WACO (RNS)—Imagine a job interview where, to get the gig, your spouse must answer intrusive questions about their fertility, personal religious beliefs and their own career trajectory.

Such interrogations are common for many pastors’ wives across white evangelicalism, according to medieval historian Beth Allison Barr—herself a pastor’s wife and the James Vardaman Endowed Chair of History at Baylor University.

 In her new book, Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry, that’s only the start of the often-unspoken expectations awaiting many women who pair up with pastors. Their appearance, homemaking and parenting are often under scrutiny, and their unpaid labor is considered a given.

Barr isn’t arguing for an end to the role itself, but she wants everyone to know that the job’s expectations are based in culture more than Scripture. Though the only avenue in some denominations for women to pursue a calling to ministry, “pastor’s wife” is not the result of a biblical mandate, Barr argues, but of history.

RNS spoke to Barr, author of the 2021 bestseller The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, about her own experience as a pastor’s wife, the medieval Christian women who pastored both women and men, and her thoughts on how white evangelical Christians might reframe their view on pastors’ wives. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What kind of expectations did you find are placed on pastors’ wives?

Probably the hardest expectation that’s often placed on women in these roles is to be a mom. This has absolutely nothing to do with whether a man is doing a good job as a pastor, yet it’s an expectation that a minister’s family should have children who are well-behaved.

For women who experience infertility—and I was one of those women—what does it do when the pastor’s wife can’t be a mom? I remember being confronted head-on by people in more than one congregation about my inability to produce a child. I think it really highlights the weirdness of this role, this unofficial position that is connected to another person’s job.

What does the Bible say about the role of a pastor’s wife?

There is no clear example to point to. And so, here we have this role that has no clear biblical grounding. Almost all of the female leaders in the Bible, we know very little, perhaps nothing, about their marital status. We’ve taken this role that is nowhere in the Bible and then have held it up as sort of the ideal model for biblical women, for godly women.

What historical factors led to the role of the pastor’s wife being what it is today?

In the early Christian world, there was a lot of emphasis placed on unmarried people serving or people giving up their spouses. The Reformation changes this. For early Protestants, the way you distinguished a Protestant minister was that he was married. In many ways, the minister’s wife becomes a symbol of resistance. She literally embodies this conversion experience. These women broke the law to get married, and marriage becomes part of the job description to be a minister.

For a good while, though, we still see women who are serving in independent ministry roles, or women who are married to pastors who are rejecting the pastor’s wife image. There were multiple options for women, and it’s not really until the latter part of the 20th century that we begin to see this idea that the best way to be in ministry as a woman is to be married to a pastor.

How is the decline of women’s ordination related to the rise of the pastor’s wife in the evangelical church?

I write about some powerful women who were serving as pastors to men in the Southern Baptist Convention well into the post-World War II era. This is where the shift happens. In the aftermath of World War II, there was an effort to get men back into jobs, to get them into college, in part by discouraging women from being in jobs that were seen as in competition with men.

In the 1960s and ’70s, we see more women in seminary wanting to be pastors. It is also at this moment that we begin to hear, in more conservative spaces, voices saying it is unbiblical for a woman to be a pastor. They begin fighting against women’s ordination while elevating the pastor’s wife role. Women can still be in ministry, but you have to do it “God’s way.”

The pastor’s wife role begins to be weaponized against female pastors, and to be made extremely visible. Especially in the ’90s, you see seminaries creating institutes to train up pastors’ wives. This is also when you see the spike in this genre that is geared towards helping women become pastors’ wives.

Your book’s cover underscores some of the book’s messages.

Women have throughout church history served in independent leadership roles that were recognized and ordained by men—until now. Members of the Southern Baptist church are pushing to pass this amendment that says women cannot serve in any designated pastoral position, which is one of the most restrictive limits placed on women in Western church history.

I wanted to show in this book cover the scope of history, as well as the narrowing of a woman’s ministry role. We have this image representing this woman who’s this 1950s and ’60s “Leave It to Beaver” minister’s wife. And behind her is an early medieval saint, Catherine of Alexandria, who became the patron saint of preachers. We have this woman who encapsulates the leadership roles that women held, and now we have this reduction.

Do we have any alternatives to the white evangelical pastor’s wife?

I found some stark differences in books written by Black pastors’ wives that gave me hope. They don’t argue that it’s a biblical role. They say it comes from history, stemming from enslaved communities where the stable characters were women who were spiritual leaders and church mothers. I’m thinking specifically about a 1976 book written by Weptanomah Carter.

Especially in these Black pastors’ wives books before 2005, we see that many are co-pastors with preaching and pastoral care authority. I saw more focus on women’s independent gifting and the ability of women to serve in ministry roles that were outside of even their own churches. It showed me how historically constructed these roles are, which means that you can do it differently.

AUSTIN—Christians can change the world by practicing “radical obedience to Jesus,” Pastor Steve Bezner of Houston Northwest Baptist Church told participants at Christian Life Commission Advocacy Day in Austin.

“Jesus taught his disciples to pray, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’” said Bezner, author of Your Jesus is Too American. “‘On earth as it is in heaven’ is the shorthand definition for the kingship of Jesus—the kingdom of God.”

Positive change moves on two parallel rails—the gospel of the kingdom and the government, he said.

The church should consist of believers “living in a Jesus-centered community with an open heart for our world,” Bezner asserted.

“We should create a church community that is so compelling, people are drawn to be part of it,” he said.

The gospel message of salvation made possible in Christ should cause Christians to view the world differently and live a new reality, he insisted.

“Whenever we put on our gospel glasses, we finally see the world as God would have us see it,” Bezner said.

Living in radical obedience to Jesus according to the new reality of God’s kingdom means elevating service over power, diversity over division and intimacy over sex, he said.

Because not everyone will accept and acknowledge the kingship of Jesus, government is a useful means to promote the common good and bring about positive change, he added.

Christians should speak truth to power prophetically rather than yielding to the temptation to “cozy up” to power, he insisted.

“The church’s first role is to stand up and speak up for those who don’t often have a voice and to do so in a way that may be unpopular with those who sit in cushy offices,” Bezner said.

In an American culture that values winning, Christians instead should focus on faithful service, he insisted.

‘Pilgrims as Citizens’

Julio Guarneri, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, discussed “Pilgrims as Citizens.” Guarneri worked from Hebrews 11 and 12 to demonstrate Christians are called to be nomads who rely on the supremacy of Jesus.

In circumstances that “may not look like what we thought God said he was going to do,” Guarneri said, “faith waits for God’s timing,” believing the future belongs to God.

“The early church faced suffering and persecution,” Guarneri noted. And it was to primarily Jewish-background congregations under Roman occupation the author of Hebrews writes.

In difficult circumstances, the author of Hebrews encourages the early church to remain faithful because “Jesus is better” than all things, including their plight.

The faithful witnesses of the past, listed in Hebrews 11, are to serve as exemplars, Guarneri noted.

In Hebrews 11:8-10, Abraham is described as a nomad, who lived in tents in a foreign land, called by God to go on a journey of faith to the land that eventually would be the promised land.

“The Bible tells us the children of Abraham are nomads. They admit that they are strangers and foreigners on Earth, looking for a better country.”

But, Guarneri noted, the destination, the city that endures, is not any earthly city. The final destination is the City of God.

The legacy for Abraham and Issac and Jacob, that of sojourner, is the same for anyone who has trusted Jesus, Guarneri said. “We hold loosely to our citizenship here on Earth, because our citizenship in heaven is better. … We’re pilgrims marching on to Zion.”

However, citizenship in heaven doesn’t mean Christians “live irresponsibly” here, Guarneri said. “On the contrary, because we know our destiny, then we can make a great difference here.”

Citizens of a heavenly kingdom should be the best citizens here, Guarneri said.

