At least two Baptist churches — and most likely others — have been used as controversial ballot collection sites organized by the California Republican Party and declared illegal by state elections officials. National Republican Congressional Committee Deputy Chair Ken Calvert…
Is beach revival a public health threat or a Jesus movement?
While most American churches are debating whether and how they can safely resume in-person worship anytime this year, a Southern California parachurch ministry has come under intense scrutiny for holding massive revival services at Huntington Beach. Organizers and supporters of…
California and the making of American evangelicalism
Conceptualizing the American religious landscape can be a challenging task these days. We may think about Roman Catholicism’s prevalence in parts of New England or Lutheranism’s prevalence in the Midwest. Mormonism certainly composes a significant portion of the population in…
‘You can’t get much bigger’ than the public mourning of NBA great Kobe Bryant
The Jan. 26 death of retired NBA star Kobe Bryant touched off a wave of public mourning that transcended social class and grieved many who aren’t sports fans. And that came as no surprise to Chanequa Walker-Barnes, associate professor of…
A seminary finds a golden gateway. Others find a rusted exit.
A couple of days after the announcement that the deal to sell the property and buildings of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary had been completed, I was in San Francisco. Sunday afternoon I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge into…
The fence through Friendship Park
A fence runs through Friendship Park at the western end of the U.S. border with Mexico. A 20-foot tall steel structure begun in late 2011 and completed in early 2012, it begins at the very spot where (without barriers) it…