Theology & the City

06/10/2026

06/10/2026

06/06/2026

New England UMC Conference is in the rearview mirror (thank you for representing us, Eileen!) and Silence Broken is headed back home for the Louisiana UMC Conference in Baton Rouge and the Association of Professional Chaplains Conference in New Orleans. If you or someone you know is attending, consider this your official invitation to stop by our table and see us!

06/05/2026

As polyamory gains visibility, monogamy faces a vote in the Presbyterian Church (USA)

06/03/2026

06/02/2026

This billboard will greet approximately 20,000 Southern Baptists arriving in Orlando for the SBC Annual Meeting next week, where the role and value of women in the church will be debated once again.

We want every Baptist woman to know that God calls women to ministry and always has.

Our prayer is that this witness of hope, freedom, and abundant life reaches those who need it most.

06/01/2026

Texas Representative James Talarico challenged a foundational pillar of the American religious right, asserting that the equation of Christian faith with opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights has no solid historical, theological, or biblical foundation. Talarico's statement is supported by the Southern Baptist Convention's own record: the denomination passed a pro-abortion resolution in 1971, praised the Roe v. Wade decision through its own press service in 1973, and did not adopt a firmly anti-abortion position until a conservative faction seized control in the 1980s.

📷: Getty

05/31/2026

Paolo Benanti, a priest who has advised the Vatican, writes that as AI reshapes how information is received, the Church is discovering a new mission: teaching people what deserves to be believed. 🔗 https://on.wsj.com/4fOsPwL

05/28/2026

Now that Ken Paxton, the conservative attorney general of Texas, has defeated incumbent John Cornyn for the Republican Senate nomination, we may see something unusual in modern American elections: a theological throwdown.

In a closely watched and competitive race, Paxton will be facing off against James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and the Democratic nominee. The race is now set to be a battle between two very different worldviews about the role of Christianity.

Talarico has centered the concept of “radical love” in his political identity and campaign platform: He wants to heal political divisions, welcome Americans who aren’t typically Democrats to his campaign, and move beyond anger toward any one person (like President Donald Trump or Paxton) toward a forward-looking agenda that goes after oligarchs, the political establishment, and the “corrupt” elite.

Paxton is solidly in the Christian nationalist camp. Generally, Christian nationalists oppose the separation of church and state; seek to make Christianity the official religion of the state; call for Biblical morality to determine the law; and argue that the United States has God’s unique blessing among other nations.

He has made a name for himself as a proponent of an aggressive form of religious liberty, arguing not just that the state should pull back and cede space to the faithful, but that the state should actively promote a specific version of Christian ethics and morality. He supported efforts to bring Christian prayer and Scripture into public schools, to set aside time for Bible readings and prayers, and to display the Ten Commandments on public property.

Read more about why the Paxton-Talarico race is partly a referendum on what Christians will tolerate as Christian-like behavior here: https://www.vox.com/politics/490105/talarico-paxton-texas-christian-religious-senate-election-primary-nationalism-love-presbyterian-baptist?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=app.dashsocial.com%2Fvoxdotcom%2Flibrary%2Fmedia%2F678122359

📸: Antranik Tavitian/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images and Danielle Villasana/Getty Images