“Because we are pilgrims” and sojourners, “we identify” with the Hebrew people in the Old Testament, the struggling Jewish church in the first century, Baptist forefathers and mothers—who were forced to be on the move from persecution—and migrant people of today, Guarneri asserted.

“Our entire biblical and Baptist legacy is tied to a migrating people. That should mean something to us,” Guarneri said, noting that doesn’t mean not securing borders or caring for the rule of law.

But, it should mean caring for sojourners and identifying with those who are on pilgrimage.

“When a marginalized group grows in power and influence, it should never become the bully. Jesus is better,” he continued.

In Hebrews 12:2, “our attention turns to the main character of the sermon … fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorned its shame, and sat down at the right hand of Jesus.”

As dual-citizens, the supreme exemplar Jesus shows that while the kingdom of God’s end outcome is success, suffering is the path to that victory, he said.

“When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we see a king on a throne, but we also see a cross.”

If Jesus didn’t avoid pain and suffering, “neither will we.” And, God will use suffering, “to shape us into Christ-likeness” and “make us holy.”

Today’s Christians want to be respected and “wield our power to show the world that we are better than them. That’s not the way of Jesus,” he observed.

Pilgrim-citizens should live in a way that draws people to Christ and makes them want to know why Jesus’ followers are so different.

Jesus not only finished the race victoriously, he also made it possible for Christ-followers to reach the reward. We can begin to build now something we know God will make reality, he concluded.

Jesus’ stump speech

Tim Alberta, author of American Carnage and The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, gave the final keynote address.

Alberta began by explaining he’s gotten to know Texas well in the past few years, since about 1 in 3 of the talks he’s been asked to give since his books were published have been here.

Alberta said in the time he’s spent in Texas over the past decade writing his books and working as a political journalist, he’s observed a particular emphasis on toughness and bravado is required for political campaigning in the state.

While politics throughout the country have seen culture, theology and politics become enmeshed, Texas politics are extra “gritty,” he noted. So, he suggested, the “stump speech” of Jesus, found in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, seems particularly difficult to reconcile in Texas.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and the other beatitudes and imperatives that follow, would have a political rally audience squirming, Alberta said.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lists examples of how his instructions for his followers differ from what they believed was required of them, he pointed out.

“You’ve been told to ‘love your neighbor and hate your enemies,’ and I tell you to love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.”

But, Alberta suggested, it’s important to consider how the entire story of humanity’s relationship to God in Scripture, from the Garden of Eden all the way to the Ascension, to present day is one of our continually misinterpreting and misunderstanding what it is we are called to be.

In “lowest common denominator politics” that leave no room for mercy or grace, Christians must ask “who we’re called to be,” he said.

Alberta noted Micah 6:8 makes God’s requirements so clear, he believes “we will be judged” for failing to follow them.

“We waited for a conqueror, and we got a child,” he said. “Are we still, today, misreading who God is calling us to be?”

Believers always have struggled with living out being a citizen of another world while still living in this one.

But, he urged, the Matthew 5 “stump speech can be yours” and the transformative power of the gospel will help Christians get that proportionality right.

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp

“It’s important to be a prophetic voice and to think about how we want to engage in the public square, but it also matters how we do it,” Katie Frugé, director of Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission, told those gathered Feb. 28 for the Maston Friends Reunion in Richardson.

“Christians are naturally drawn to the public square,” Frugé asserted. “What is our approach, what is our posture as we do that?” she asked.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas president appointed a committee in 1949 to consider establishing an agency to address moral and ethical issues. Christian ethicist and seminary professor T.B. Maston chaired that committee, which recommended in 1950 the formation of the Christian Life Commission.

The CLC director is a named member of the T.B. Maston Foundation board.

“We should be marked in behavior and approach by something different, that we look different from the world,” Frugé said.

“It’s not just the ‘what’ of what we’re engaging, but it’s how we do and why we engage it,” she added.

“The bottom line … expectation of the children of God” is captured in Scripture such as Proverbs 14:31, Isaiah 1:17and Mathew 25:31-46, Frugé explained.

How Christians engage

Quoting former CLC Director Phil Strickland, Frugé said: “For Christians to withdraw themselves from the world of politics is poor strategy. It leaves salt in the saltshaker.”

Matthew 5:13-16 suggests three principles for how Christians can approach public and political engagement, she said.

1. Engage with purpose.

Noting “salt enhances and preserves,” Frugé said Christians’ engagement “shouldn’t be reckless, reactionary or for personal gain,” but should bring “truth and hope”

Often, “people who claim the name of Christ are too salty or not salty enough,” Frugé said, saying Christians need to keep 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 in mind: “If I [have every spiritual gift], but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

“I think there’s a lot of clanging cymbals going around right now,” Frugé said. “If we look at the world of engagement … so much of it, I think, just turns into unmeaningful noise.”

As Christians engage issues, they need to do it “in a way that brings enhancement, preserving what is good, bringing hope, bringing grace, bringing justice, into the cultural conversation,” Frugé contended. They also should avoid “the clanging cymbals,” she added.

2. Engage with passion.

Christians should shine as light shines, Frugé said.

To meet a growing sense of weariness and apathy among those in younger generations who question why they even should try, Frugé challenged Christians to show them “there is something worth caring for, something bigger than us.”

At the same time, this “passion for truth” must “be paired with respect and civility, she said, as Peter instructs in 1 Peter 3:15-17: “… do this with gentleness and respect.”

Being passionate about the truth doesn’t mean compromising our witness, Frugé counseled. Since so many in the world are engaging the issues without gentleness or respect, Christians following biblical principles will be noticed for acting differently.

3. Engage with priorities.

“Not every debate is worth engaging. Some are just distractions,” especially in the digital arena, Frugé said.

Just as the ancients argued about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, there are modern-day equivalents, she noted. Likewise, some argue “about things that aren’t even real,” such as fake photos or videos created by artificial intelligence.

Christians should follow James’ instruction to “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19), Frugé said.

Additionally, Micah 6:8 is “the guard rail, … the north star” for Christian engagement, she said.

Micah is an analog to the current day, Frugé contended.

“We definitely have government and institutional leaders who are perfectly fine exploiting the poor, taking advantage of the vulnerable,” she said.

“We see spiritual leaders who are willing to take compromises and take the advantages of political power and influence and be able to sell it for pennies on the dollar,” she added.

Through Micah, God told his people: “You know what to do. You know what I’ve asked you to do. … I want my people to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly. And that’s really the redemptive arc of the story … come back to this. This is what your focus is supposed to be. [And] that is our call as well,” Frugé said.

Why Christians engage

Matthew 22:35-40 explains why Christians should engage in the public square—to love God and love people, Frugé said.

The Christian’s “ultimate purpose is Christ,” Frugé asserted. Therefore, Christians’ “engagement is not about building influence or winning debate. It’s not to advance our position. It’s a commitment to the kingdom of God above all else,” she added.

The gospel and the kingdom of heaven must remain central, Frugé said. While “the gospel is inherently political, … it’s never partisan,” nor is it “a tool for our political or personal gain,” she said.

“When the gospel, the kingdom of heaven is weaponized for political or partisan gain, it’s irreversibly compromised. It’s no longer the life-giving, truth-speaking message of the King and the kingdom of heaven,” Frugé contended.

Christian engagement is “only so that others could come to know Christ and him crucified,” Frugé said, tying this to the Christian’s commitment to the kingdom of heaven over any institution.

“Know where your loyalties lie, and don’t doubt that,” she said, quoting Ferrell Foster, former director of ethics and justice for the Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.

Furthermore, “our engagement is ultimately a spiritual battle,” Frugé said, citing Ephesians 6:12.

“We need to stop dehumanizing everyone and ‘the other,’” she said. “There’s a lot of dehumanization going on out there. … When we normalize dehumanizing behavior, it starts to create permission structures both mentally and [socially] to treat people as less-than. There is rampant dehumanization going on right now that should be very concerning to all of us.”

