Thanks to the creativity of a Mississippi layman and a gift from California Baptists, Texans on Mission provided an expanded service to Southeast Texas families affected by recent flooding.

Not long ago, the California Southern Baptist Convention offered Texans on Mission—formerly Texas Baptist Men—a seldom-used high-capacity mobile laundry unit that needed minor repairs.

After securing the unit in Sacramento and transporting it to Dallas, volunteers began looking for paperwork related to the equipment in it and discovered a business card for Ken Morris.

A Texans on Mission representative called the number on the card, hoping Morris might have some information about the repair and maintenance of the six washing machines and six commercial dryers on the unit.

“He didn’t just know about the equipment. He was the person who designed and built the unit,” said Texans on Mission volunteer Phil Elery of Athens.

Morris had created the laundry unit at his own expense and had maintained the equipment when he lived in California, but he never had the opportunity to serve with it in a disaster. He subsequently had moved to Mississippi.

Texans on Mission brought Morris to Dallas, where he familiarized volunteers with the unit, which the organization dedicated in his honor.

When the laundry unit was deployed to West Conroe Baptist Church as part of a flood recovery mission, Texans on Mission not only used it to wash and dry the clothes of volunteers. They also let families affected by the floods know the free laundry service was available to the public.

When volunteer flood-recovery teams worked on homes—removing wet carpet and flooring, damaged drywall and saturated insulation—volunteer chaplains informed homeowners laundry unit volunteers were available to wash and dry flood-soaked clothing and linens.

Three families quickly responded to the offer.

“One pickup truckload had 35 bags of laundry,” Elery said.

The next day, the crew received another 14 bags of laundry.

“We washed and dried 71 loads of laundry,” Elery said. “And it was swamp laundry—with critters in it. It was a full day’s worth of work.”

In fact, the plastic bags filled with wet laundry had so many roaches in them, the crew had to set off a “bug bomb” fogger overnight to kill them all.

Texans on Mission volunteers washed, dried and folded all the laundry, placing it in clean, dry plastic bags for the families.

Chainsaw crews and mud-out teams often are able to interact with people in the field, Elery noted.

“On the laundry unit, we normally serve in a support role for them,” Elery said. “But by doing public laundry, now we have that opportunity. It’s another opportunity for a personal contact with people in need.”

FORT WORTH—While serving as pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston for a decade, Jonathan Williams felt a strong burden to help families combat the significant spiritual attacks, sins and struggles today’s families face.

Realizing the great need to equip churches in family ministry, Williams transitioned from his pastoral role and launched Gospel Family Ministries in 2014. He focused on conferences and resources designed to provide practical and effective tools to help strengthen families by directing them straight to the Bible as their weapon of defense.

Growing up as the son of a Baptist pastor, Williams was raised in church, but it wasn’t until he was 18 years old that he surrendered his life to the Lord.

“My dad, David Williams, was the pastor of First Baptist Church in Flower Mound for 19 years and my mom, Donna Kay, served at the same church as the music minister for 24 years,” he said.

“Even though I grew up in church, I was living for myself and not living for the Lord. I gave my life to Christ when I was 18 years old. It was right before I went to college after graduating high school. My dad baptized me a few weeks later, and pretty early in college, God called me into ministry. Probably when I was 20 or so, I felt like God called me into ministry, and I started pursuing that.”

When Williams and his wife Jessica married, they both had a “great heart for missions and for the nations,” he said. They expected God to call them to international missions.

“In a unique way, the Lord did send us to the nations,” Williams said. “After we had been married for about five years, the Lord called me to be the pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston, which is a really unique church, a multi-ethnic church with more than 50 nations represented. So, the Lord did use my heart for the nations to pastor a church for the nations.”

God used his experience at Wilcrest Baptist to clarify his calling to family ministry.

“Within my first year or two of pastoring all those families from all those different nations, I started to see what was going on in homes—some of the hurts and some of the sins and struggles, some of the spiritual attacks, marriages, parenting and grandparenting, prodigal children, all those things that families were facing,” he said.

“The conviction the Lord kept refining in my heart is no matter what we do on Sunday morning or how good something looks on Sunday morning, if families are drifting from the Lord and diving into sin and putting their faith on cruise control Monday through Saturday, then we are not really a healthy church, because that is the church.”

‘The Lord started opening up a lot of doors’

He began praying for a vision to reach families in a proactive way, rather than responding “once there’s an emergency and marriages are falling apart,” he said. Williams wanted to put into practice a biblical vision of family ministry and concentrate on getting the gospel into homes.

“From there, the Lord started opening up a lot of doors,” he said.

Today, in addition to his role with Gospel Family Ministries, Williams serves as an adjunct professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and is the managing editor of the Southwestern D6 Family Ministry Journal. He and his wife Jessica are members of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

While traveling around the state speaking at churches, conferences and workshops, Williams desires to provide families with tools and resources to assist in implementing family worship as part of their daily routines and rhythms.

“That’s the heart behind our ministry,” Williams said. “We want to strengthen family ministry within the church and encourage family worship in the home. The heart of our ministry is to come alongside the local church. We try to come alongside local churches and ask them, ‘How can we strengthen your family ministry?’”

Williams noted each conference and teaching session is designed to meet the needs of the specific needs of individual churches.

“A lot of times when I do Gospel Family workshops or conferences, we’ll do a Friday night and Saturday session. I’d say about two-thirds of the time, I come back to the church on Sunday morning and preach their Sunday morning services and sometimes even do a joint Sunday school class.”

Importance of family worship

During the Sunday morning sessions, Williams typically offers a public invitation for families to come pray together for their children, their grandchildren and especially their prodigal children.

“We pray for the next generation, because I think this speaks to even those who aren’t married or don’t have kids,” he said. “I would say one-fourth of the time that we do that, I’ll have a married couple come up to me and say, ‘We’ve been married 5 years or 15 years, whatever it is, and outside of mealtime, that was our first time to ever pray together as a family.’

“So, you see these little testimonies of God moving, and yet, they are small starting points that a year later families can see that was the point when God brought about radical transformation in their homes.”

As a resource to assist families, Williams has written the books, A Practical Theology of Family Worship: Richard Baxter’s Timeless Encouragement for Today’s Home and Gospel Family: Cultivating Family Discipleship, Family Worship & Family Missions.

Following the conferences and workshops, Williams often receives testimonies from families about the impact of implementing family worship. Many families have told him how transformative it is in bringing about positive changes in their homes as they spend intentional time reading the Bible, singing and praying together.

“Hearing testimonies from families after years of praying for their prodigal child or grandchild that the Lord has brought them back to faith, that continues to encourage me,” Williams said.

“I really do love partnering with local churches. I get to see anywhere between 30 to 50 local churches every year and meet with pastors and hear their hearts and vision. There are a lot of healthy and strong churches with pastors who have hearts for family worship, and that gets me fired up and encourages me.”

