The Southern Baptist Convention’s Resolution Committee has offered a preemptive strike in the battle over women’s roles in the church. The committee released its report June 1, just more than a week ahead of the SBC annual meeting to be…
How American religion inspired Cole Allen’s violence
During the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last Saturday, Cole Allen breached a Secret Service checkpoint and fired shots at agents in an attempt to assassinate the president of the United States and other high-ranking officials. About 10 minutes prior, from…
A new generation of ambassadors for the cure to violence
We are living in violent and deeply troubling times. In New York City, a teenager raised in Philadelphia participated in an attempted terrorist attack on Gracie Mansion. According to security experts, the attack is part of a rising tide of…
Five key takeaways on political violence in America
At a time when political violence is rising in the United States, PRRI’s latest survey, released last month, examines Americans’ views on the drivers of political violence, when violent actions may be justified and which groups are most responsible for causing it. There…
Two governors — a Mormon Republican and a Jewish Democrat — team up to stop political violence
When conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed at a campus event in Utah in September, the first call Gov. Spencer Cox received was from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Conservatives condemn report citing conservative political violence
A think tank report on political violence published a day after Charlie Kirk’s murder found right-wing violence has killed many more Americans than left-wing attacks over the past half century. Conservatives quickly condemned the report and called for its withdrawal….
The American Age of Rage
We are living in what can only be called an Age of Rage — a moment when political violence has become as normalized in public life as school shootings, homicides among Black men and the loss of civil rights once…
We are all complicit in Charlie Kirk’s death
The devastating news that Charlie Kirk has been murdered at an event at Utah Valley University seems beyond belief. The evening news carried the awful news. A single bullet ended Kirk’s life. Perhaps Shakespeare’s most famous lines weigh heavily on…
Trump supporters still favor political violence and election denial, survey says
Republicans with favorable views of Donald Trump continue to support political violence and election denial, according to Public Religion Research Institute’s 2024 PRRI American Values Survey. Also, most Republicans (62%) believe the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from…
Don’t blame ‘the media’ for reporting your own violent language
Boston Globe reporter James Pindell stood in front of the press riser in the 91-degree heat as the gun smoke settled and Donald Trump rose up with blood running down his cheek, pumped his fist, and yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”…
Let’s not return to the political violence of the past
I am a child of the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and an early adult in the ’80s. Over those decades geopolitics were complicated by the Korean War and then Vietnam. The simmering Cold War heightened anxiety and demanded political and military…
Most Americans believe democracy is at risk in 2024 — but for different reasons
Election-related pessimism, paranoia and predictions of political violence are among the key findings of the 14th annual American Values survey, author and pollster Robert P. Jones said. “One of the things we’re finding is that the political temperature in America…