In contrast, Christians must treat people as image-bearers of God rather than personal enemies.

“Right now, there is a push to try to separate the Christian faith from Christian practice, and our role is to say, ‘Absolutely not,’” Frugé asserted.

“[These] are two sides of the same coin. You cannot separate these. No matter what governmental agencies or anything like that might want to say, faith and practice are two sides of the Christian witness. We’re going to hold to that, even if there are consequences or what may come.

“Our role ultimately is citizens of heaven, and so, we’re going to continue doing what the church has been committed to doing for 2,000 years.”

Addressing racism biblically

During the Maston Friends Reunion, several acknowledged T.B. Maston perhaps is best known for his views on racism and segregation. Maston’s first book on race, Of One: A study of Christian principles and race relations, was published in 1946, Kristopher Norris noted.

Norris described three dimensions of white supremacy: privilege, perspective and practices. Privilege refers to the material advantages white people have. Perspective refers to the universal normativity granted whiteness. Practices refers to culturally guided behaviors.

Drawing from Black theologian James Cone’s use of Mark 8:34, Norris contended racism must be confronted on three levels: remembrance, repentance and reparation.

Remembrance involves denying oneself by acknowledging the wrongs done. Repentance entails taking up one’s cross through public acts of contrition. Reparation means following Jesus, who demonstrated solidarity with the vulnerable and harmed.

Zacchaeus, who publicly pledged to “give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount,” offers a biblical example (Luke 19:1-10), Norris suggested.

Norris recently completed his service on the T.B. Maston Foundation board, is flourishing director for The Shalom Project in Winston-Salem, N.C., and is author of Witnessing Whiteness: Confronting White Supremacy in the American Church.

Greg Blank, Kingdom Baits founder and student at Stark Seminary and College, didn’t grow up in church. He grew up fishing.

The son of a bass fisherman and deepwater oil rig worker, he’s been “throwing lures” for a long time, he said, though his interests moved from bass to saltwater fishing once he tried it.

“I prefer not having to throw 10,000 times to catch five fish,” he mused, but saltwater or fresh, he still loves fishing.

Fishing was his whole life, Blank explained, saying, “I worshipped fishing.”

He fished professionally offshore. And he “went to school for aquaculture, the study of raising fish, everything fishing,” until he met his wife.

Blank has been producing Kingdom Baits for about 15 months with the help of his family including his teenage son, Fisher, and his other children, but the business is still just getting started.

Between supply-preaching, working on his certificate of ministry at Stark and shift work at Seadrift Coke—a plant that produces petroleum needle coke—and his main job of husband and father, Blank said he’s short on free time to devote to his Kingdom-focused startup.

But the calling he feels and his heart for young anglers propels him forward in the business that he sees as more ministry than money-maker.

He’s able to make enough baits to stock about four shops in high-traffic areas along the coast near where he lives.

While he had visited churches here and there in his childhood, Blank said he’d never gone with any regularity until he met his wife Tara. She told him, after they met at a wedding, if they were going to date, she expected him to be in church with her on Sunday.

At the time, he was working on an oil rig offshore, but for three weeks at a time when he was onshore, he was in church with Tara. They didn’t date for long before they decided to marry.

During pre-marital counseling, the pastor of the church, John Fisher, asked Blank if he knew the Lord.

He had begun to understand what he was hearing in church, but it wasn’t until the pastor placed his hand on the back of his head and asked, “Son, do you know Jesus?” that Blank’s desire to know God moved beyond intellectual.

He cried and he prayed to accept Jesus. Then he found out later, if he hadn’t come to know Christ, the pastor did not plan on conducting the wedding.

Growing faith

Blank said the first year of marriage wasn’t easy. He was still working on a rig offshore. That environment is rough, he explained, and it is not an easy place for a new Christian’s faith to grow.

Compounding the strain of an ungodly environment and lengthy stays away from his young family, in 2010, a sister drilling rig exploded.

The danger of his job began to weigh on the Blanks, and during one phone call from a community phone on the rig, Tara told him she couldn’t live that way anymore. She said he needed to choose—the rig or his family.

Leaving the rig was not an easy decision, Blank explained. His dad, grandfather and brother all worked in the oilfield.

He was making good money. He was proud of his family’s legacy and his ability to provide. He didn’t know if he wanted to give it up.

But he had a decision to make, he noted. “It was either my pride and my family’s legacy … or it was my faith and my family.”

In the mudroom of the rig “behind shale shaker No. 5,” he dropped down to his knees and prayed for God’s help.

God gave him his life verse, Blank said: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).

“And I knew right then and there what that meant.” It meant his whole life was going to change, he said.

“And I don’t know what it looks like, but I knew that I was leaving that rig,” he recalled.

Blank communicated to his coworkers his plans to make a change. He applied for a different job, but never heard back on it.

Then, he said he began to sense God convicting him to stop “conforming to the rig culture” and be bolder in sharing his faith.

At the close of a safety meeting for the crew, the meeting’s leader asked if anyone had anything to add. Blank spoke up. He said he knew they knew of his plans to leave the rig, but they probably didn’t know that he was a Christian.

He apologized to the room full of more than 80 “rowdy roughnecks and oilfield hands” that they didn’t know he was a Christian “because I haven’t been acting that way.”

Then he assured them the rest of the time he was there, anyone who wanted to know about Jesus could talk to him about it.

Instead of the laughter he expected, the room was “dead silent.” And he got a nod of approval from the shift leader, for his apology and his faith statement.

He finally heard back about the job shortly thereafter. Seadrift Coke wanted him to come in for an interview. Blank saw the call as evidence that when “you’re obedient to God, he’ll make a way for you.”

When Blank tried to explain to Seadrift he was on a rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and that getting there for an interview on Wednesday or Thursday wouldn’t be easy, the caller was unmoved. He told Blank if he wanted an interview that’s when he needed to be there.

So, he asked the top guy on the rig if he could go ashore, the response was, “Greg, I can’t send you to shore for just a couple of days.”

He urged Blank to make good on his decision and urged, “If you’re leaving, leave.”

Acting on faith

Blank said he was raised not to quit a job unless you already had another one lined up, but he did it. And he had peace about the decision. It took a couple of months to secure the position, but it was a milestone in his faith.

He knew if he was obedient and trusted God with his whole heart, “even if it looks radical, or ridiculous, that he is faithful—all the time.”

Blank explained he sees Kingdom Baits as the same type of situation, where he is walking by faith every day, learning and trusting where God is leading.

He will pray for all the anglers at an upcoming saltwater fishing tournament, one of the biggest on the Texas coast. He hopes being at fishing events to share about Jesus is something he’s able to do on a more regular basis.

Blank also is considering pursuing a chaplaincy degree at Stark when he finishes his certificate. He envisions Kingdom Baits allowing him the opportunity to develop a chaplaincy ministry to anglers, to help young men and women know how to live a life of meaning in Jesus.

The packaging of Kingdom Baits contains a barcode link where Blank hopes to host a series of short, daily devotionals for fishermen and women to discuss while they’re out fishing.

Blank noted he has to be intentional about keeping fishing in its proper place. For him, it can easily become an addiction, he said.

But Blank trusts God will point him in a different direction if Kingdom Baits ever stops being the ministry God has for him. Until then, he will continue to make baits for God’s glory.

To follow Kingdom Baits’ growth visit https://linktr.ee/kingdombaits.

GRAPEVINE (RNS)—Normally more likely to voice support for President Donald Trump’s decisions, conservative Christian broadcasters expressed ambivalence about the White House’s resolve to bar The Associated Press from presidential events.

Speaking during a panel on “values-driven media” at the National Religious Broadcasters conference on Feb. 26, Cheryl Chumley, an opinion editor at The Washington Times, said she was “optimistic” after hearing the Trump administration was “booting a lot of the legacy media” out of the White House press corps and “opening the doors for alternative media.”