‘Go to prayer’

As Williams reflects on troubling statistics about the next generation and the church, he feels a deep burden and conviction to equip families.

“In our world today, there are all these discouraging things taking place culturally,” Williams noted. “It can be very disheartening and very discouraging when you see the spiritual attacks on the family and the spiritual attacks on the home. … So, you have all these heavy things that break our hearts and lead us to prayer.

“But what the Lord is teaching me is that those things should not lead us to fear, anger, depression or discouragement near as much as they should lead us to prayer. Those things should lead us to our knees and what the Lord has been reminding me is that he is still moving, and he is able, even with all these attacks on the family and all these cultural things going on.”

Williams considers the challenges his own children—ages 10, 12 and 14—will face.

“Every piece of research I’ve seen tells us that the next generation is the most depressed, isolated and loneliest generation ever and tells us that if nothing changes, we will lose the next generation here in America when it comes to our faith,” he said.

 “But what the Lord has been reminding me is that he can turn the tide. God can change all that and bring revival. … God has been teaching me: Don’t go to fear. Go to prayer.”

He quoted Richard Baxter, a Puritan pastor in England in the 1600s: “If you want to see reformation in the church, first you need deep reformation in the home. You are unlikely to see it in the church unless you first see it in the home.:

“I think it’s fitting for our ministry and others like ours to pray for revival in the home and believe it will bless the church and community,” Williams said. “And eventually, it will bless our nation.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Dozens of lawmakers and faith leaders gathered in the U.S. Capitol on May 16 to celebrate the installation of a statue honoring evangelist Billy Graham, whose likeness will now represent his native North Carolina in the building’s Statuary Hall.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, himself an evangelical Christian, spoke multiple times during the unveiling of the 7-foot tall bronze statue, which features Graham gesturing with one hand toward an open Bible in his other.

Addressing the crowd of dignitaries, Johnson alluded to another statue gracing the Capitol: that of John Winthrop, who famously declared that the Massachusetts Bay Colony he founded in the 17th century could be a “city upon a hill”—a reference to Scripture.

“Our newest statue is a man who shares that same vision, and who believes that same gospel,” Johnson said. “A man who looks back at where we were, and prayed and served endlessly for what we could become again: that shining city upon a hill.”

Johnson noted that Graham, who died at age 99 in 2018, is one of only four people who have received all three of the highest honors Congress can offer: the Congressional Gold Medal, lying in honor at the Capitol and having a statue of their likeness erected in the building.

Graham, who once drew crowds of hundreds of thousands at his evangelistic crusades, now joins the ranks of Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, as well as Rosa Parks.

Later in the program, Johnson noted that the Bible in the statue is open to Galatians 6:14: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

The House speaker then grew visibly emotional as he lifted aloft Graham’s personal study Bible, its pages marked with handwritten notes, open to the same verse.

“This is the verse that Reverend Graham put on the banner of his life and in his final years,” Johnson said.

Graham’s statue replaces one of Gov. Charles Aycock, a North Carolina segregationist, which the state formally requested in 2018 be removed.

Focus on Jesus

In his own address to the assembly, Franklin Graham praised the inclusion of Scripture along the base of the statue—John 3:16 and John 14:6—but said the sculpture would likely have made his father “a little uncomfortable.”

“He would want the focus to be on the one that he preached,” the younger Graham said. “He would want the focus to be on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

Another speaker, North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, also referenced the Scripture passages along the bottom of the statue, and appeared to embrace the elder Graham’s evangelistic fervor.

“Friends, God’s grace is undeserved,” Budd said as he concluded his remarks. “But through righteousness, it is freely given and it is by trusting in Christ’s sacrifice, that we are saved. If you’ve not made that decision for yourself, I hope, I pray that you will.”

Multiple speakers pointed out that the process of establishing the statue took years, but Johnson noted that the artist who made it, Charlotte-based sculptor Chas Fagan, also fashioned a nearby likeness of Reagan.

“That’s pretty awesome,” Johnson said.

Other speakers included North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who called Graham one of his state’s “finest treasures”; Sen. Thom Tillis; and Reps. Virginia Foxx and Patrick McHenry. Former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma were also in attendance, as were evangelical leaders such as John Hagee, head of Christians United for Israel, and Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

Met with some criticism

But while those in attendance at the ceremony celebrated the statue, the news was met with criticism by some secular-minded advocates.

Rachel Laser, who heads the group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, argued that erecting a monument to a Christian evangelist in the U.S. Capitol was an inappropriate intrusion of faith into “the People’s House—a potent symbol of American democracy and its constitutional promise of church-state separation.”

Franklin Graham was dismissive of such criticisms in a conversation with reporters after the ceremony, saying “my father had critics all his life.” He also noted that his father is not the first faith leader to be represented in the Statuary Hall. A statue of Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stands a few feet away, representing Utah, and a sculpture of Fr. Junipero Sera, a controversial Catholic missionary, represents California and holds a cross aloft on the other side of the room.

He added: “Faith has been part of the foundation of this nation since it was first established.”

But for Laser, adding Billy Graham to the hall was inappropriate for other reasons, as well. She pointed to the evangelist’s history of advocating against same-sex marriage, bringing Christianity into politics, and what she characterized as his inconsistency on civil rights. While Graham preached racial tolerance, he was at times dismissive of activists, such as Martin Luther King Jr., and racial justice protests, such as the March on Washington.

Laser also noted how controversy erupted when, in the diaries of a White House aide made public in 1994, Graham appeared to have made antisemitic remarks during a conversation with President Richard Nixon in 1972, such as discussing the “total Jewish domination of the media.”

The National Archives made a tape of the conversation public in 2002. In the recording, Graham can be heard saying Jews had a “stranglehold” on the media, as well as suggesting that if Mr. Nixon were re-elected “we might be able to do something.”

“I mean, not all the Jews, but a lot of the Jews are great friends of mine, they swarm around me and are friendly to me because they know that I’m friendly with Israel,” Graham said in the recording. “But they don’t know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country. And I have no power, no way to handle them, but I would stand up if under proper circumstances.”

Graham later publicly apologized.

“Recognition in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall is a unique honor that should be reserved for those who most purely embody our American ideals of freedom and equality for all,” Laser said. “The late Rev. Billy Graham—with his history of advancing Christian nationalism, making antisemitic statements, crusading against LGBTQ+ equality and a less-than-stellar record on civil rights for Black Americans—does not deserve this honor.”

Other organizations, such as the liberal-leaning advocacy group Faithful America, accused Graham of representing Christian nationalism, as did the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“As our nation faces unparalleled threats to our secular democracy,” Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said: “It’s unfortunate to see the personification of white Christian nationalism given such an honored perch inside the seat of our democracy.”

