Note: This post is an excerpt from a chapter titled “Juneteenth” in the author’s forthcoming book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy, which will be published September 8 and is now available for pre-order....
A new trial date has been set for Johnny Hunt’s lawsuit against the Southern Baptist Convention in which he seeks more than $100 million for damages to his income, reputation and livelihood. That new date falls one week after the…
Upon her death at age 84, Anita Jane Bryant was remembered most vividly for her harsh stance against homosexuality in the 1970s and not for the successful music career that preceded her advocacy. A native Oklahoman, she won the 1958…
On Jan. 20, Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office on the day set aside to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. This convergence crystallizes the United States’ ongoing struggle between competing visions of faith and politics in…
One simple way churches could proclaim truth in an era of Trumpian disinformation is to speak plainly about the importance of vaccines. At the height of the COVID pandemic, as many Americans were resistant to what they considered an untested…
Project Esther, the Heritage Foundation’s campaign to battle antisemitism, plans to target Wikipedia editors it claims fuel anti-Jewish hostility. But Project Esther’s own rhetoric about battling powerful Jewish “masterminds” reinforces centuries-old conspiracy theories about Jews who have too much power…
A newspaper’s rejection of an advertisement calling Israel’s war in Gaza “genocide” underscores the debate over the term for intentionally attempting to destroy all or part of targeted people groups. “The refusal of The New York Times to run paid…
This second week of January is likely hard for plenty of evangelical men who made New Year’s resolutions not to lust. I know, because I used to be one of them. Even President Jimmy Carter had to deal with this….
If there’s one thing that differentiates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from President-elect Donald Trump, it’s that Kennedy grew up in a devout Christian home where faith was serious business. While Trump’s upbringing in New York City was marginally influenced by…
The only solution for the Southern Baptist Convention to solve its sexual abuse problem is to dismantle the denomination entirely, according to Boz Tchividjian, one of the nation’s best-known attorneys representing abuse survivors. “They tried to put some Band-Aids on…
On Saturday, Jan. 4, former President Jimmy Carter’s body made the final journey from his home in Plains, Ga., to the Carter Center in Atlanta, where he had been so many times since its establishment 42 years ago. The remains…
Joshua Carter, grandson of President Jimmy Carter, was among the speakers at the state funeral for the former president held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Jan. 9. Here is a verbatim transcript of his comments. My grandfather…
Americans overwhelmed by the prospect of authoritarianism under Donald Trump must not abandon hope or succumb to inaction in the struggle for democracy, activists cautioned in a webinar organizing faith-based political opposition to the incoming administration. The lure of just…