But fellow panelist Raymond Arroyo, a prominent host on the Catholic-focused Eternal World Television Network and occasional host of Fox News programs, disagreed, saying, “I’m not so sure I like that idea.”

Arroyo, who worked for AP early in his career, added later, “I would prefer seasoned reporters. A podcaster coming in, a comedian sitting in the chair once occupied by the AP, I don’t think that’s a good tradeoff.”

Arroyo said he once wrote for newsroom veteran Bob Novak, whom he described as “the dean of the Washington press corps.” He said Novak told him: “These people are your sources. They’re not your friends. Don’t forget that.”

“I never have,” Arroyo concluded. “When you get too close to the power of the source, it corrupts your vision.”

Dispute over what to call the Gulf

Earlier this month, the White House banned AP reporters from access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and events held at the White House. The reason cited was AP’s announcement it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its traditional name, rather than the Gulf of America, the name Trump designated for it in a Feb. 9 executive order.

In a previous order, signed on Inauguration Day, Trump had directed the secretary of the Interior to “take all appropriate actions” to rename the gulf.

The AP updated its style guide soon thereafter to clarify that, while “acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen,” it plans to refer to the region as Gulf of Mexico.

In response, the White House blocked an AP reporter from covering certain Oval Office events, and on Friday AP filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the ban.

Some conservative outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax, have joined an effort to defend AP, signing a confidential letter addressed to the White House, according to Status News.

“The First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions. Any attempt to punish journalists for those decisions is a serious breach of this Constitutional protection,” the letter reads.

Change in press pool selection

The White House also announced it no longer would allow the White House Correspondents’ Association to decide which organizations can take part in the designated press pool on Air Force One and at other events that can accommodate only a few reporters.

A wider range of outlets, such as podcasts and streaming services, should be included in the pool, which traditionally draws only from major newspaper and TV outlets and wire services, the White House asserted.

That decision also was opposed by liberal and conservative-leaning outlets alike, with a Fox News White House reporter blasting the decision on social media.

On Feb. 24, a federal judge allowed the White House’s ban to stand for now, though more legal action is promised by AP.

“As we have said from the beginning, asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right,” the White House press office said in response to the ruling.

Some of those at the Gaylord Texan convention center this week backed the White House’s ban, expecting it would be temporary.

NRB member Jeffrey Anderson, who has worked in Christian broadcasting for more than a decade, said while he supports freedom of the press and free speech, he remains frustrated by what he described as liberal media.

“The Associated Press, they have been very liberal for decades, and the Trump administration, I believe, is just giving them a swift kick in the butt,” he said, adding that he expected the outlet would be back in the press room within weeks.

But while most NRB members approached for comment declined to be quoted, claiming either ignorance about the situation or not being authorized to speak on behalf of their media organization, they nonetheless described unease with Trump’s actions.

Thomas Graham, CEO of Crosswind Media in Austin, said while he celebrated the White House’s decision to grant podcasters, influencers and other content creators access to the halls of power, singling out one outlet for punishment can be a “slippery slope.”

“Anytime you get in a role where you’re pushing or punishing someone for reporting their view of the facts, that is not freedom,” he said, noting his background as a reporter. “Freedom should be freedom of speech, freedom of the press.”

Graham added that he opposed a “punitive approach, rather than open-expression approach.”

(RNS)—Martin E. Marty, an eminent church historian, prolific chronicler and interpreter of religion and its role in public life, died at the age of 97 on Feb. 25 in a Minneapolis care facility where he spent his final years.

Marty, who was also a friend, mentor and pastor to many, taught for 35 years at the University of Chicago Divinity School and published a constant stream of books, articles, essays, newsletters and columns. His book Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America won top honors at the 1972 National Book Awards in Philosophy and Religion.

In 1987, he published the first of his three-volume survey of 20th-century American religion, in which he described the impact of fundamentalism on the religious landscape, depicting fundamentalism as a reaction not to liberal religion or textual criticism of the Bible alone but to modernity itself and its increasing secularism.

His work helped give birth to “Modern American Religion and the Fundamentalism Project,” a years-long study Marty led with religion scholar R. Scott Appleby of fundamentalism in seven major faiths around the world.

The project produced multiple encyclopedic books—five of which Marty wrote or co-edited with Appleby—plus several documentary films and radio episodes that appeared on PBS and National Public Radio.

“Righteous Empire and the Fundamentalism Project continue to shape academic discourse today,” said James T. Robinson, dean of Chicago’s divinity school, where Marty helped to found the Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion. Opened in 1979, it was named for Marty when he retired from the school in 1998.

Robinson said Marty, “a cornerstone” of the divinity school, influenced “the study of religion and public life with his visionary scholarship.”

Marty, who published some 60 books in all, served for a half-century as an editor and columnist for The Christian Century magazine and produced a biweekly newsletter, “Context,” for 41 years.

Disciplined and prolific writer

Dean Lueking, the longtime pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Ill., a friend of Marty’s for 75 years, remembered the prodigious industry behind his output.

“Marty had a well-ordered sense of time; every minute counts,” remembered Lueking. “He got up in the morning at 4:44 a.m. and started writing before breakfast. He was remarkably productive. He could take a 10-minute power nap and be completely refreshed.”

Lueking told of a day when a caller reached Marty’s assistant at the divinity school, who explained that the professor could not be interrupted because he was working on a book. To which the caller replied: ‘He’ll be done soon. Just put me on hold.’”

Born on the eve of the Great Depression on Feb. 5, 1928, in West Point, Neb., Martin Emil Marty was the son of a Lutheran schoolteacher who bequeathed orderliness, ambition and Swiss-watch punctuality to the youngster, while Marty’s mother, Anna, endowed the boy with a sunnier spirit of good-humored openness and inquisitiveness, according to Lueking, who attended seminary with Marty and knew his parents.

In 1941, Marty left home to study at Concordia Lutheran Prep School before earning his undergraduate degree from Concordia College (now University) in Wisconsin. After completing his theological training at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Marty was ordained to the ministry in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and began serving in suburban Chicago parishes, including one he founded, the Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit in Elk Grove Village.

During those early years in parish ministry, Marty pursued postgraduate work at the University of Chicago, and in 1963 he was invited to join the faculty at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Understanding religion in a pluralistic society

The shift from the pulpit to the academy was a springboard for Marty, who quickly emerged as an internationally known figure whose understanding of religion in a pluralistic society gave him insights beyond campus.

He served as a Protestant observer during the Second Vatican Council in Rome in 1964 and became involved in the Civil Rights Movement, marching in Selma, Ala., the following year with Martin Luther King Jr.

“He was impressive in the classroom, but that was just scratching the surface,” said Daniel L. Pals of the University of Miami, a graduate student of Marty’s in the 1970s.

“Marty was also a churchman in the most serious way,” Pals said. “Politicians paid attention to Marty. Norman Lear reached out to Marty when he launched People for the American Way. Marty just was so deft at navigating that intersection of faith and culture and how they inform and influence each other.”

For Pals, however, it was Marty’s decades-long friendship with his students and their families that left the deepest impression.

“Marty cared deeply about our scholarship and our academic achievements, but also about our spouses and children,” he said.

“He knew there was more to life than the world of learning. For Marty you were a student with a family. He was a family person himself. That’s the real measure of a Renaissance man—never a sniff of snobbery. He knew the names of the people in our families. He was so normal, so well adjusted.”

‘A clarion voice of faithful reason’

John Buchanan, the former publisher of The Christian Century who died earlier in February, described Marty in an interview as “one of the most grace-filled human beings I’ve met and a clarion voice of faithful reason in our culture which is so desperately needed today.”

Buchanan, longtime pastor of Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church, also paid tribute to Marty as a “world-class scholar and a devoted churchman who was always skillful in bringing out the better angels in others.”

