On Dec. 21, 2025, Vice President JD Vance, speaking at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, declared: “More than any time I can recount, people are talking about American identity and figuring out what it is that unites us. But I want…
A Nazi walks into a bar
No, this is not the setup for a tasteless joke. On Thursday, Oct. 23, a 33 year-old white man named Kenneth Leland Morgan, wearing a tailored SS uniform, attempted to enter Cutter’s Pub in downtown Athens, Ga. Footage captured by…
What they’ve gained
Every time we report on another atrocity committed by President Donald Trump and his administration, people ask why evangelicals continue to support the cruelty and criminality of Trump’s dictates. As our Maina Mwaura wrote today, Trump clearly is not a…
A less than Christian nation?
And Mary said: God’s name is Holy, his mercy sure from generation to generation toward those who fear him; the deeds his own right arm has done disclose his might: the arrogant of heart and mind God has routed, He…
“A Specifically Christian State”
Most historians agree that the separation of church and state is what allowed a flourishing of religious pluralism in the United States. Without a state religion, Americans are largely free to pursue their own practices and beliefs free of government…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Brian Kaylor
Brian Kaylor is president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, a Baptist minister with a Ph.D. in political communications, and the author or co-author of five books on religion and politics, including a new book on white Christian nationalism with Beau Underwood,…
Was America born as a Christian nation? It’s more complicated than that
No one markets products like evangelical preachers and Donald Trump. While Trump sells Bibles and golden sneakers and politics, Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas is selling copies of his coffee table book version of his annual July 4 sermon…
White evangelicals are three times more likely than Americans in general to support Christian nationalism
New research shows white evangelical Protestants and Republicans are increasingly embracing the ideology of Christian nationalism at much higher rates than the general U.S. population. The survey of more than 6,000 Americans by Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings Institution…
Voting the wrong way makes Christians ‘unfaithful’ to God, Mohler says
Christians who fail to vote or who vote “wrongly” are “unfaithful” to God, Al Mohler told a group of conservative evangelicals Sept. 14. The president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a leading spokesman for Southern Baptists…
Christian nationalism links gun rights and ‘Christian nation’ ideals in dangerous mix, Tyler and Hollman say
Americans who believe gun ownership is a God-given right and that the United States should be an officially Christian nation are among the most aggressive opponents of common-sense limits on firearms, Amanda Tyler and Holly Hollman said in a recent…
A ‘Christian’ nation beset by false witness
It’s in the Bible. In fact, it’s one of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (See Exodus 20:16.) There’s more: Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self…
How American exceptionalism is killing America
Many ironies define the United States, but none is more harmful than this: We routinely silence the life-giving voices that can save us and amplify the death-dealing voices that can kill us. The voices that can save us are those…