Texas Baptists believe Texas continues to be a mission field, but it also is a mission base from which Christians are sent to go and make disciples. So, Texas Baptists’ Center for Missional Engagement is helping churches explore mission opportunities both across the street and around the nation.

Through partnerships with Northwest Baptists and the Metro New York Baptist Association, recent vision trips to the Pacific Northwest and New York City gave church leaders the opportunity to observe and connect with ministry work beyond the state’s borders.

Tom Howe, associate director for the Center for Missional Engagement, accompanied the Seattle-area group that included 13 Texas Baptists church leaders. He noted vision trip attendees witness a multitude of ministry opportunities in the cities they visit.

“Some are established ministry sites, some are church plants, and some needs are for training and other things we can provide there on site,” he said.

Howe also pointed out the groups from Texas foster a sense of humility and often learn from others as much as they support them.

“We want these partnerships to be reciprocal,” he said.

‘My eyes opened’

Noe Treviño, director of the Missionary Adoption Program for Texas Baptists, led the New York trip that visited church plants in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Long Island. There, the need for congregations from Texas to partner for Vacation Bible Schools, Christian counseling and pastoral encouragement was clear.

“Lots of times, the pastor and staff feel like they are on their own with lots to do, and they feel like they see very little progress. But as we listened to their stories, the pastors on the trips were surprised and pleased to hear what was happening. There’s actually a lot taking place,” Treviño said. “A lot of churches have committed to going back and joining what’s taking place there.”

Jeff Covington, associate pastor at Oakwood Baptist Church in New Braunfels, participated in the New York vision trip. While his church is actively engaged in church plant support in various places, they no longer have any northeast partners other than Washington, D.C.

“I was really moved and had my eyes opened to Long Island and the needs there,” said Covington. “We spent one day there and met several church planters.”

Covington particularly was impressed with the Cornerstone Bible Church, a congregation that committed part of their building to house smaller church plants until they grow into their own spaces.

Learning that two counties had only 23 churches to reach a population of 3 million residents really solidified his understanding of the great need for help in the New York area.

“Support can depend a lot on the church planters and what they need. For some, it’s definitely financial support; some are very willing to have teams come in and help with projects. Sometimes it’s bringing those folks here to be in front our people and let them hear what God is doing there,” Covington added.

“I think it’s a good reminder for those of us in the Bible Belt of Texas that there are pastors in churches that are in more challenging areas, and they are forced to focus on the main things and not get distracted. They also need our encouragement since they are often in areas without many Christians at all.”

‘Need to look outside ourselves’

For Nathan Adams, pastor at First Baptist Church in Hereford, the trip to Seattle was equally eye-opening. As a third-generation pastor, Adams said hearing the numbers of unchurched and the challenges they faced was difficult.

“What stuck out to me was the intentional disciple-making…intentional in the sense that they are making disciples to really go make other disciples. They really are preparing them to be sent out. They have helped inspire me as a pastor to be more about sending people into the world,” Adams said. “It’s easy to focus on ourselves, and that was a big impact in my life.”

The trip interested Adams, who has family in the Northwest, and he looks forward to discovering how Hereford will get out beyond their community to serve.

“We’re praying about where God might have us to go and what to do. We’re thinking about how we could send a team to lead VBS or something like that. Or maybe we could support one of those pastors somewhat since they make so little and the cost of living is so much there,” he said. “We need to look outside of ourselves and see the global church at work and how we can get involved.”

The global church is one thing Mike Rubino, pastor at Cornerstone Bible Church, said the Northeast can offer visiting churches first-hand.

“There is a global impact when you work in New York. Twenty percent of people that live here are first-generation Americans or foreign-born,” Rubino said. “We’re working with Vietnamese churches, Haitian churches, and Pakistani, Indian-American and Latino church planters, among others.

“Our church has seen four dozen people saved since January, and they are engaged and ready to serve. Our ultimate plan is to raise up leaders and plant churches out of that.”

Rubino said the vision trips coordinated by Texas Baptists are helpful for his church to show a glimpse of the different challenges that New York churches face.

He is praying God will bring like-minded churches with a desire to live in openness and share resources out of a relationship that brings a sense of home and family.

‘A mission lab’

Kevin Cabe, partnership coordinator with the Metro New York Baptist Association, echoed the desire to see the added partnerships with Texas Baptists’ churches become a reality.

“We’re excited about a partnership with Texas Baptists because we love resourcing our local churches. We also see it as a stewardship issue to help churches to mobilize and be sent out from their own context,” Cabe said.

“We see New York City as a missions lab for the entire world. You can serve in an urban context but get an international feel as well. It has something for everyone.

“It’s always exciting to have churches [in New York] for the first time. They are enamored of the tall buildings and bright lights, but New York is home to eight and a half million people in the city proper and 22 to 23 million within a 75-mile radius of Times Square.

“It’s exciting to see them experience the subway for the first time and to ask hard questions about how to reach all these people here.”

Raymond Gerald Dunkin, former Texas Baptist pastor and associational director of missions, died May 6 in McKinney. He was 89. He was born to Raymond H. Dunkin and Arlene Osborn Dunkin in Houston on June 19, 1934. He preached his first sermon at age 15 at the Star of Hope Rescue Mission in downtown Houston. After graduating from Milby High School in Houston, he went on to earn his undergraduate degree from Baylor University and a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. While in seminary, he served two churches as pastor: Little Cedar Baptist Church near Antlers, Okla., and Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Ratcliff. He went on to become pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in Lufkin, First Baptist Church in Quitman and Bellmead First Baptist Church of Waco. In August 1988, he was asked to become director of missions for Unity Baptist Association in Lufkin, where he served until his retirement. Highlights of his ministry include his leadership in an evangelistic citywide crusade resulting in hundreds of professions of faith; leading in two mission ventures in Winona, Minn., and Chihuahua City, Mexico; developing a senior adult ministry and criminal restorative ministry; serving on the Human Welfare Coordinating Board for the Baptist General Convention of Texas; and, in association with Texas Partnerships, taking a team to Homebush, Australia, to lead in an evangelistic crusade. Upon his retirement, he became a regional consultant with Texas Partnerships. Throughout his retirement, he conducted numerous revivals, conferences and interim pastorates. He was preceded in death by his wife Gerry Jane, a former president of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas. He is survived by his daughter, Cindy and her husband Dale Long of McKinney; son Carl and his wife Lynn of Chattanooga, Tenn.; son Chris and his wife Amber, of China Spring; eight grandchildren; 19 great grandchildren; his sisters Carol Hedgepath of Burleson and Nelda Rothermel of Fort Worth; and his brother Ron of Cement, Okla. A funeral service will be held at noon on May 24 at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Chapel in Allen. The service will also be livestreamed at TJMfuneral.com by clicking on https://celebrationoflife.tv/. Memorial donations may be made to Lottie Moon Christmas Offering of the International Mission Board at https://www.imb.org/generosity/lottie-moon-christmas-offering/.