Emily D. Crews, executive director of the Martin Marty Center, praised Marty as “a devoted teacher and adviser who leaves a legacy of boundless energy and creativity. I’m surrounded by so many people who were influenced by his work—his advisees, fellow clergy, members of his former congregations. He lived a life of generosity—generous with his work, with his time, with his students and with colleagues, parishioners and friends.”

Religion writers for daily newspapers counted on Marty as a go-to source of information, but also winsome wisdom and a generosity of spirit. He was prompt to answer calls and lent greater clarity and nuance to the often-obscure points of religion stories.

As with his students, his expertise often came with friendship, including invitations to lively wine-and-cheese gatherings in his John Hancock Building apartment in Chicago.

Marty is survived by his wife, Harriet; sons Joel, John, Peter and Micah; foster daughter Fran Garcia Carlson and foster son Jeff Garcia; stepdaughter Ursula Meyer; nine grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren.

(RNS)—The decline in American religiousness observed since at least 2007 generally has slowed over the past four to five years, a new study reveals. However, the Pew Research Center noted the country still is heading toward less religiousness.

Pew’s Religious Landscape Study’s 2023-24 edition, released on Feb. 26, points to changes in American religious observance—including those identifying as Christian—stabilizing after years of steady decline and to growth of the religiously unaffiliated leveling off.

 “The U.S. is a spiritual place, a religious place, where we’ve seen signs of religious stabilization in the midst of longer-term decline,” said Gregory Smith, a senior associate director of research at Pew, during a press briefing.

Now on its third edition, Pew released similar reports in 2007 and 2014, aiming to fill a gap in recognized, reliable data sources on America’s religious composition, beliefs and practices.

From July 2023 to March 2024, the center polled 35,000 adult respondents randomly selected from the U.S. Postal Service address registry. This third edition was to be published in 2021 but was postponed to avoid flawed results due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on religious life.

Number of US Christians fairly stable

After dropping from 78 percent to 71 percent between 2007 and 2014, the share of U.S. adults identifying as Christian has now dropped to 62 percent, according to the report.

However, it notes this figure has been relatively stable since 2019, oscillating between 60 percent and 64 percent.

Protestants are still the largest subgroup of Christians, with 40 percent of American adults identifying as such. However, all major Protestant denominations have declined since the first Pew Religious Landscape Study report in 2007.

The percentage of respondents who identify as evangelical Protestants dropped from 26 percent to 23 percent. Those who identify as mainline Protestants dropped from 18 percent to 11 percent. And those in historically Black Protestant denominations decreased from 7 percent to 5 percent.

Catholics are the second largest, representing 19 percent of the entire Christian population. Other denominations, including Greek and Russian Orthodox, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses, represent 3 percent of the Christian population.

Members of the United Methodist Church declined from 5 percent to 3 percent of U.S. adults since 2007. The report also indicates similar declines in Baptist and Lutheran Christians.

However, those identifying as non-Christian religious adults rose from 4.9 percent in 2007, to 5.9 percent in 2014, and to 7.1 percent in 2023-24. Among them, 1.7 percent identified as Jewish, 1.2 percent as Muslim, 1.1 percent as Buddhist and 0.9 percent as Hindu, in addition to 2.2 percent who identified as “other non-Christian religions.”

Additionally, the growth of the religiously unaffiliated—also called nones—has plateaued after decades of rapid growth. In 2007, they represented 16 percent of U.S. adults, rising to 23 percent in 2014, and 29 percent in 2023-24.

This includes 5 percent who identify as atheists, 6 percent who describe themselves as agnostics and 19 percent who identify as “nothing in particular.”

More than 8 out of 10 American adults indicated they were spiritual or believe in the supernatural; 86 percent agreed people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.

A large portion also believe in God or a universal spirit (83 percent) and/or something spiritual beyond the natural world (79 percent).

About 70 percent indicated they believe in heaven, hell or both. These figures are relatively the same across age categories.

Though this latest study shows a stabilizing religious composition in America, Pew researchers project a decline in religiousness in the future. Less religious younger generations are progressively expected to replace older, highly religious and heavily Christian generations.

“This means that, for lasting stability to take hold in the U.S. religious landscape, something would need to change,” the report explains.

“For example, today’s young adults would have to become more religious as they age, or new generations of adults who are more religious than their parents would have to emerge.”

While 54 percent of adults ages 54 and older said they pray daily, only 31 percent of ages 24-34 do so, and 27 percent for ages 18-24.

Younger cohorts also attend religious services less often compared with older generations and are also less likely to express beliefs in God or the universal spirit than other generations.

Shift is possible, but unlikely

The trend could shift if younger Americans became more religious as they age, which is unlikely to happen as such a trend never has been observed before, the report notes.

Comparing the results to previous report findings, between 2007 and 2023-24, each age group has become less religious as it aged.

The share of American adults who switched religions since childhood, at 35 percent, also has increased the religiously unaffiliated and led to fewer people identifying as Christians.

The percentage of Americans who engage in religious practices remained relatively stable over the last few years, despite decreasing from 2007, according to Pew.

In the 2023-24 report, 44 percent of respondents said they pray at least once a day, which is consistent with 2021 findings from Pew’s annual National Public Opinion Reference Survey.

However, that’s down from 55 percent who said they prayed daily in 2014, and 58 percent in 2007.

Also, in Pew’s 2020 NPORS, 33 percent of U.S. adults said they attend religious services at least once or twice a month. Similar results were found in 2023-24 data, indicating stability over the last several years.

Besides the generational aspect, other factors such as gender and political affiliations seem to weigh in levels of religiousness.

Overall, women are more religious than men, but that figure appears to be narrowing slightly. Women are more likely to pray daily (50 percent to 37 percent for men) and are more likely to believe in God or a universal spirit (59 percent to 49 percent).

Liberals also seem to be less likely to identify as Christians, with a notable decrease since 2007—today, 37 percent of self-described political liberals identify as Christian, compared with 62 percent who did in 2007.

Among self-described conservatives, 89 percent identify as Christian today, compared with 82 percent in 2007.

The global immigration crisis—a politicized issue that has divided Americans and created stress along the U.S.-Mexico border—now has names and faces for nine students who participated in the T.B. Maston Foundation’s annual Young Maston Scholars retreat.

The Maston Foundation, chartered in 1986, perpetuates the teaching and legacy of its namesake, a renowned professor of Christian ethics and Baptist champion of racial justice in the 20th century.

The foundation’s Young Maston Scholars program, which heightens awareness of ethical issues among undergraduate students and seminarians, is a staple of its work.

This year, nine students from five Texas Baptist-related colleges and seminaries spent five days learning about immigration firsthand on the border, reported David Morgan, the foundation’s executive director.

This retreat marked the third consecutive year Young Maston Scholars have explored immigration and asylum-seeking at the border, Morgan added.

Retreat highlights included:

• Studying the relationship between human dignity and immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, led by Katie Frugé, executive director of Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.
• Focusing on legal issues associated with immigration, presented by Elsa and Jesus Romero, leaders of Educational and Legal Immigration Ministries—or ELIM—a program of Fellowship Southwest.
• Visiting the La Posada Providencia shelter in San Benito, where the students helped clean up two areas used to house immigrants.
• Helping Caly Fernandez, director of the House of Love and Justice in McAllen, distribute food in twocolonias, the under-resourced unincorporated villages on the U.S. side of the border.
• Praying at the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Worshipping with Pastor Carlos Navarro and touring the immigrant respite center operated by his congregation, Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville in Brownsville.
• Spending time with immigrant children at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s Humanitarian Center in McAllen.

In addition to the Young Maston Scholars program, the Maston Foundation provides scholarships to graduate students conducting research in ethics. It also publishes materials that introduce Maston’s writings and teachings to new generations of lay and clergy leaders.

A newly released report by Barna and Gloo, a Barna research partner, highlights intergenerational small groups as a key opportunity for churches to strengthen discipleship.

