Christians should support democracy. This should not be a shocking statement. It should not even need to be said. U.S. Baptists, at least, used to be fairly clear about it. But today, it is becoming increasingly clear from looking around the world and at our own nation that Christians need to make a fresh case for […]
Conservative Christianity as a Threat to Democracy
We are witnessing at this moment the intellectual deconstruction of a religious group that has been called “evangelicalism.” Illusions about this community are being destroyed left and right. Of course, those illusions first eroded in practice, through the contradictions and failures of U.S. white evangelicalism itself. Today, however, the intellectual underpinnings of evangelicalism are being deconstructed
The Deconstruction of American Evangelicalism
My last column for BNG, “Covid Wars,” offered a lament over our divided nation. It did not propose solutions, only sorrow and grief. Of course, we must do better than that. We must try to understand how we got here and figure out what we can do about it, if anything. After my piece posted, I
Why the U.S. Is Uniquely Divided: Engaging a Scholar from New Zealand
I was talking with a senior Mercer University colleague yesterday about the divisions engulfing our nation over COVID vaccines and masks. Carl has served as a pastor, professor and politician. He’s a very wise man. I said: “Carl, two years ago, could you ever have imagined that we would be facing a situation like we are
COVID Wars: Lament over a Broken, Divided nation
There were no morally unambiguous options, no innocent choices, facing President Joe Biden when it came to deciding what to do about the 20-year U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan that has cost the lives of nearly 2,500 U.S. troops, 3,800 U.S. security contractors, 100,000 Afghan civilians, some number of allied NATO personnel (a detail that never seems to
On Afghanistan, There Were No Innocent Choices Available
I write this post on Aug. 6, the 76th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which destroyed that city and killed 70,000 to 80,000 people. Today, Aug. 9, is the anniversary of the day the U.S. bombed Nagasaki, killing between 40,000 and 80,000 people. The Japanese surrendered on Aug. 14, finally bringing an end
On this Anniversary of the Atomic Bomb, How Shall Christians Think about U.S. Foreign Policy?
A friend sent me this piece in Salon, posted under the provocative title, “How Evangelicals Abandoned Christianity and Became ‘Conservatives’ Instead.” I was not familiar with the author, Nathaniel Manderson, who identifies himself as an evangelical pastor trained at a conservative seminary but guided by liberal ideals. Manderson’s article basically argues that under the leadership of 40 years
On the Collapse of Christianity into Politics
It has been a wonderful relief to many of us to encounter the sheer normality of the Biden presidency, which is now six months old. This is a president who proposes actual policies to address obvious public needs, negotiates with both parties in Congress about the details, and uses social media only in the carefully bland
Love him or hate him, but at least Joe Biden has returned us to a ‘normal’ presidency; can it last?
The hysteria over Critical Race Theory right now means many things. Most immediately, it means that the relationship between skilled right-wing demagogues and their audience in the U.S. these days is positively Pavlovian. Stimulus-response, stimulus-response, rinse and repeat. If Tucker Carlson says over several nights on Fox News that Critical Race Theory is a huge threat
White hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and eyes that dare not see
Let’s say you are on the trustee board of a Christian-affiliated university and you are trying to figure out what your school should do about its policies related to LGBTQ students. You have two conservative voices in your ears, one…
The post For uni…
For universities, when it comes to LGBTQ issues, focus on student well-being