ROCKWALL (RNS)—When a suburban Dallas megachurch commissioned a city-mandated study required to get a new traffic light near the entrance to its parking lot, church leaders hired an engineering firm to run it.

But the staff at Lakepointe Church, a Southern Baptist church in Rockwall, didn’t depend only on the engineers. To make sure the results justified a stoplight, the staff prompted church members to flood the road by the church with extra traffic.

On May 10, the church, one of the largest and fastest growing in the country according to Outreach Magazine, sent an email to small-group leaders, urging them to encourage group members to sign up for a driving shift during the five-day study to pad the numbers.

“Each shift is a commitment to drive the prescribed route 10 times within that hour shift. It’s great if you make more than 10 laps within the hour, but laps are only counted toward that specific shift,” according to a copy of the email that linked to SignUpGenius.com.

Among the first to sign up were two pastors.

Not long afterward, everything fell apart. A copy of the email was posted on a local Facebook page, leading to outrage. A church staffer posted a note on that Facebook page, blaming the whole affair on an overzealous staffer and saying the church had the best of intentions.

Former member points to changes at church

Amanda Cunningham, a former Lakepointe member who left earlier this year, isn’t buying it. “They just believe we are so dumb,” said Cunningham. “It’s almost laughable how brazen they are.”

Cunningham, who became a Christian at Lakepointe in her 30s and went on to lead small groups for troubled married couples and newcomers, said the church taught her that leaders needed to be honest and ethical. But something has changed, she said, leading her to leave the church earlier this year.

The Rockwall campus is one of six locations run by Lakepointe, which claimed more than 16,000 worshippers each weekend in 2023, according to Outreach in its annual report on large churches.

Church leaders told Religion News Service that the sign-up was an “unfortunate decision” made by a staff member.

“That decision was made without knowledge by senior executive leadership at Lakepointe and the sign-up list was immediately taken down as we were made aware of what occurred,” Tim Smith, senior executive pastor, said in an emailed statement.

“We immediately apologized to our city leaders who made the decision to postpone the traffic count. We are in the process of reaching out to all the leaders who received the sign-up and are apologizing to them as well.”

Smith did not address questions about why church staff, including the pastor of the Rockwall campus and another longtime leader, signed up for shifts. He said the church has the best interests of the community at heart and intends to pay for the stoplight if it is approved.

“We regret how this reflects on the Body of Christ and its impact in our community,” he added.

 “We love our city and have much respect for our leaders. We will continue to work with the city to make the traffic around Lakepointe as safe as possible.”

City officials said that they’d been made aware of the email about the traffic study and have spoken to church leaders. They also shared more details about the traffic study, which is now canceled.

Amy Williams, director of public works for the city of Rockwall, told RNS in an email: “The traffic study was scheduled to be performed by an engineering firm contracted by the church. If the signal is warranted, the church would be responsible for installing the signal.”

Latest in a series of controversies

The traffic study snafu is the latest in a series of controversies at Lakepointe since senior pastor Josh Howerton succeeded longtime Pastor Steve Stroope in 2020. Howerton has been accused of plagiarizing his sermons, making sexist remarks in his sermons, and denouncing his critics as liberal from the pulpit.

Earlier this year, he drew fire for telling women how to act on their wedding night to fulfill their new husband’s desires. “Just stand where he tells you to stand, wear what he tells you to wear and do what he tells you to do, and you’re going to make him the happiest man in the world,” Howerton said in a February sermon.

Howerton, who has repeatedly denied any plagiarism, later apologized, saying he was joking and claiming a cancel mob had come after him. Critics pointed out that his apology was copied nearly word for word from another pastor’s apology.

Kurt Paulsen, a professor of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said that traffic studies are fairly common practice before adding stoplights. The idea is to get a baseline of the traffic on a roadway, then to compare that to traffic at major events, such as megachurch worship services.

The study’s results often impact how much a property owner like a church might have to pay for a stoplight—and whether the light is approved. Getting accurate data is important, Paulsen said, adding that the church’s action in trying to influence the story was a head-scratcher.

“I have never heard of someone trying to game a traffic study,” Paulsen said.

William A. Lawson, longtime Houston pastor and civil rights leader, died May 14. He was 95. He was born on June 28, 1928, to William Lawson Sr. and Clarisse Riggs. They divorced when Lawson was a toddler, and he was adopted by his mother’s second husband, Walter Cade. At that time, he gained three siblings—Walter Cade Jr., Catherine and Joe Williams. In 1955, he moved to Houston with his late wife, Audrey, and a young daughter to serve as director of the Baptist Student Union at Texas Southern University. In 1962, he founded Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, where he served as pastor for 42 years. Upon his retirement in 2004, the congregation named him as pastor emeritus. Beyond the walls of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Lawson helped change the face of Houston by leading the battle to desegregate the city. He joined the national civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. by setting up a local office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King remained a close friend. Lawson and the late Rabbi Samuel Karff and the late Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza—dubbed the “Three Amigos”—worked together to tackle many of Houston’s major issues, including homelessness, racism and inequality, and they were instrumental in the creation of a public defender’s office. Lawson was preceded in death by his wife Audrey and son Eric. He is survived by daughters Melanie, Cheryl and Roxanne; two granddaughters; and two great-grandsons. A community service of celebration is scheduled at 6 p.m. on May 23 and a congregational service at 11 a.m. on May 24, both at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston.

Marking the upcoming 20th anniversary of three Protestant pastors’ arrest and continued imprisonment in Eritrea, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged the Biden administration to call attention to religious freedom violations in the northeast African nation.

Two Full Gospel pastors—Haile Naizghe and Kiflu Gebremeskel—were arrested May 24, 2004, for their religious activity and remain imprisoned. Less than two weeks later, Meron Gebreselasie, pastor of Massawa Rhema Evangelical Church, was arrested for his role with a banned network of churches, and he also still is in prison.

Commissioner Frank Wolf, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said it is “unconscionable” that the three pastors “remain imprisoned under horrible conditions.”

“According to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Eritrean government does not generally take steps to investigate, prosecute or punish officials who commit human rights abuses,” Wolf said.

“The safety and well-being of religious prisoners of conscience needs to be a priority for the international community. USCIRF urges the U.S. government to press for their immediate release.”

In its most recent annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in 2023 at least 500 Christians in Eritrea faced “extremely long prison sentences and harsh prison conditions.”

‘Unbelievable’ religious repression

Ahferom Akilas of Gospel Light Eritrean Baptist Church in Dallas knows some of those imprisoned Christians personally.

He recently learned a pastor he had known for decades died after two and a half years in prison. The 78-year-old pastor’s funeral was scheduled May 15.

Evangelical Christians in Eritrea cannot gather publicly for worship, and “spies” routinely inform the military and police about home cell groups or prayer meetings in private residences, Akilas said. A friend was imprisoned for three years after being taken from her home and arrested when a neighbor turned her in, he recalled.

