general for the shutdown. Some have commented that all House Speaker Boehner needs to do is to bring a clean “Continuing Resolution” to the floor and it would pass because there are... Read more

Happy Anniversary to us and thank you for helping us usher in two years of blogging! When we launched our blog on October 15, 2011, we wanted to highlight some of the best work that examined the nexus between Rhetoric Race and Religion and with over 1500 posts and over 170,000 page views, we believe we have.During this past year, we continued with our Rhetoric Race and Religion “Readers.” After our successful Trayvon Martin Reader, we followed up with Readers that... Read more

The Episcopal Church will host and produce a 90-minute live forum at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Jackson, MS, beginning at 1:00 pm Central on November 15th. St. Mary’s Episcopal School and Church of the Holy Communion will co-host a viewing of this forum in Buckman Theater, at the corner of Walnut Grove and Perkins Extended, with a discussion following, so that our diocese may come together and be in dialog. The forum will be moderated by well-known journalist and PBS commentator Ray Suarez. Presiding... Read more

by Kimberly Peeler-Ringer R3 Contributor Just a quick temperature taking of my social media portals confirmed what I suspected would happen when the Oxygen Network’s new reality show, Preachers of LA made its debut: there would be some very strong opinions about this show. You cannot have a reality show about Black male preachers with a Pentecostal feel and flair without also triggering a flurry of comments ranging from “I am too dignified to watch it” to “they are corrupting the Gospel message... Read more