The State of the Church report “Discipleship Across Generations” is one of a series of planned releases for each month of 2025.

The report analyzes four studies conducted in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Each study focused on a different generation/age group and its attitudes toward the church and discipleship.

Regarding the youngest group considered, the report notes a significant difference between where children’s ministry workers and parents believe the bulk of children’s discipleship should take place.

Ninety-five percent of children’s ministry leaders said discipleship primarily should occur at home. Yet, 45 percent of all churched adults said church, instead, should be the primary source of discipleship.

Among parents of 5-year-olds to 14-year-olds, the percentage saying church should be the primary source of discipleship was even higher, at 51 percent.

Lead researcher Daniel Copeland said for their research, Barna defines “discipleship as the process and relationship through which we lead people into a relationship with Jesus, including the traits of Christianity, the practices of Christianity.”

The data illustrates children’s ministry leaders are more convicted than parents about where discipleship starts, he explained. “Parents are unsure and children’s ministry leaders are quite confident” that discipleship should begin at home.

While data is not as clear on why parents and ministry leaders are split, Copeland noted a strong hypothesis is that as church programming has become stronger through the past few decades, “there’s been a moving consensus that parents don’t need to be as involved,” because parents can count on the church to do those things in “almost the same way that we think about school.”

Parents seem to have adopted a “drop off discipleship” mindset, “that you can just drop your kid off at church, and the church will take care of the rest,” in contrast to ministry leaders’ certainty discipleship still should begin at home.

So, Copeland noted, it becomes necessary “to balance what programs are good for versus the partnership that churches and parents really need to be focusing on.”

The report suggests that in “thinking about who needs to step up in child discipleship, children’s ministry leaders and parents seem to point at each other.” But, it says, a good place to point may be outward.

“Barna’s research suggests that other adults, mentors and friends can be powerful allies in growing kids’ faith, creating a ‘third space’ for discipleship between home and church,” the report says.

This under-tapped “third space” resource may be found in other adults within the congregation, the report suggests.

‘Aging Well’ insights

Barna’s Aging Well study showed aging churchgoers (55+) continue to report deep commitment to spiritual growth, with 85 percent agreeing “it’s important for me to see continual progress in my own spiritual life.”

But, “less than one in five Christians (18 percent) ages 55+ rate their church as ‘very effective’ at creating relationships with other generations.”

The Aging Well study also showed opportunities for churches to better care for aging adults’ mental and physical health, with only 16 percent and 13 percent reporting their church is “very good” at meeting those needs, respectively.

Regular social outings, shut-in ministry and small groups are ways to address these needs, Barna findings suggest.

The report noted a strong majority of Christians ages 55+ expressing that ongoing spiritual growth is important means “engaging this demographic through meaningful leadership roles and discipleship opportunities” might not only support senior adults’ needs, but also “leverages their wisdom and experience to benefit the spiritual life of the entire church.”

“As we examine how congregations can better promote discipleship across generations, it’s important to remember that strengthening ministry to senior adults isn’t just about serving them—it’s about empowering them to serve. Their role in your church’s discipleship efforts isn’t peripheral; it’s foundational,” the report says.

For Millennials and Gen Z, the report notes a “worrisome trend.” The data from RightNow Media and Barna study Discipleship in Community shows only a quarter of people who are being discipled are part of a small group, the top-of-mind method of discipleship in a Christian context.

Looking demographically, younger churchgoers who aren’t in small groups or Bible studies seem to “especially be wrestling with social insecurities” and anxieties with “church people,” the report explains.

The data shows 21 percent of female Gen Z/Millennials and 26 percent of male Gen Z/ Millennials cited “I don’t think I would fit in” as a reason not to participate in small groups. That compares to 12 percent of female Gen X and 5 percent of female Boomers/Elders and 6 percent of Gen X males and 9 percent of male Boomers/Elders who cited fear of fitting in.

Younger generations also are more likely to say they aren’t in a small group because they are intimidated, fear getting hurt and worry people wouldn’t like them than older generations, irrespective of gender.

The report suggests churches “communicate the unique value of small groups,” and notes “small groups may be one way of introducing bridge-building relationships, which are rare to find in other spheres of life.

“Churches who value this approach may need middle-aged and older small group attendees (who are more likely to be represented in church anyway) to extend themselves intentionally toward younger churchgoers who may be nervous or standoffish.”

The report notes the “least likely age group of churchgoers to say their relationship with Jesus brings them joy and satisfaction” is Gen Z.

“Additionally, they are least likely to feel Jesus speaks to them in a way that is relevant to their life.”

Over the years, Copeland said by email, “Barna has tested many hypotheses on the ‘why’ of these trends. Our research consistently acknowledges that next generations have a generally positive perspective of Christ, but a more neutral or negative perspective of the Christian Church.”

“In Spiritually Open (a Barna report released last year) our research identified the most common reasons next generations cite as to why they doubt … Christian teachings is the ‘hypocrisy of religious people.’”

Copeland continued: “They struggle to see Christ in today’s Christians. I would argue that this is the source of disconnection. They enjoy the person of Christ, but without faithful models or faithful discipleship they are left struggling to put faith into practice.”

Churches have an opportunity to welcome next generations in a way that doesn’t confirm the low expectations these generations have of today’s Christians, he said.

How to thrive

There is hope to bridge the disconnect and encourage healthy discipleship models. Copeland said, “We would say the research suggests, and other scholars in this area align with, is that multigenerational relationships is a huge piece of discipleship.”

When different generations mix, sharing their burdens and wisdom, “we are all more likely to thrive.”

Church programming’s tendency to split by age groups, though well-intentioned, has undercut the valuable intermingling of generations.

The data has been clear for some time, Copeland noted, but programming around it is difficult, especially when Gen Z feedback says “that sounds really overwhelming.”

“So, how do we encourage and equip them (Gen Z) to find belonging,” and at the same time encourage older adults to find a place at the table for younger people? Copeland said the church who wants to work on this might consider bringing the different generations together to discuss how to form intergenerational discipleship groups.

Other insights in the report seek to answer how churches can “equip older adults to serve as mentors in faith while still experiencing spiritual vitality as elder disciples themselves,” and “what are the distinct discipleship needs and preferences of Gen Z, Millennials and beyond?”

The report concludes, “Churches can create spaces where different generational perspectives are shared and valued—and where the life and lessons of Jesus are taught and realized in community.”

Opportunities to participate in events—the next of which is a webinar happening March 12—surrounding State of the Church releases can be found at https://stateofthechurch.com/events.

(RNS)—Americans are polarized on many issues in public life, from what books kids should be allowed to read in school to how to reform the nation’s immigration system.

One thing most do agree on, regardless of party affiliation, is in-vitro fertilization—more commonly known as IVF. Seventy percent of Americans told Pew Research they believe access to IVF is a good thing, while only 8 percent said it was bad, according to a 2024 survey.

Members of the nation’s largest faith groups also see IVF access as a positive, including Black Protestants (69 percent), Catholics (65 percent) and the evangelical (63 percent) and non-evangelical (78 percent) varieties of white Protestants, as do the unaffiliated (78 percent).

That’s likely one reason why Donald Trump recently issued an executive order on Feb. 18, promising to reduce the cost of IVF.

“Therefore, to support American families, it is the policy of my Administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment, including by easing unnecessary statutory or regulatory burdens to make IVF treatment drastically more affordable,” Trump wrote.

While people in the pews might applaud the president’s actions, a number of high-profile faith leaders, including the nation’s Catholic bishops, are not pleased.

Some oppose the action

“As pastors, we see the suffering of so many couples experiencing infertility and know their deep desire to have children is both good and admirable; yet the Administration’s push for IVF, which ends countless human lives and treats persons like property, cannot be the answer,” wrote Bishops Daniel E. Thomas, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop Robert E. Barron, chair of the Committee for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, in a statement released by the USCCB on Thursday.