“Believers are taken off the street and from their homes,” he said. “Any soldier on the street can take anyone away, and they don’t have to justify what they are doing. It is lawlessness. It is unbelievable to the western mind.”

In January, the Washington Post reported prisoners in poorly maintained Eritrean prisons endure physical abuse, sexual violence and torture.

Continued ‘serious human rights violations’

Last year, the United Nations Human Rights Council pointed to “serious human rights violations” in Eritrea—including arbitrary detention and inhumane prison conditions—and called on Eritrea to release prisoners detained solely on the basis of religion or belief.

Of the hundreds of prisoners held in Eritrea on the basis of their religion or belief, the government subsequently released nine imprisoned Christians. At about the same time, police arrested another 30 Christians who had gathered to worship in a house church.

“Religious freedom conditions in Eritrea remain extremely poor. USCIRF was hopeful last year when Eritrean authorities started releasing some of those detained because of their faith or belief. Unfortunately, this effort included only a small number of prisoners,” Vice Chair Frederick A. Davie said.

“USCIRF urges the Biden administration to engage with the Eritrean government to end religious persecution of unregistered religious communities and release the remaining religious prisoners. The U.S. government must also urge the Eritrean government to ratify U.N. conventions related to freedom of religion or belief.”

Pray for prisoners, pray for the nation

A decade ago, the United Nations incorporated findings presented by the Baptist World Alliance into its Universal Periodic Review of Eritrea.

At that time, BWA estimated Eritrea held more than 2,000 prisoners based on their religious activity. Many were beaten, tortured, denied legal recourse and medical aid, and sometimes held in underground cells and metal containers, the BWA found.

As recommended by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the U.S. Department of State repeatedly has designated Eritrea as a Country of Particular Concern since 2004 for engaging in “systemic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

Members of Gospel Light Eritrean Baptist Church in Dallas regularly pray for the situation in their homeland—particularly fellow Christians who are suffering for practicing their faith, Akilas added.

“We pray for those in prison and for their families,” he said. “We pray for the whole nation.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The seventh paragraph was edited after the story initially was published. Ahferom Akilas was incorrectly identified as pastor of Gospel Light Eritrean Baptist Church. He is a mission leader at the church.

Storms have taken a toll across Texas in recent days, and Texans on Mission deployed disaster relief volunteers into several communities in May‑—San Marcos, Conroe, Rising Star, Huffman and Kingwood.

“There has been flooding, tornadoes and devastating straight winds,” said David Wells, state disaster relief director.

“It’s been a hard couple of weeks for many people in Texas. We are fortunate that we have so many dedicated volunteers to disperse over a wide geographic area.

“They are trained and flexible to work in difficult, ever changing situations,” Wells said. “They’re amazing, and the prayer warriors and financial donors who stand behind them are amazing, as well.”

As of May 13, Texans on Mission volunteer days numbered 375 for the month.

Parts of Conroe have been flooded for a second time this year. Some of those homes have been abandoned, but many more are being cleaned out for eventual rebuilding.

Gary Smith, Texans on Mission incident commander in Conroe, said three flood recovery teams worked jobs May 13. Free public laundry service is offered at the Texans on Mission base on the campus of West Conroe Baptist Church.

The Conroe flood came as no surprise to the community.

“This area received a lot of water from rain, and it caused extensive flooding into homes,” Smith said. “The sad part is so many of these homes have been flooded before, and so it’s not new to them.”

Most people “have gone into their homes and have begun to try to salvage whatever they can,” he added.

People ask Texans on Mission volunteers why they work for free, Smith said.

“We do it because Jesus asks us to be the hands and feet on the ground to take care of the needs of his people,” he said. “And we’re all his people.”

In the midst of hard work, he said it’s easy to “forget the real reason why we’re here, and that’s to share Jesus.”

In San Marcos, Incident Commander Jerry Ickes said Texans on Mission assessors continue to find residents in need of assistance after damage from recent high winds.

The teams are setting up at Calvary Baptist Church in San Marcos. They relocated to the Hill Country from Kingwood, north of Houston, over the weekend.

“We currently have 28 volunteers on site” with feeding, box distribution and electronic units in San Marcos, Ickes said. Chainsaw teams from Bluebonnet Baptist Association and Kerrville, plus a shower/laundry unit from Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, are arriving soon.

Compiled by Ferrell Foster, based on reporting by Russ Dilday and Taryn Johnson.

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Even a church that prioritizes ministry to the marginalized can improve how it makes people with disabilities feel more accepted and included, Pastor Jimmy Dorrell discovered.

His congregation—Church Under the Bridge—meets beneath the I-35 overpass near the Baylor University campus each Sunday, serving the unhoused, the mentally ill, the poor and ex-offenders.

“It’s who we are and have been from the beginning 31 years ago,” he said. “It is what we believe Scripture calls all churches to do.”

Dorrell recently participated in a workshop offered by the Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities where church leaders were asked to evaluate how their congregations help people with mental and physical disabilities feel they “belong.”

“That’s my world,” Dorrell said. “But I still came away feeling convicted. There are areas I know need to be changed.”

Many people on the margins—including those with a variety of mental and physical disabilities—have discovered acceptance and welcome at Church Under the Bridge, he noted.

“Yet the most difficult question for me was, ‘Are they allowed to help lead and use the gifts God gave them in some way?’ ‘Belonging’ is much more than ‘welcomed,’ and we must move toward ‘empowered,’” he said.

In spite of all that Church Under the Bridge does to be inclusive, Dorrell said the workshop helped him to see his own “ministerial paternalism.”

“Most clergy and churches care deeply about fostering accessible worship environments. Yet, even the most caring churches can encounter barriers to facilitating worship services in which everyone can participate fully and meaningfully,” he said.

“Those with mental/emotional disabilities, including neurodivergent individuals such as autistic people, are often overlooked even in well-meaning worship contexts. What does it mean to facilitate corporate worship environments in which all truly belong?”

Listening and learning from survey

So, Dorrell developed a simple 11-question survey particularly for worshippers at Church Under the Bridge who self-identify as “disabled.”

The week before conducting the survey, he preached on biblical characters who had a variety of disabilities—Jacob’s limp, Moses’ stutter, Paul’s thorn in the flesh—and others who may have, such as Ezekiel, who might have been schizophrenic.

Melody Escobar, a postdoctoral research associate with the Baylor Collaborative on Faith and Disability, helped Dorrell review, tabulate and analyze the survey results.

Forty-one people—about one-fourth of the congregation— responded to some or all of the questions. Of those who responded, 20 are men, and 21 are women. The average age of respondents was 57.

By far, the most encouraging response was to the question, “Do you feel accepted and included by most people in our church?” Of the 38 who answered the question, 36 said, “Yes.”

