Rick Pidcock

Greenville

Weekly contributor for @baptist_news | Currently writing "Worship Warfare" (Broadleaf Books, 2026) | Creates music as Provoke Wonder | Stay at home dad | He/him

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Articles

Trump, Harvard and Bob Jones University

4 days ago | baptistnews.com | Rick Pidcock

Donald Trump’s threat to revoke the tax-exempt status of Harvard University may be novel, but it is not new. It is, in fact, a resurrection of a previous kind of discrimination. There’s one other time in American history when a private university lost its tax-exempt status, and that’s the school where I earned an undergraduate degree — Bob Jones University.
Here’s what we’ve been talking about on ‘Highest Power’ – Baptist News Global

3 weeks ago | baptistnews.com | Rick Pidcock

It’s been one month since the launch of my new podcast with BNG, Highest Power: Church + State, which is currently ranking within the top 20% of all podcasts nationally. “I’m thrilled with the podcast and what you’re doing here,” BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield told me during his appearance on the show. To those who follow BNG, Wingfield promised: “We’ve got to have a record of what’s really happening. There’s got to be a historical record. And we’re going to do that every day, every week.
Ep7: Crisis of Masculinity, with Rev. Angela Denker

1 month ago | rickpidcock.substack.com | Rick Pidcock

In yesterday’s episode of Highest Power: Church + State, I start off on a lighter note by talking about March Madness and sharing a story about the NBA where the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves talked about treating one another as humans. From there, I transition into some of the dehumanizing stories we’re dealing with in politics and the church today. And then I interview Rev.
That time I got an angry call from the subject of an article about anger and abuse – Baptist News Global

1 month ago | baptistnews.com | Rick Pidcock

Editor’s note: It is BNG’s policy to correct factual errors as soon as possible after learning about those errors. In the case of Rick Pidcock’s earlier piece mentioned here, we have not been informed of any factual errors or asked to make any corrections. It’s one of the most basic, familiar patterns of abuse in Christian communities. A pastor gets credibly accused of mistreating people in his church.
Allegations against Tim Whitaker show how hierarchy transfers

1 month ago | baptistnews.com | Rick Pidcock

Spiritual abuse while protecting a theological and institutional hierarchy is a common story in conservative evangelicalism today. But on Sunday night, the script appeared to flip when news broke that Boz Tchividjian’s organization Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment had been investigating Tim Whitaker and his organization, The New Evangelicals, who are some of the most popular names in progressive Christianity today.
Why we can’t convince some Christians to love their neighbor – Baptist News Global

1 month ago | baptistnews.com | Rick Pidcock

It shouldn’t be this difficult to convince conservative Christians to love their neighbor. But in seemingly every example of someone in power mistreating the marginalized these days, the Religious Right sides with the person in power. The presence those on the right have in the United States today is one of authority that demands submission and threatens retributive punishment on all who won’t submit.
Our debate ultimately is about the dignity and humanity of women – Baptist News Global

1 month ago | baptistnews.com | Rick Pidcock

A conservative friend on social media recently admitted that some of the storylines around Donald Trump’s second term have been extreme but concluded this is simply the way the pendulum swings. In one sense, what he said was true. Since Jimmy Carter, the Democrats have won six presidential elections, while the Republicans have won seven.
Are we a democracy or a republic? Why words matter – Baptist News Global

1 month ago | baptistnews.com | Rick Pidcock

“The United States is not a democracy! It’s a republic!” my independent Baptist high school government teacher declared over the sound of gunfire and cannons exploding in the Civil War re-enactment across the street. Almost three decades later, the debate still isn’t settled. And it’s not just my old high school government teacher who seems to care about it. Utah Sen. Mike Lee wrote in 2020, “We are not a democracy.”Arizona state Rep. Selina Bliss said last year: “We are not a democracy.
Episode 1: Pilot

2 months ago | rickpidcock.substack.com | Rick Pidcock

I announced in my latest newsletter that I agreed with Baptist News Global to host a podcast called Highest Power: Church + State that will cover and analyze the news of the week, focusing in real time on the obsession authoritarian pastors and politicians have with power and offering ways to process and respond to it all. My pilot episode is now up! You can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And I’ll also be posting the episodes here.
Feeling overwhelmed? Think local, Tyler advises – Baptist News Global

2 months ago | baptistnews.com | Rick Pidcock

It can be overwhelming to consider that there won’t be a presidential election for nearly four years, or even the possibility of winning either the House or Senate away from the control of Christian nationalists for another two years. One recent CNN headline said, “Democrats confront their powerlessness as Trump flexes authority.”The level of powerlessness at least half the population feels borders between helpless and hopeless.