The country is collectively holding its breath this week to see whether former President Donald Trump will be indicted for falsifying business records to cover up the payment of $130,000 of “hush money” to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on…
Five charts that explain the desperate turn to MAGA among conservative white Christians
New data from PRRI’s Census of American Religion show continued decline of white evangelicals as a proportion of the American population. I prefaced my 2016 book, The End of White Christian America, with an “Obituary for White Christian America.” It read,…
What’s driving objections to ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ at the Super Bowl?
I had an interesting conversation yesterday with the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin about the breathless objections by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to a pre-Super Bowl performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a song informally known…
Living into lament: A white response to the killing of Tyre Nichols by police
I’m learning it is hard to feel the impact of the violence. It is difficult to make it real, to bring it close enough to sense its cold shadow. It passes by the window, like the neighbor who briefly triggers…
Trump and his allegedly disloyal white evangelical supporters
In a recent interview, David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network asked former President Donald Trump what he thought about the reticence of some white evangelical Protestant leaders, such as Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, to endorse his candidacy…
The dangerous worldview of Republican election deniers
Around elections, we often hear variations of the claim that “democracy itself is on the ballot.” Because this declaration is, in some sense, a truism, it’s easy to nod and dismiss its concrete claims. But in the current context, this…
This Supreme Court’s dangerous vision of ‘history and tradition’
To kick things off today, just a quick reaction to last Wednesday’s Jan. 6 House committee hearings, which featured Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Her testimony contained startling new revelations, even in…
It’s time to stop giving Christianity a pass on white supremacy and violence
I’m still reeling from the experience of standing in George Floyd Square in Minneapolis on the same afternoon a white supremacist terrorist gunned down 10 people in a predominantly Black area of Buffalo, N.Y. I reflected on that experience in…
The Beloved Community and the heresy of white replacement: How ‘Beyoncé Mass’ gave me hope after the Buffalo massacre
At approximately 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, a white supremacist terrorist — motivated by a fear that whites were being “replaced” by immigrants and the growth of nonwhite Americans — massacred 10 people and injured three others in a predominantly Black…