“That was reaffirming. It’s the beauty of what God has given us at Church Under the Bridge,” Dorrell said.

One-third of those who responded have received tangible assistance from Church Under the Bridge, such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, financial aid or help in finding employment.

Not surprisingly, 39 worshippers mentioned transportation as a challenge. Recently, Church Under the Bridge purchased a second bus that is wheelchair accessible, and 36 percent of those who responded to the question use that service. About one-fourth (26 percent) walk to worship services at Church Under the Bridge, and 7 percent ride a bicycle.

For the 26 percent who drive to the services in their own cars and the 5 percent who ride with someone else, Baylor University makes parking available in the lot of its new Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center.

“It’s exactly 300 steps away,” Dorrell said. Church Under the Bridge has a golf cart available to transport those who have mobility issues from the parking lot to the worship space under I-35.

When asked about the worship experience at Church Under the Bridge, 13 of the 25 who responded said it is “good as it is.”

Addressing areas that need improvement

Even so, the survey helped the church identify areas for improvement.

Some respondents pointed to a need for transportation from area nursing homes. Others said the sound system at the outdoor worship services is too loud for them.

One key area the survey identified that Church Under the Bridge already plans to address is making the portable toilets more accessible for people in wheelchairs.

Dorrell noted the church also will set aside a designated area for people in wheelchairs during the worship services to make their entry and exit easier.

He said the Baylor Collaborative on Faith and Disability workshop and further discussions with Escobar also helped him understand better some of the coping mechanisms worshippers—particularly those on the autism spectrum—already have been using at Church Under the Bridge.

For instance, some who need sensory stimulation or stress relief already are using handheld fidget toys during worship. Others, who are uncomfortable in the middle of large crowds, already isolate themselves at the outer edges of the worship space.

Dorrell—who is naturally demonstrative and affectionate—also was reminded he needs to ask permission before hugging, because some people on the autism spectrum are uncomfortable with physical contact they do not initiate.

“It’s a good reminder for me to give grace,” he said. “We can affirm what is happening naturally instead of asking why some things are not happening. We can bless the ways people already have found to make themselves more comfortable.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—Did the Great Commission Resurgence accomplish its goal of reversing the decline of baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention?

According to the final report from a task force commissioned to answer that question, “The answer is a clear and decisive, ‘No.’”

Where the blame lies is complicated, but there is plenty to go around, the task force said.

The Great Commission Resurgence Evaluation Task Force—not to be confused with 2009/2010 Great Commission Resurgence Task Force—was formed with the approval of messengers to the 2023 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.

Its assigned task was to study the impact, if any, of the adoption of the recommendations put forth by the original 2010 Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.

“Jay Adkins and his team of scholars and analysts have met more than 20 times since the Southern Baptist Convention last convened in New Orleans,” said SBC President Bart Barber.

“They have taken their work very seriously, and we are indebted to them. Ultimately, God has entrusted the Great Commission to the churches, and the task of implementing it belongs to us all. Praise God for recent data that reveal our increasing faithfulness to do so.”

Barber was referring to the recent release of statistics showing an uptick in church attendance and baptisms in the SBC.

Adkins, the group’s chairman, posted May 12 on X that their work had been a “monumental task.”

“I pray this report would be taken as seriously as we took our responsibility to produce it and that ultimately, God would be glorified and our convention be unified as we move forward together,” he wrote.

Southern Baptist messengers voted to move forward with the original Great Commission Resurgence Task Force’s recommendations in 2010 after much debate.

Major changes adopted included a change in terminology about giving to Southern Baptist causes that fell short of expectations, as well as a fundamental change in the mission of the North American Mission Board, with the steps to get there fracturing many relationships that remain strained to this day.

Recommendations based on the current task force’s report will be released no later than a week before the upcoming annual meeting, the group said. In addition to Adkins, the other members appointed by Barber to serve on the task force were Robin Foster, Adam Groza, Luke Holmes, Chris Shaffer and Jeremy Westbrook.

Original task force recommendations

The 2010 Great Commission Resurgence Task Force placed seven recommendations, based on seven components of the group’s report, before the convention:

• Adopt a mission statement to present the gospel and make disciples throughout the world.
• Adopt a set of core values for that work.
• Encourage Cooperative Program giving and other Great Commission giving.
• Consider revising the ministry assignment of NAMB.
• Consider revising the International Mission Board’s ministry assignment to remove geographical limitations in its mission.
• Promote the Cooperative Program and elevate stewardship.
• Decrease the SBC Executive Committee’s Cooperation Program allocation by 1 percentage point, which would be given to the IMB.

From the evaluation task force’s perspective, only two of the recommendations “were ever fully implemented.” Those are No. 4 regarding NAMB’s ministry assignment and No. 5 calling for NAMB and the IMB to work together toward reaching underserved people groups in North America.

To accomplish its work, the evaluation group took steps such as studying the final report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force from June 16, 2010, reviewing nearly 150 Baptist Press articles and conducting formal and informal interviews. Additional research was conducted at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Nashville.

Permission was sought to have “limited and confidential access” to sealed materials about the Great Commission Resurgence housed at the archives—documents scheduled to be opened on June 16, 2025. That request ultimately was denied.

A primary way of checking through the implementation of Great Commission Resurgence recommendations was looking through subsequent SBC annuals. This showed that many of the points from the Great Commission Resurgence were forgotten quickly.

For instance, Component Two called for the implementation of eight core values—Christ-likeness, truth, unity, relationships, trust, future, local church and kingdom.

The evaluation task force found not only were these not implemented, but that no further discussion of them could be documented. There was “no significant emphasis placed on platforming these core values.”

While acknowledging that the SBC has “an army of humble, Christ-following servants” working and volunteering in all aspects of church life, both in the United States and internationally, the overall tenor in the convention has taken a downward turn.

‘Erosion of trust, transparency and truth’

Component Two’s objective was to promote a healthy culture in the SBC and cool down from discussions that precipitated the Great Commission Resurgence. The task force concluded the temperature has actually moved in the other direction, with “all discernable evidence [pointing] to the contrary.”

“Current objective evidence” points to “a clear erosion of ‘trust, transparency and truth’ from within our convention,” the task force wrote. Such erosion has been observed, the group said, in Executive Committee “overreach” and through cases of “dereliction of duty.”

“Notable and numerous moral failures” have plagued pastors and other leaders, not to mention “varying sorts of examples of dishonest and bereft leadership in the SBC at large leading to terminations and resignations.”

The growth of social media hasn’t helped, as the task force noted “uncharitable and unChristlike behavior” on those platforms.

“Great Commission Giving was poorly defined and never fully adopted by the broader Southern Baptist family,” the task force said.

Decline in giving

Most of the interviews conducted by the task force reflected that the category of Great Commission Giving, those financial gifts toward Southern Baptist causes outside of the Cooperative Program, came about because of low Cooperative Program giving percentages among some large churches.

