Back in the 1970s, church growth experts fell in love with the “homogenous unit principle.” “People like to become Christians,” Donald McGavran noted, “without crossing racial, linguistic or class barriers.” The pushback was immediate. If the gospel is all about…
New website illustrates and interprets how religion intertwined with events of January 6
A new online resource documents the religious components of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol. Uncivil Religion: January 6, 2021 is a collaboration of the University of Alabama’s Department of Religious Studies and the Smithsonian’s National…
Facing white Christianity’s role in the Jan. 6 insurrection
On Jan. 20, 2021, President Joe Biden became the first commander in chief to use the words “white supremacy” in an inaugural address. Naming “the cry of racial justice 400 years in the making” and its corollary, “a rise in…
If you’re upset about the Taliban, you should be upset about Christian nationalists too, panelist says
Americans shouldn’t judge the Taliban too harshly for its fierce opposition to religious pluralism in Afghanistan when the United States is host to the growing and violent Christian nationalist movement that inspired the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol,…
The leap from ‘The Bible says’ to ‘Believe me’ and ‘God told me’
I confess to the temptation of dismissing evangelical rhetoric of the political sort as symptomatic of one or another particularly noxious pathology. There’s also my own impatience at what I discern as the absurdity of evangelical political messages confidently delivered…
If you’re paying attention to Christian nationalism, you won’t be shocked by Michael Flynn’s call for ‘one religion under God’
At a rally in San Antonio as part of the “ReAwaken America” tour, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn said the quiet part out loud: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have…
Michael Flynn says America needs ‘one religion under God’
Former Trump national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn told a group of evangelical Christians Nov. 13 that America needs only “one religion under God.” Flynn spoke at a three-day church-based political rally in San Antonio, Texas, at the church…
Belief that America has divine favor with God is on the decline
The notion cherished by Christian nationalists that the United States enjoys divine favor is not shared by most Americans, according to new research from Public Religion Research Institute. Among a myriad of topics covered by PRRI’s 12th annual American Values…
Most Americans favor church-state separation, but many evangelicals do not
Most Americans support the principle of church-state separation, but fascination about their merger exists among minorities of some political, religious and ethnic groups, the Pew Research Center has documented. Pew’ latest American Trends Panel revealed 55% of U.S. adults favor…