As soon as “Russia” and “war” are mentioned in the same sentence, all the premillennial, rapture, tribulation, Armageddon believers are on high alert. The Rapture Index (yes, there is such a thing) is at 186. The all-time high for the…
Beyond heedlessness: Finding the sacrament of an ‘us’ without a ‘them’
Evangelicals have made it clear: Don’t call us racists. We are not racists. Rather than debate the issue, I volunteer to take the word “racist” off the debate table. Instead of calling evangelicals “racists,” I will use the word “heedless.”…
Is it time for another Gettysburg Address?
Our nation lives in suspended grief over 900,000 dead from COVID. Every day we go to the funeral home, the graveyard. Every day the bells toll for those who keep dying from COVID. Where are words of comfort? Is there…
The roaring comeback of a toxic masculinity of power and victimization
Any Bible-memorizing kid still remembers Romans 3:23 — “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The guilt, branded into our consciousness, never leaves us, but there’s something nagging about the “all.” All have sinned but…
Taking out the 2021 trash talk
Country singer Tim McGraw may not have known the social theory that informed his 1995 hit, I Like It, I Love It. As the song’s title hints, something has happened to McGraw that has changed his usual ill-mannered, trashy ways….
Today’s evangelicals are medieval crusaders at heart
At the dawn of 2022, forget the culture wars; this is a postmodern crusade, and the Christian soldiers are on the march. Evangelical Christians are medieval crusaders at heart. In the 11th and 12th centuries, Christian Crusaders went to war…
Progressives have a problem telling their story
George Lakoff argues that progressives are in despair because they are trying to do 21st century politics with an 18th century mind. Progressives are clinging to an unworkable model of reason. Another of Aristotle’s persuasion tropes is sweeping across America –…
Dear Robert Jeffress: You’ve called the wrong U.S. president ‘ungodly’
Robert Jeffress used his Dec. 5 sermon to claim that President Joe Biden has the most “ungodly” administration in American history. “The Biden administration is ungodly! I don’t care how many rosary beads they rub, they’re ungodly,” he intoned. “This…
The leap from ‘The Bible says’ to ‘Believe me’ and ‘God told me’
I confess to the temptation of dismissing evangelical rhetoric of the political sort as symptomatic of one or another particularly noxious pathology. There’s also my own impatience at what I discern as the absurdity of evangelical political messages confidently delivered…