Higher percentages reflected through Great Commission Giving would be published in Baptist Press, the report said, adding that the pastors of some large churches wanted a number “more palatable” associated with them in case they were nominated to Convention office or elected as an entity head.

After a “robust beginning,” Great Commission Giving had a steady decline alongside Cooperative Program giving.

A call for local churches to make the Cooperative Program a priority led to a bump in support from associations and eventually state conventions.

As more state conventions moved toward a 50-50 split, where half of their gifts were forwarded to the SBC national allocation budget, Cooperative Program figures began to increase.

From the 2010-2011 fiscal year through 2022-2023, the average percentage states forward directly to national CP increased from 38.2 percent to 41.98 percent.

Meanwhile, a call also went out to give sacrificially to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. With annual goals of $100 million to the former and $200 million to the latter, both offerings experienced increased giving even if the goal was met only once—the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in 2022.

Ultimately, both the Cooperative Program and Great Commission Giving continue to experience decline.

“While Great Commission giving did not necessarily hurt the Cooperative Program in any discernably measurable way,” the task force said, “it certainly did not help it in any measurable way.”

‘Bloated bureaucracy’ at NAMB

By 2010, a church planting movement was well underway, but Southern Baptists largely were absent from the conversation. This was partly due, the task force said, to a lack of a “homogenous strategy” that would train, track, assess and report Southern Baptist church plants.

The task force report pointed to the difficulty prior to 2010 in getting actual church planting statistics due to each state convention’s keeping its own records. At one point, 42 different assessments existed for church planters with variables dependent on where one chose to plant. Pre-2010, Annual Church Profile statistics were as varied as the number of state conventions reporting them to NAMB.

The phrase “bloated bureaucracy” was used quite often in discussions about the need for a Great Commission Resurgence, with that moniker applied most directly to the North American Mission Board.

The 1997 restructuring, Covenant for a New Century, folded the Radio and Television Commission, Brotherhood Commission and Home Mission Board together into NAMB, with the agency swelling to more than 450 employees, the task force report said.

The 2006 SBC Annual described its ministries as including evangelism, church planting, collegiate ministries, disaster relief, men’s ministry revivals, ethnic ministries, volunteer missions, missions education, communication technologies and strengthening associations.

“As a result of these varied concentrations, NAMB lacked focus and direction,” the report said, adding a comparison by someone that it had become “an octopus with all tentacles and no head.”

The task force also reported that NAMB experienced “poor leadership at the highest levels, lacking united direction and focus,” leading up to 2010.

A February 2006 analysis by The Christian Index, Georgia Baptists’ newspaper, dug into criticisms of NAMB’s first president Bob Reccord, before doing so again in November 2008 for Reccord’s successor, Geoff Hammond. Both resigned shortly after those articles.

The implementation of Component Four to “consider any revision to the ministry assignment” of NAMB has “been a major point of contention,” today’s report said, with many pointing out the decline “in certain numerical categories since 2010.”

While acknowledging “disappointing numbers,” the current task force report noted positives such as record levels of giving through the Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings, not to mention the robust effort toward Southern Baptist church planting efforts.

Relationships with state conventions disrupted

A desire to focus more on church planting led to the phasing out of long-standing “Cooperative Agreements” between NAMB and state Baptist conventions. In those arrangements, NAMB funded positions such as directors of missions, Baptist Collegiate Ministry directors, secretaries on convention staffs, and in one case, seven urban strategists in Nebraska, the report said.

“Among those we interviewed, there was near unanimous agreement that NAMB desperately needed reorganization and refocusing on its primary tasks,” it said. “In addition, most everyone agreed that Cooperative Agreements, in place for at least 40-50 years, needed retooling or replacement, and a new method for dispersing funds was required.”

Later, the report stated, “Following the Covenant for a New Century, [NAMB] had become a bloated, multi-focused organization and needed to be streamlined.”

NAMB’s new ministry direction came about as “a clear mandate” from the messengers. But even as the entity became more streamlined in personnel and focus, the report said, it came at the expense of favor with some pastors and churches, largely due to the phasing out of Cooperative Agreements with state conventions.

Decline in baptisms and church starts

The task force called it a “paradox,” as messengers voted for the change, but then many were left frustrated by the results, including a decrease in baptisms and church starts. Per the GCR report, NAMB would focus at least half of its ministry efforts toward church planting. That part of the entity’s budget eventually grew by $56.4 million.

Prior to 2010, Southern Baptists took note of the resources offered through church planting networks like Acts 29, which led to the development of the Send City Strategy adopted by NAMB that today has about 4,700 churches that self-identify as a supporting or sending church and just over 1,600 endorsed church planters.

Of all baptisms in 2022 in non-South states, 27 percent came from churches started since 2010, the task force noted. More than half of the Southern Baptist churches in Canada have been planted since then, with the Send Network active in new works in Puerto Rico, Canada and New England.

For all those efforts, though, the task force reported the number of church plants actually decreased by 364 when comparing 2011 and 2022. Baptisms decreased as well.

According to an internal review, NAMB reported 90 percent of churches planted by its Send Network survive to at least four years.

“However, there are no published reports about the survivability rates of churches beyond these four years once funding ceases,” the task force report said.

The Great Commission Resurgence solved some problems while creating new ones. Prominent among them was the “dismantling” of an evangelistic network between NAMB and the states that promoted evangelism at the local church level.

“Many of the problems created were also relational in nature, though not all of them,” the report added.

Some success noted

Even so, the report praised NAMB’s recent efforts to shore up those relationships, such as the Who’s Your One evangelism initiative launched in February 2019 and several new hires toward evangelism. Through its planting, replant and revitalization initiatives, NAMB is also focusing again on rural churches throughout the country.

The task force also praised the cooperative work between IMB President Paul Chitwood and NAMB President Kevin Ezell toward Component Five of the 2010 GCR report that called for reaching unreached and underserved people groups in North America.

Calling the partnership “healthy and vibrant,” the task force noted its impact, particularly since 2017. The founding of Send Relief that year has “continued the significant compassion ministry work of Southern Baptists.” Send Relief has reported serving 2.56 million people in 85 countries since then, the task force noted.

The task force stated in its report its objective to be a “healing balm and not a hurtful bomb” while presenting its findings. Due to the spotlight on them, entities and leaders tend to get most of the blame, since those individuals and agencies are trusted with leading Southern Baptists to growth on behalf of the gospel.

However, they are not alone in the culpability, the report said.

“To be sure, there is more than enough blame to go around for this continued downward trend,” it read. “Ultimately, if the SBC has not realized a reverse in the decline in Baptisms, all the folks who make up the SBC are, in some way, culpable. Every Southern Baptist Christ-follower can and should, in the end, take responsibility for the current state of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

That part of the report included comments from Sandy Wisdom-Martin, Woman’s Missionary Union executive director.