The Catholic bishops—like other faith groups that oppose abortion on the belief that life starts at conception—says IVF is well-intentioned but immoral. While millions of children have been born following IVF, the process often involves freezing or discarding excess embryos.

“The IVF industry treats human beings like products and freezes or kills millions of children who are not selected for transfer to a womb or do not survive,” the bishops wrote.

“Tuesday’s executive order promoting IVF is thus fatally flawed and stands in regrettable contrast to the promising pro-life actions of the Administration last month.”

IVF and the treatment of excess embryos had been a matter of heated debate in the early 2000s, when those embryos were seen as potential subjects for stem cell research.

But any public controversy about IVF had largely faded until the spring of 2024, when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled during a wrongful death lawsuit that embryos could be considered children. That led clinics in Alabama to shut down until the state’s legislature passed a new law to protect IVF treatments.

Last summer, Southern Baptists passed a resolution asking church members to be wary of IVF and calling the process immoral. The resolution also called for more government regulation of IVF and for limits on how many embryos are created in treatment.

Brent Leatherwood, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, says the White House should heed the denomination’s advice when thinking about rules for IVF.

“The statement is clear and convictional as it honors life and adoption; affirms the dignity of the preborn; laments infertility; opposes the destruction of life; and requests the government to restrict actions inconsistent with human dignity,” he said in an email Thursday.

“With this resolution, I believe our churches have expressed a wise framework for how we can think about this issue. It’s one our government should use as well—which the ERLC has highlighted in numerous policy briefings in Washington.”

While Trump has been praised by abortion foes for the end of Roe v. Wade, over the past year, the president’s views on IVF and his distancing from outright abortion bans have led to controversy—especially after the 2024 GOP platform no longer called for an end to abortion.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, urged Trump to put in new rules to restrict IVF rather than expanding access.

In a response to Trump’s executive order, Perkins released a statement criticizing IVF for causing the death of embryos and saying the treatment does not address the medical conditions that cause infertility.

“The Trump administration can address the infertility crisis in America in a way that is morally and scientifically sound, enabling many more Americans to experience the beautiful gift of children,” he wrote.

Lila Rose, president of the anti-abortion group Live Action, stated her opposition to increasing IVF access more bluntly.

“No one is entitled to a child at the cost of denying the humanity and rights of countless others,” she said in a statement.

“A compassionate society must work to support families while upholding the dignity and protection of every human being—born and preborn. President Trump and our other leaders should champion ethical, life-affirming fertility options that protect both mothers and children.”

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, who has been outspoken in his criticism of IVF, has said IVF is harmful to children, calling it “yet another example of adults putting their desires before the best interests of children.”

“Moreover, IVF is not ‘fertility treatment,’” he said.

“It does nothing to address the heartbreak of infertility. There are effective medical treatments for couples struggling in this area. If the government is going to expend resources to make the manufacturing of babies in a laboratory more easily accessible, it should do the same for medical treatment of infertility.”

By contrast, Americans for IVF, which calls itself a “conservative pro-family group” cheered Trump’s order, saying it would help infertile couples have children—without the financial burden of paying for IVF treatments, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars per attempt.

“As a pro-life rabbi and father of nine children, I can confidently tell religious conservatives that there is nothing more pro-life than IVF,” said Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, the group’s founder.

(Aleja Hertzler-McCain contributed to this story.)

POTOMAC, Md. (RNS)—Less than a week after joining a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s reversal of a policy limiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at houses of worship, leaders of the Latino Christian National Network gathered to plan their next steps.

“We are running a tremendous risk, but we are doing it on principle,” Carlos Malavé, the network’s president, said in Spanish to the annual gathering of about 50 network leaders regarding the lawsuit.

The southern Virginia pastor said he had heard from other groups who were unwilling to join the lawsuit out of fear the Trump administration would weaponize the IRS against them in retaliation. However, he celebrated that his own board’s decision on the matter was unanimous.

The Latino Christian National Network formed as an independent organization in 2021, drawing from a previous Latino subgroup within Christian Churches Together in the USA.

Malavé had been Christian Churches Together in the USA’s executive director. The national network includes Latino leadership within major mainline Protestant denominations and some evangelical and Pentecostal Latino leaders. The board also includes a Catholic advocate.

Involved in sensitive locations lawsuit

While the small network already has several major Latino leaders participating, its national profile is growing from its involvement in the sensitive locations lawsuit. A recent $1.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment will also allow the organization to grow its capacity.

In Latino communities, immigration fears are a major pastoral concern. FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, projected that nearly 1 in 3 Latino U.S. residents could be at risk of family separation or impacted by mass deportations either because of their legal status or that of someone in the household.

Those at risk include immigrants who had previously had temporary permission to be in the United States, whose protections President Donald Trump has revoked.

Alexia Salvatierra, academic dean of the Centro Latino at Fuller Theological Seminary, encouraged the group to take inspiration from the 2006 announcement by Cardinal Roger Mahony, who formerly led the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Mahony said the church in Los Angeles would disobey a potential law criminalizing aiding immigrants without legal status, which he believed would criminalize distributing Communion to those immigrants. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives but never passed the Senate.

Salvatierra credited Mahoney with turning the tide on the prevailing anti-migrant national narrative. She urged attendees to search for their opening to do the same, especially as they prepared to speak to congressional representatives on Feb. 18.

In those visits, the group urged lawmakers to create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal status, prioritize family reunification within immigration policy, protect refugees and asylum-seekers, ensure due process protections in immigration enforcement, continue to provide foreign aid and preserve significant limits on ICE enforcement in places of worship as a religious liberty measure.

Baptist attorney asserts church property is private

In a presentation about the current immigration policy landscape, Elket Rodríguez, an attorney who leads the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s migration advocacy, pushed back against prevailing legal advice that church worship spaces during services are considered public, meaning ICE would not need a warrant to enter.

Indicating an openness to test the question legally, Rodríguez cited the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and several other laws to support his argument that churches are private.

“If the state itself is limiting its authority from the Constitution on down and the Congress has seen the church as a private space when it legislates,” Rodríguez said in Spanish, “I can make an easy argument in a court that the church and the state have always had … a separation.”

It remains unclear whether that legal argument will gain momentum, even among network members, as an Episcopal priest in attendance expressed concern the advice differed from what his congregation had heard from its lawyer.

“Our people are overwhelmed,” said retired United Methodist Church Bishop Minerva Garza Carcaño, noting that that may be a strategic goal of the Trump administration.

“We’re living in an era of the new legitimization of racism,” she said, as she expressed concerns about internalized racism as well.

Carcaño spoke on a panel about the state of the Latino church today. Several leaders raised concerns about young people’s mental health, related to immigration fears and more broadly.

Anthony Guillén, who leads Latino/Hispanic ministries for the Episcopal Church, highlighted, as a sign of the Holy Spirit’s work, the dedication of a Maryland priest, Vidal Rivas at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, who committed to be the standby guardian for at least 14 children in the event that their parents are deported.

Offering counsel to fearful students

Another panelist, James Medina, national director of Destino, a Latino college student ministry, spoke in his personal capacity about his role shepherding and advocating for students in the midst of the new policy landscape.

“When ICE is on campus and students are scared and fearful, that is my place,” he said.

Medina discussed the general difficulty students face from growing up with tension between their Latino heritage and the U.S. context. He said a major challenge involves helping them heal from generational trauma or pain.

Mental health has become a rising concern across the Latino church. Last October, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference—an evangelical group that, unlike LCNN, has been a strong backer of Trump—launched a mental health initiative at its national gathering.

Daniel Vélez Rivera, an Episcopal priest in Virginia, spoke during feedback to the network panel about identifying mental health services for his community in an area where fewer than 1 percent of mental health providers speak Spanish. In response, Guillén noted the need to “raise up” Latino or bilingual therapists.

