A married gay clergyman from California was among 13 new bishops elected by United Methodist delegates to five regional U.S. conferences Nov. 2-5. And that was only one of several first-ever results of this year’s elections. The election of Cedrick…
Should ‘real’ Christians really vote Republican today?
Numerous conservative pastors and commentators have declared to their flocks that true Christians must vote Republican if they are faithful. Chief among those is Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who told a conservative political action group this…
Once again, white evangelicals are outliers on beliefs about race and American history
White evangelicals are much more likely than other U.S. adults to believe white Americans face as much discrimination as Blacks and other people of color, Public Religion Research Institute found in its recently released 2022 American Values Survey. A smaller…
Bigotry is Donald Trump’s biggest moral failure
Donald Trump was publicly accused of bigotry in a lawsuit almost a half century ago. In response, the former president’s first open denial of racism ever to appear in The New York Times came on Oct. 16, 1973. He was responding to…
A conversation with Anthony Reddie about the importance of James Cone
Last fall, I had the great honor of serving as a visiting fellow at the Oxford Center for Religion and Culture, headed by the renowned Black liberation theologian Anthony G. Reddie. Anthony and I became fast friends, and we had…
White supremacy in blackface: The curious case of Herschel Walker
Blackface is one of the disgraceful aspects of American history. Popularized in the United States after the Civil War, blackface involved white performers playing characters that demeaned and dehumanized African Americans. These offensive and blatantly racist performances were done in…
The truth about assimilation
Many people believe our racial problems would all go away if we all would simply focus on being “unhyphenated Americans.” This assimilation argument is wrong. In America, assimilation into the default ethnic culture means becoming white. The birth of a…
The inconsistencies of our ethical declarations: Samford’s dilemma
Editor’s note: Bill Leonard served as professor of church history and chair of the Religion Department at Samford University from January 1992 to June 1996. In his 1995 book, The Stem of Jesse: The Costs of Community at a 1960s…
White resentment is like an abusive lover who would rather kill than lose control
Many years ago, I was having a conversation with a woman with whom I had gone to high school. She was a successful attorney, living in Pennsylvania, and had a good life — except for her long-term boyfriend. He was…
PRRI’s Structural Racism Index attempts to quantify racist beliefs
How do you measure racism? In the contemporary American battleground of politics, culture and religion, people often call out others for being racist, and those accused often reply, “I’m not a racist.” Still others proudly wear the label “racist” as…
As the Confederate monuments come tumbling down, half of Americans still favor their presence
It’s no news flash that the presence — or sudden absence — of memorials to the Confederacy is a symbol of America’s divided politics today. Yet a new national study by Public Religion Research Institute puts some hard numbers on…
Black pastor arrested in Alabama for watering neighbors’ flowers sues city
A pastor watering his neighbor’s flowers wouldn’t normally make national news, but in Childersburg, Ala., such an act of generosity resulted in an arrest and a story on National Public Radio. The story later made The New York Times. Michael…