“The Great Commission cannot be parceled and assigned to our boards,” she said. “While the efforts of our boards are critical, it is incumbent on every Christ follower to proclaim the gospel. This responsibility cannot be abdicated. … It really doesn’t matter what strategy we put into place if we don’t change the culture of our community of faith.

“This has to be the foundation.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—As Elizabeth Neumann watched the events of Jan. 6 unfold, the former assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy in the Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans at the Department of Homeland Security was horrified.

Reared in conservative Christian communities, she found herself deeply disturbed by the violence, but also the preponderance of Christian flags waved by insurrectionists and the prayers some shouted as they attacked the U.S. Capitol.

“You had this intermixing of Christian ideas, symbols and Scriptures, somehow justifying this violence that happened on Jan. 6,” Neumann said in a recent interview.

Months before, Neumann had resigned from the Trump administration, claiming the then-president was dismissive of domestic terrorist threats. In the years since, she has grown increasingly convinced that conservative Christians are being exploited not just by politicians, but also by extremist groups, giving rise to a dangerous form of faith-infused radicalism.

In a new book, Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace, Neumann chronicles this exploitation and offers ways to prevent further radicalization. She recently spoke with RNS to discuss her findings and share where she finds hope for the future. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What drove you to write this book?

It actually came out of an interview that I gave to Politico in February 2021, a month after Jan. 6. They asked about what we saw on Jan. 6 from the Christian community. A cross on Capitol grounds. People praying over bullhorns in the Senate gallery. Placards with different Bible verses.

In December, before Jan. 6, you had the Jericho March, where they tried to play out the Israelites marching around Jericho and praying over Washington that we’re going to “defeat the evil.”

On Jan. 6, you felt your community had completed a “rage-filled metamorphosis into violent extremists.” Terms like radicalization and extremism are common in your work, but can you say more about your choice of words?

Somewhere in the Politico interview, I labeled it Christian extremism. I hadn’t given much thought to that label, but I definitely felt as if we had Christians present who were demonstrating extremist activity and belief.

I spend some time introducing the reader to the way the counterterrorism community views extremism. I offer a definition of extremism and radicalization and then try to help people understand what the evidence shows us about why somebody radicalizes.

If somebody says: “This is the most consequential election of our lifetime. If Donald Trump doesn’t win, then the country’s going to go to hell. So, therefore, I’m going to go vote for Donald Trump,” that is not extremism. The premise is maybe not healthy, spiritually or psychologically, but it’s not extremism.

But if somebody’s “therefore” is, “I’m going to go monitor polling places wearing my military fatigues and carrying my AR-15, just to make sure no funny business happens,” you’re moving into intimidation and harassment and also into something that’s illegal. That’s the difference.

You note in the book that white nationalism and Christian nationalism movements have taken advantage of Christian communities. How did we end up here?

Some are coming from legitimate places of fear and grievance. The sexual ethic in this country has changed drastically in the last 10 years. Obergefell v. Hodges (the Supreme Court decision establishing marriage for same-sex partners) is a key moment. The law of the land used to adhere to a traditional biblical sexual ethic, and it kind of changed overnight. We’re still catching up as a community to try to understand what that means.

In that great uncertainty, we can become really vulnerable to extremists. Extremists are really good at painting black and white pictures, and they offer this certainty that comes from some form of hostile action.

As the Christian community identifies itself with that political right, they’re also intermingling with extremists. That confluence is where there’s great danger. Most people are not going to go be violent extremists, but if we want to reduce the amount of violence in the country, we need to reduce the exposure to extremism.

What broader factors are at work?

We know that (social media companies) make money off of our fear, anger and outrage. They are incentivized to keep us in this perpetual state of outrage in a way that our forefathers back in the 1950s just didn’t deal with.

But there are also other what I would call society-wide factors—the fact that we are increasingly isolated. In the online space, we get a dopamine hit of belonging, even though it’s not real belonging. That real-life connection is important, and the less we have, the more we have a need that is going unfilled, which can be exploited by extremists.

The other underlying need that we understand motivates people toward extremism is a need for significance. You have all these pastors and Christian authors writing books about what postmodern society has done to our souls, how we have increasingly lost meaning.

I compare that to what I know is happening in the extremist movement: One of the most rapidly growing types of violent extremism is a nihilistic version of extremism. It’s like: life does not matter, so I should go out in a blaze of glory.

How has this changed people’s relationship to their faith?

The cultural Christian community has responded to these trials by turning to politics for solutions—turning to a politician as a savior figure, or turning to a political party. “If you could only get the government to work right, it would solve my financial difficulties.”

 We keep turning to tools of man to solve what are ultimately spiritual problems. We’ve taken power politics and government and turned them into the ultimate thing, as opposed to something that falls under our faith. We’ve reordered, if you will, in the incorrect order: Politics is the premier, as opposed to our trust and faith in Jesus.

Are there trends you are particularly concerned about?

We’re in an election year, so we are increasingly seeing politicians use violent rhetoric. (Arizona U.S. Senate candidate) Kari Lake, two or three weeks ago, said at a rally that you need to put on the armor of God, and “maybe strap on a Glock.” We are also seeing militias regroup. They’re organizing on Facebook again. I’m not sure why Facebook’s not cracking down on that.

More people are embracing the Christian nationalist label in kind of a funny way—almost like a backlash to critiques about Christian nationalism. Most Christian nationalists are not concerning from a security perspective, but there’s a smaller segment who are trying to put some significant rigor into their arguments.

I’m thinking in particular of Stephen Wolfe, author of The Case for Christian Nationalism. At the end of his book, he has these appendices that include a supposed theological justification for why violence is okay.

That is more concerning to me, because he’s laying out with some rigor—and by rigor, I mean lots of words—an argument for why violence, under his interpretation of Scripture, is appropriate for building the kingdom of God. That kind of stuff can influence a certain personality, a certain type of group.

You write, “Can I tell you the good news up front? You are one of the best hopes we have in healing the country and preventing more violence.” How can readers of your book help prevent extremism?

Being disrespected, psychological distress, a recent crisis or feeling like a helpless victim—those are all some of the top reasons why people are radicalized to extremism. I think the church has really great answers for what do we do when we’re disrespected: Scripture tells us Christ experienced the ultimate humiliation and modeled how we endure that.

The fact that a large portion of our country thinks that a biblical Christian ethic on sexuality is outdated puts us squarely where Jesus said we would be—that we would be rejected, that our ways are not like the world’s. The answer to that disrespect and that humiliation is in Scripture: We pray for those who persecute us. We do not retaliate in kind.

When I walk pastors through these details, the light bulb comes on. They’re like: “Oh, you’re not telling me to do anything new. Because Jesus has had these answers for 2,000 years.”

There really, truly is nothing new under the sun. It’s just that the social sciences caught up to the wisdom of what Jesus taught.