Ryan Stollar has died. As a child liberation theologian and a longtime advocate for survivors of childhood abuse & religious trauma, Ryan was a light to many. He made the world a better place and will be profoundly missed. I am heartbroken. May he rest in peace.

"I am not going to sit here & be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." - Barbara Jordan, for whom the building in which the TX State Bd of Education meets is named Ironic, eh?

What happens in Texas doesn't stay in Texas. “This policy is part of a broader movement...to misuse public schools to impose one narrow set of religious beliefs and indoctrinate a new generation of Americans in the lie that America is a Christian country.” - @rachellaser.bsky.social

I don't know why anybody is still a Southern Baptist

... because oh gee whiz, look at all that we get away with every single day... hahaha.

"It’s no wonder Trump chose to court white evangelicals. Their opposition to empathy fuels his rise to power through the dehumanization of anyone who isn’t white or straight or male." - @rickpidcock.bsky.social

Southern Baptist leaders who deny the SBC's clergy sex abuse crisis either 1) have no clue what they're talking about with the numbers, or 2) understand full-well & seek to obfuscate. #ThisistheSBC

“Given that publicly reported cases...are the tip of the iceberg, people should be horrified at what the size of that tip reveals about how huge the whole of the Southern Baptist Convention's clergy sex abuse iceberg almost certainly is.” #ThisistheSBC apnews.com/article/sout...

Can a president ignore a federal judge? That's the question the full D.C. Circuit will consider when it takes up whether Judge Boasberg can investigate possible contempt after the administration refused to comply with his order. The analysis is free to read. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Thousands of Baptist delegates voted to enact "a Taliban mullah policy" and people talk as though it's just a matter of “theological disagreement." "This is a religious cover for a much broader political project: the systematic narrowing of every space where women are permitted to hold authority.

"The [Southern Baptist] Convention’s response to predatory men was years of silence. Its response to women preaching was a 75% supermajority voting for a ban. The institution has no shortage of decisive action. It is directed against women." #ThisistheSBC www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Following the supreme court’s gutting of the voting rights act, the president’s recent claims of fraud are cause for serious concern

The Southern Baptist Convention's clergy sex abuse crisis threatened the power of male SBC leaders. So, what did they do? Did they deal with the crisis and implement accountability & safeguarding measures? No. They created a new enemy – women pastors.

"You'll never look at any male-dominated institution in the same way after reading it." #Baptistland Thanks, Anne. I feel honored by your words.

Good people in the Southern Baptist Convention: "If you are repulsed by the moral repugnance of this institutional system of clergy impunity, the only thing to do is walk away. Stop giving the SBC your money, time & energy. The SBC is not reforming; it's regressing. And it's doing ever more harm."

"The Trump administration is the nation’s chief threat to the rule of law." - @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social Here's a gift link... because this is a don't-miss column. ⬇️ www.nytimes.com/2026/06/21/o...

Willy Rice is just another in a long line of men in the SBC providing cover for serial, sexual predators. #ThisIStheSBC

Another SBC annual meeting has come and gone & I'm breathing a sigh of relief. Every year, the question in my mind is: How much more harm will Southern Baptists do before they adjourn? This year, it was quite a lot. Good people need to leave. christabrown.substack.com/p/a-round-up...

Internalized misogyny creates patriarchy’s attack dogs.

"Many people do advocacy not to win something, not for a particular action, but we do it because we know it's right. We do it because we know that it's worth speaking up for." - Meredith Stone The SBC voted to ban women pastors. I'm grateful to those who spoke up for the worth of women & girls.

“They can’t go to sleep with a stuffed animal. They can’t go to sleep with a security blanket, that’s just not allowed.” ICE has detained over 500 babies & toddlers during Trump's 2nd term, and they've banned stuffies at the detention center. Cruelty to children. www.ms.now/news/trump-i...

"The SBC and Christian nationalism are so interwoven. What happens in the SBC is now affecting what happens in the U.S. ... As women's voices continue to be marginalized in the SBC, it will affect what's happening in the U.S. overall." - Meredith Stone

If the second Trump term has shown anything, it’s that religion is not a side story - it’s the decoder ring for understanding rising authoritarianism, election results, court decisions, education wars, media bias, and the erosion of democratic norms in real time.

Well worth reading. . .People generally give Christian schools the benefit of the doubt. We shouldn't. davidruybalid.substack.com/p/i-no-longe...

This miswording is NOT an accident. It's a sleight-of-hand that serves to indoctrinate Southern Baptists into a limited view of the First Amendment.

