When the United States and Israel bombed Iran Feb. 28, the motivations and repercussions were religious as well as political. We cannot think of Iran as a modern state unhinged from its religious moorings. And we cannot think of President…
‘You don’t know the half’ of the Good Samaritan story
In a sermon at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference preached from Luke 10:29–35, Reginald Sharpe Jr. circled a phrase that refuses to let the church remain comfortable: “You don’t know the half.” Sharpe did not give us a scholarly sermon…
‘And lead us into laughter … ’
“I’ll get real big hair, marry a man, let him lead, write a book called, ’Submissive Wife, Submissive Life,’ adopt a Southern accent out of nowhere,” comedian Taylor Tomlinson joked while imagining what it might look like for her to…
The myth of transgender violence
Well. It happened again. There was yet another mass shooting committed by a transgender person. Roberta Esposito, a transgender woman, opened fire during a youth hockey game in Rhode Island. Esposito specifically targeted family members in the shooting, killing her…
Both Huckabee and Carlson make outlandish claims about Israel
Mike Huckabee grabbed headlines in his recent interview with Tucker Carlson because of his outlandish claim that Israel ought to possess most of the land in the Middle East. But Carlson, true to form, also made some outlandish claims. Carlson…
One group still sees revival in UK although other polls don’t agree
In April 2025, the Bible Society released The Quiet Revival, an online report detailing the results of two YouGov surveys commissioned by the charity in 2018 and 2024 to measure attitudes of adults in England and Wales toward Christianity and…
Forget empathy, the new war is on lament
Ever since Joe Rigney released his book about empathy being a sin, the TheoBros of conservative evangelicalism have been piling into his bus, demonizing empathy for those they run over as “the greatest rhetorical tool of manipulation in the 21st…
KPop Demon Hunters — the Brené, the bad and the beautugly
Over Zoom, my young-adult counseling client smiled when I noticed her new poster hanging on the wall behind her. The active-duty military service member said, “It’s Huntrix — the musical group from the movie KPop Demon Hunters.” Later I saw…
State-sanctioned abuse and the fragility of violent regimes
Although violence occurring at the hands of ICE agents may seem overwhelming and shocking, historically speaking, it is an unsurprising tactic of empire. Oppressors use violence, fear and illegal measures to account for their weaknesses. BNG’s Mara Richards Bim has…
Little platoons and voluntary associations: Burke, Tocqueville and the moral architecture of belonging
There are moments in the history of political thought when two thinkers, separated by time and temperament, nevertheless circle the same human truth. Edmund Burke and Alexis de Tocqueville lived in separate centuries — Burke, 18th; Tocqueville, 19th — but…
Kid Rock and evangelicals’ obsession with celebrity
In a world where everyone cycles through being an expert, the week after the Super Bowl typically turns into everyone posing as professional semioticians, offering their artistic analysis of the Super Bowl halftime show and the game. Most often, this…
Five key takeaways on political violence in America
At a time when political violence is rising in the United States, PRRI’s latest survey, released last month, examines Americans’ views on the drivers of political violence, when violent actions may be justified and which groups are most responsible for causing it. There…