Elon Musk has left Washington, D.C., but a who’s who of secular and Christian conservative leaders says the Trump administration should continue making chainsaw-style cuts to federal departments and programs Congress previously approved. “Conservatives are united behind the efforts of…
‘We don’t hate, but they do,’ conservative Christian activists claim
When conservative Christian activist groups are called hateful or placed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate map, they claim innocence and reverse the charge: “The real haters are those people who say we’re hateful.” “You are not hateful or…
Can mainline liberals get their story back?
In my most recent column I drew attention to the certainty gap between American evangelicals and mainline Protestants. While 85% of evangelicals and 82% of Black Protestants believe in God without a shadow of a doubt, the same can only…
Where seldom is heard a Christian word: A reflection on the Beatitudes
Early in my ministry in South Louisiana, I was pastor of the only Baptist church in a town of about 6,000 people. This was Jimmy Swaggert territory, and many Pentecostals and charismatic/nondenominational churches dotted the area. You were most likely…
Republicans are more likely to identify as evangelical Protestants than are Democrats
Republicans are significantly more likely to identify as Christians than Democrats, and they have a distinct preference for evangelical Protestant denominations. Pew Research Center’s recent Religious Landscape Survey looked at the correlation between political party (Republican and Democrat) and political…
Evangelical certainty and the God gap
“There are a lot of angry homosexuals out here today,” the man holding the megaphone barked. He had come to Fort Worth’s Trinity Pride Day to speak for God. Much to my wife’s chagrin, I couldn’t let his crude comment…
How Distinctive are Evangelicals, really?
There’s this book that came out way back in 1998 that has a title that has to rank up there in my favorite ones of all time, “American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving.”
Partisan gap widens on support for same-sex marriage
As LGBTQ Americans and their allies begin Pride month celebrations, there’s further evidence of a disconnect with conservative voters, no doubt driven by the evangelical base of the Republican Party. While overall support for same-sex marriage remains steady, support is…
New book explores the good, the bad and the weepy about church camp
Years attending and later working at Christian summer camps left Cara Meredith feeling somewhat ambivalent about letting her own children experience what is essentially an evangelical rite of passage. So perplexing was the question that it helped inspire her new…
A catalogue of Trump’s 100 days of terrible horrible, no good actions
Donald Trump’s first 100 days back in office have been a blitzkrieg — an intense political campaign intended to bring about a swift victory. He has managed to produce his own Jacksonian “Trail of Tears” by firing thousands of federal…
Who loves what Trump is doing? White evangelicals
As President Donald Trump faces historic low levels of public approval and is seen as sowing chaos around the globe, not all Americans are upset. In fact, there are some who cheer his actions as president. Among those, his evangelical…
Mr. Trump goes to Rome
Most of the time, when people say, “Just joking,” they’re not joking at all. Often, we use “just joking” as a cover when we’ve trotted out ideas we know will be controversial or hurtful but we want to say them…