Pete Hegseth's D-day remarks are described as "a desecration" of the memory of soldiers who fell at Normandy, and as a “special kind of loathsomeness: a blend of historical deafness, grotesque stupidity and comically ludicrous self-importance”.

I’m hoping that, over the next week, the whole world will get a good look at the Southern Baptist Convention's small-minded, misogynistic meanness. They're fixated on silencing women. My latest, featuring @sheilagregoire.bsky.social. #ThisistheSBC christabrown.substack.com/p/women-past...

The pattern will repeat. When it does, may we all see the reality of Southern Baptist officials’ do-nothing ruses in real time. May we refuse to smile at their falsity, to parrot their propaganda, or to play any role in their image-repair charades. christabrown.substack.com/p/southern-b...

"14 donors to Trump's ballroom have received more than $50 billion in government contracts in the past six months," reports Public Citizen, a nonprofit government watchdog group.

"I am going to enforce my morality on you, inasmuch as our morality is God’s morality." This is the kind of theocratic bullying that we should all reject. It conjures the prospect of a "Handmaid's Tale" society, and coming from within the nation's largest Protestant faith group, it's frightful.

The biggest threat to the SBC is not “liberalism” or women pastors. It’s how authoritarian, white Christian supremacist ideology is spreading its hate within the faith under a fake banner of “biblical” and “conservative.” Read @philinvestigates.com. ⬇️ #ThisistheSBC

This is the reason I will never darken the door of an SBC affiliated church again. It is a wonder the institution hasn’t spontaneously combusted.

Look at how church representatives try to minimize & deflect. Just "isolated incidents" ... not a "general pattern" ... abuse is "a problem across society" ... guidelines "being reviewed" ... "we continue to improve our efforts." We've heard it all before from Southern Baptist leaders. #ChurchToo

Once again, votes have consequences.👇

Next week, the Southern Baptist Convention meets for its annual brouhaha, and my mind is a jumble of memories & musings. E.g., what is it about the SBC system that causes smart & well-intentioned people to go along with a narrative that is obviously false? christabrown.substack.com/p/southern-b...

The faith group that was founded to sacralize slavery & consecrate the Confederacy now makes common ground with far-right white Christian nationalism... and they call this kind of hate "God's morality." #ThisistheSBC

The heart of our constitutional crisis in one exchange between me and Sec. Mullin. When asked a simple question - if he will obey court orders - he says he will not because some court orders are "politicized". That's not how democracy works. And that's why we are in a crisis.

Trump wants to hand out 250 pardons this summer to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. And guess who’s lining up for a pardon? Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of helping sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein recruit and groom underage girls…

This Administration's violations of the rule of law, our Constitution, and ethical boundaries have caused a stunning exodus of legal talent from the federal government.

Here's a grade-by-grade breakdown of the Christian religious content that Texas' State Board of Education proposes to make mandatory for public school students. And... Texas is such a huge textbook market that what starts in TX often doesn't stay in TX. www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/202...

"Resistance against oppressive forces is energy in the universe that is never wasted." That's what I told Houston Chronicle 4 yrs ago in this piece about clergy abuse & coverups in the Southern Baptist Convention. Sad how little has changed. #ThisistheSBC www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investi...

A good day. ⬇️

Allegations that Trump's lawsuit "was collusive from the start."

“The concern more is about protecting themselves than about protecting the people who are being harmed by abusers. And that stance has not changed.” - @bethallisonbarr.bsky.social #ThisistheSBC christabrown.substack.com/p/al-mohler-...

We already have a process for determining whether accusers are credible. It’s called a trial. And a jury already decided they believed E Jean Carroll. THIS is weaponization. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/u...

A harrowing, must-read story about what can happen to miscarrying women in states with rigid abortion bans. ⬇️ Spoiler: There's nothing "pro-life" about it.

Religion isn't a substitute for ethics, morality, honesty, or goodness.

Campaigns spent ~ $1.40 per nonreligious voter vs 45 cents per religiously affiliated voter. Why? “For religious voters, all I have to do is send a mailer and say I believe in God & apple pie. For nonreligious voters, I need to send a list of issues with links... It’s time-consuming & costs more.”

It's a cabinet of sycophantic toadies & bootlickers. The NYT reviewed video of 32 cabinet meetings during Trump's presidencies & found: "On average, at least 1 of every 6 sentences either flattered Mr. Trump, gave him credit or criticized his political opponents." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

🎯 "Anyone who has spent significant time around the Christian right knows that behind the tight smiles & cheer often lies a deep well of hostility toward anyone who is different." ⬇️