An increasing number of American Christians believe strongly that the United States is a Christian nation, that it has not oppressed minorities and that it has been specifically chosen by God to lead the world, according to a recent Barna…
Author was called to action by hearing KKK leader describe his racist ‘Damascus Road experience’
Author Susan K. Williams Smith was sickened to learn that a passage from the New Testament inspired Samuel Bowers’ to launch the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s. Smith’s new book, With Liberty and Justice…
Confessions of an unpatriotic Christian
As a dog owner, I’m ambivalent at best about fireworks, but I absolutely love a cookout. In fact, I consider myself a connoisseur of all things hotdog, hamburger or potato salad-related and, as a child, I developed abnormally large forearms…
More advocates needed to counter Christian nationalism, BJC leader urges
Increased faith-based advocacy is needed to counter Christian nationalism and other anti-democratic forces that sparked the Jan. 6 insurrection and that seek a theocratic future for the nation, according to Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious…
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…
Christian nationalism deeply embedded into American life, Tyler warns
Christian nationalism has seeped so deeply into the fabric of American religious and political life that arguing with its adherents is frustrating and unproductive, according to Amanda Tyler, executive director of BJC. Tyler spoke during a Feb. 26 webinar titled…
White Christian nationalists and Black Americans find common ground in vaccine wariness while some pastors try to set a positive example
Two communities seemingly at odds with each other are among the groups of Americans most likely to be skeptical of the new COVID-19 vaccines: Christian nationalists and Black Americans. The reasons why each group is skeptical are different, but the…
‘While there is still time’: American churches, violence and conspiracy theories
In his classic book Night, the late Boston University professor Elie Wiesel described how the first warnings of what became the Holocaust found their way into his family’s village of Sighet, Transylvania, in 1942. The messenger was an “outsider” called…
Christian America’s betrayal of the kingdom of God
The storming of the American Capitol on Jan. 6 — with its profusion of Bibles, crosses and other Christian symbols — placed a gigantic exclamation point on the unease American Christians always have felt with the First Amendment to the…