As American readers will know, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In honor of the anniversary, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is hosting an event at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. The event will be on June 8, 2026 from 4:30-6:30pm EST. The location will be the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, which is adjacent to the Orlando Convention Center. Following an early dinner, I will moderate a panel discussion on the theme of the event. The panelists include the following leaders, all of whom are fellows for the ERLC Research Institute.
Evan Lenow, President-elect of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
Dustin Bruce, Dean of Boyce College and Assistant Professor of Christian Theology and Church History at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Dan Darling, Director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
RaShan Frost, Director of Research and Senior Fellow for Human Dignity at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
Adam Groza, President and Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention
The event costs $25, and you can register online. I hope to see some of you there, as well as at the Annual Meeting itself.
Earlier this week, I published a column for WORLD Opinions titled “Church-State Relations Rightly Understood.” I interacted with recent comments from Dan Patrick, chair of the presidentially appointed Religious Liberty Commission, who rejects the very notion of the separation of church and state as anti-Christian bigotry. I argue that, rightly understood, church-state separation has deeply Christian roots. You can read the article online at WORLD Opinions.
I also published a blog post for the International Alliance for Christian Education recommending an excellent new resource from the Center for Academic Faithfulness and Flourishing (CAFF). The resource, Paul Kaak’s white paper “Academic Faith Integration in Christian Higher Education,” can be downloaded at no cost from the CAFF website. It is an excellent introduction to the integration of faith and learning for those of us who teach in Christian colleges and universities.
Carl Trueman, The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity (Sentinel, 2026). I’ve been eagerly awaiting an opportunity to read Trueman’s latest book. He lectured publicly on this material during his recent visit to North Greenville, and I had the opportunity to discuss some of it with him in our conversations while he was with us. Trueman argues that it isn’t enough to say the modern world is characterized by the disenchantment of secularism. We are also plagued by the desecration of man because of our nihilistic rejection of God, which has resulted in a variety of destructive assumptions and actions toward his image-bearers. Here is a good rule of thumb: you should read everything Carl Trueman writes.
N. T. Wright, Spiritual and Religious: The Gospel in an Age of Paganism (Zondervan, 2025). Wright is often a mixed bag, and this book is no exception. He has the irritating tendency to act as if he is the the only scholar who really gets it, and he rarely has much nice to say about conservative evangelicals (especially in the United States) without clearing his throat and offering five caveats so readers know he isn’t one of those sorts of right-wing Christians. But if you can get past all that, he has a number of excellent insights in this book about the re-paganization of Western Culture. Secularism doesn’t replace religion. Rather, it tears down traditional religious authorities, especially Christianity and Judaism, clearing the ground for older, more barbaric religious inclinations to grow.
I enjoyed joining Dan Darling and RaShan Frost on the ERLC Podcast. RaShan interviewed me and Dan about Christian citizenship. Last year, Dan and I collaborated as lead authors of a church guide on this topic, titled “Dual Citizens: A Practical Guide to Christian Citizenship and Civic Engagement.” This is the topic the three of us and others will discuss further at the ERLC event at the SBC Annual Meeting.
I also had a blast rejoining Benjamin Quinn, Dan Darling (of course), and Kristen Kellen for the latest headlines episode for the Christian and Culture Podcast. I love this (nearly) monthly opportunity, which has been a bit more sporadic for me this spring because of Leah’s health and the changes we’ve needed to make to our schedules. We talked about Artemis II, Chiles v. Salazar, and how to respond when ministry leaders fall into public moral scandal.
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