“Some of the trauma that our young people are experiencing is because we’ve caused it, and we have not had the cultural humility to say, ‘We got it wrong,’” Lydia Muñoz, who leads the United Methodist Church’s Latino ministry, said in public response to the panel. “We need to have a come-to-Jesus moment about that.”

Mental health concerns noted

Another area of concern around mental health for network participants was the safety of LGBTQ+ youth, especially related to Trump’s policies. Guillén said his wife, who works at a community college, sees many Latino LGBTQ+ youth living in their cars because their parents have thrown them out.

The discussion of LGBTQ+ issues, however, exposes potential tensions within the network, as some participants come from nonaffirming traditions, such as the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.

Despite theological differences, the leaders said they sensed the Holy Spirit at work in the unity they found in immigration advocacy. Carcaño, the United Methodist Church bishop, said her denomination rarely moves beyond dialogue and prayer about unity with the Catholic Church,  but they have recently acted together on immigration.

She said she’d never received a call from a Catholic bishop until last December, when Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, who leads the U.S. bishops’ work on immigration, reached out asking United Methodists to join Catholic bishops in writing letters in support of migrants.

“That was a breakthrough for us,” she said.

Illinois Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez, a member of Humboldt Park United Methodist Church in Chicago, spoke to the group in a recorded video, calling on them to focus on both immediately protecting their communities and “fighting for progress.”

“I’m encouraged that we can be light in dark places,” she said. “And more than ever, it is people of faith that must step in to demonstrate hope, to demonstrate faith, to love our neighbors, to welcome the strangers and to care for the vulnerable communities.”

DALLAS—Toxic leadership in the church has been on full display in recent years, a Dallas Baptist University dean told participants in a Nexus Leadership Conference breakout session.

That particularly was true in the case chronicled in the Christianity Today podcast, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, said Blake Killingsworth, dean of the Gary Cook School of Leadership at DBU.

The podcast describes the devastation that occurred at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Under the leadership of founding pastor Mark Driscoll, the church had become widely known as an exemplar of the Young, Restless and Reformed movement.

Killingsworth pointed out the Christian tendency observed in the podcast, to platform someone “whose character really was not developed enough to handle that level of celebrity or that level of authority.”

 “We platform these people all the time, because we kind of want the celebrity pastor,” Killingsworth said.

It didn’t take much time to begin to see that same kind of problem as happened at Mars Hill start to develop “here, there and everywhere else,” Killingsworth observed.

To identify toxic leadership, Killingsworth noted a need to understand leadership in general.

Using leadership expert Peter Northouse’s definition that “leadership is the process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal,” Killingsworth listed several legitimate types of leadership.

Leadership can be transactional, transformational, charismatic, authentic, adaptive, servant-leader or incarnational. These describe the type of influence the leader is leveraging to move toward a common goal. Toxic leadership also is a type of leveraging influence.

He pointed out that just because a leader might be seen as “difficult” does not automatically mean the leader is toxic. Likewise, “driven” does not necessarily mean toxic.

A toxic leader doesn’t just hold a group to high standards to get a desired final product. If a leader is truly toxic, “there’s something else going on there.”

Unfortunately, many leaders today do qualify as toxic. Killingsworth, noted the book The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It, by Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel, points to a danger with leadership.

He said the book notes “leadership of any kind will always be alluring to unhealthy, domineering, narcissistic individuals.”

Killingsworth pointed out that “we know this,” but hearing it helps illuminate the truth that some leaders didn’t seek that position for benevolent reasons.

Toxic leaders

The book explains, “a toxic leader is someone who maintains power and significance by manipulating followers through their own fundamental drive to be powerful and significant.” And they dominate and control.

 “Toxic leaders wield their personalities to submit their power, relegating their followers to positions of dependence upon them, rather than on Christ.”

Killingsworth said toxic leaders think they’re the Messiah, whether they realize it or not.

Toxic leaders subvert the systems designed to hold them accountable. And they establish scapegoats to blame for their failures, he said.

 “Think about how many times you’ve seen a toxic leader say: ‘Well, that was the guy before me. I warned him,’” he continued, noting that if someone is the leader, that person takes accountability instead of passing blame.

Killingsworth said the book notes a toxic leader doesn’t develop other leaders beneath them, because they would pose a threat to their own power. But healthy leadership is going to develop other independent leaders to share in the mission, whereas the toxic leader opts for “cronies” and “yes men.”

Toxic leaders create an “unhealthy symbiosis,” so the organization collapses without them. They are deceptive, manipulative and dehumanizing.

But “we platform them,” because they promise to “quote, ‘keep us safe, anoint us as special, and offer us a seat at the community table,’ end quote. We want a sense of safety, security and belonging that they are offering it in exchange for loyalty,” he read from the book and expounded.

Those who platform toxic leaders put trust in the leader to provide these things that rightfully belong to Christ, Killingsworth said.

Killingsworth listed the traits of a toxic leader as:

• Intimidation.
• Bullying or ridicule.
• Manipulation—either of circumstances or people, pushing themselves to the head table.
• Micromanaging—to take credit for others’ work.
• Arrogance and pride.
• Narcissism—“I’m the center of the universe, and you’re not.” Childish and immature.
• Abusive behavior—for example, reports of LBJ making his aids take notes for him while he was on the toilet.
• Unethical behavior—manufacturing “grey areas,” when it’s actually black-and-white.
• Shaming.
• Passive aggressive.
• Sabotage.

Platforming toxic leaders results in shallow growth, shell-shocked people, trauma and abuse and often the collapse of the organization, Killingsworth said.

“The toxic person has a bad result every single time”—even though they never fail to see themselves as anything less than “the greatest,” he said.

Guiderails

Brent Thomason, dean of the Graduate School of Ministry at DBU, offered guidelines to help prevent toxic leadership traits from developing.

Thomason said the observable traits of toxic leaders are symptoms of deeper sins that need to be dealt with. He prompted participants to consider what those root sins might be to head off movement toward toxic behaviors in their positions of leadership.

Just as the serpent tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6), church members can be enticed today when what the toxic leader offers seems “good for food,” (physical), a delight for the eyes (emotional) and “desirable for making wise” (intellectual)—tempting in all these areas.

Killingsworth noted organizations platform toxic leaders for a variety of reasons. It may be out of complacency, because “we just don’t want to mess with it.” This can cause the organization to justify and ignore toxic behaviors in leaders, enabling them to go unchecked.

A desire for prestige can also be a factor in platforming toxic leaders. Someone is seen as exceptional and capable of taking the church to that next level, like a football player who performs on the field, but brings dysfunction in his personal life.

 “We desire success so much, that we don’t care about the process to get there,” Killingsworth said, “not realizing God is interested in the process.”

“We can blame the (toxic) guy at the top, but we ourselves are just as culpable for it as they can be, … when we’re just complacent, all we care about is results, and we don’t even think through the process,” he said. “We just care about results.”

In addition to cultivating the virtues described in the fruit of the Spirit, Thomason noted guardrails are necessary to help build a culture that doesn’t invite toxicity.

Killingsworth identified several corporate virtues that help create guardrails against toxic leadership:

• Prayer—asking God to “reveal my heart” and praying for the organization.
• Central mission—Ask if everything being platformed and celebrated is building that mission.
• Have a plurality of accountability—leaders who are accountable to each other, “back-and-forth.”
• Create “feedback loops” for peers, subordinates and some who are not your direct reports to communicate with one another and offer godly critiques. “When the light is shined everywhere, the roaches will scatter.”
• Create good human resources policies—“We should be better than everybody else” at working with each other, even difficult people, “because we have the gospel,” Killingsworth observed.
• Pray some more.

He asked: Does your organization celebrate the ethics of God’s kingdom—meekness, salt and light, being driven by love (1 Corinthians 13)?

EDITOR’S NOTE:  The last section was edited after it was originally posted to correct the misspelling of Brent Thomason’s name.