I am a cultural anthropologist, and I was doing a study in Cabbagetown, a predominantly white, evangelical neighborhood of Atlanta, in the 1970s when I began to hear local pastors talking about taking America back for Jesus. They argued the…
70 years ago today, ‘under God’ was added to the Pledge of Allegiance
George Docherty was a progressive Presbyterian minister serving in the nation’s capital. In 1965, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in a civil rights demonstration after Bloody Sunday. Docherty later criticized the Vietnam…
Jesus will not rescue America without our help, Pavlovitz says
Prayerfully waiting for God or the “arc of the moral universe” to heal America’s political, racial and religious divisions will do nothing to alter the nation’s downward spiritual and moral trajectory, activist and author John Pavlovitz said. In fact, no…
The NRA is a (mostly) changed organization, but the American public must not look away
In 2018, I did something most people wouldn’t dare do. While making a play about guns in America, I took a group of high school students to the NRA annual meeting in our hometown of Dallas. What we saw and…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Samuel Perry
Samuel Perry is the Sam K. Viersen Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma and a leading interpreter of conservative Christianity and American politics, race, families and sexual behavior. I rely on his research from his placement as sociologist and…
There’s a link between climate crisis and Christian nationalism, McLaren says
Americans must connect the dots between the earth’s climate crisis and the resurgence of Christian nationalism and white supremacy, according to activist and theologian Brian McLaren. But they must do so without falling into defeatism or complacency, he added. “The…
On giving to Caesar
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s; and to God what is God’s — Jesus (Mark 12.17) What belongs to God never really has been the question. God’s Spirit is our life breath, animating our bodies with every inhale and…
Former terrorism official exposes threat of Christian extremism
The 9/11 attacks on the United States revealed Elizabeth Neumann’s first calling: to protect the nation from religious extremists “over there” through counterterrorism work in George W. Bush’s administration. The 1/6 attack on the U.S. Capitol inspired her current calling:…
Sean Feucht, Eric Metaxas and Russell Johnson reshape their Christian nationalism tour as pro-Israel protests
Outside agitators are striking back at pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses across the country. Seeing an opportunity to further their own agenda, Christian nationalist groups are joining them. On April 25, worship leader Sean Feucht, along with conservative pastor Russell…
Sorry, Tim Dunn, you are a Christian nationalist
In the land of Lyndon Baines Johnson, George Herbert Bush and George W. Bush, you may not have heard of billionaire Tim Dunn. Although billionaires do seem to grow naturally in Texas. Dunn is among at least 44 known billionaires…
He may be slick, but Ralph Reed is as wrong as ever
Ralph Reed is as slick as ever. And still as wrong as ever. The one-time wunderkind of the Christian Coalition has gone more underground of late as founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, but he’s still orchestrating and spewing…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with David Dark
David Dark is one of my favorite writers and thinkers, and for years now, I often finish reading him and think, “I wish I’d written that!” A professor of religion and the arts at Belmont University and an authority on…