Last Friday, the leading Republican candidates for president (sans Trump) showed up in Des Moines, Iowa, to campaign among approximately 2,000 overwhelmingly white evangelicals. The forum was sponsored by an evangelical organization called the Family Leader, an organization with a mission…
The call is coming from inside the house: White Christian churches as incubators of anti-democratic sentiment
In 1979, “When a Stranger Calls” became a surprise box-office success. The plot, which drew on a common folk legend, wasn’t original, but the harrowing first 23 minutes of the film created a cult following and the film is still…
Seven graphs that show the state of American religious attendance today
Sometimes a graph is worth a thousand words. Public Religion Research last week released a massive trove of data gleaned from its latest national survey that examined the religious behaviors of Americans today. The graphs from these data tell most…
CNN’s disastrous platforming of Donald Trump
“CNN’s New Hampshire town hall with Donald Trump last night may have done more to boost his chances of winning the GOP presidential nomination than anything that’s happened since the 2020 election.” That was Politico Playbook’s substantive conclusion this morning. It’s…
School board battles are back with a vengeance
Over the past few years, MAGA politicians and local activists have made education, especially the teaching of history, a hot spot in the culture wars — with the megaphone of Fox News. In the waning days of his presidency, Donald…
The kingdom of God does not come through the scepter but through the Cross
Public Religion Research Institute is a nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization dedicated to conducting independent research in the fields of religion, culture and public policy. They focus on important issues that shape American culture, religious dynamics, political viewpoints and sociological…
‘In a pluralistic democracy’: An interview with Jennifer Rubin
For years, Jennifer Rubin, conservative columnist for the Washington Post, and I didn’t see eye to eye on many issues. An ardent champion of the traditional Republican Party, she advocated for candidate Lindsey Graham in 2015 (“If being right is…
Why a potential indictment of Donald Trump will matter so little to most of his Christian supporters
The country is collectively holding its breath this week to see whether former President Donald Trump will be indicted for falsifying business records to cover up the payment of $130,000 of “hush money” to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on…
Five charts that explain the desperate turn to MAGA among conservative white Christians
New data from PRRI’s Census of American Religion show continued decline of white evangelicals as a proportion of the American population. I prefaced my 2016 book, The End of White Christian America, with an “Obituary for White Christian America.” It read,…