In my home state, folks make regular pilgrimages to a revered shrine where they engage in rituals, sing songs, pray, engage in charismatic hand lifting, and often speak in mysterious tongues indiscernible to outsiders. Sometimes adherents express the ecstasy of…
Not all Black Americans are highly religious, BJC podcast explains
The assumption that Black Americans are highly religious, and almost universally Christian, overlooks the theological and ideological complexity of the African American community, Anthony Pinn said on the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty’s “Respecting Religion” podcast. But a clearer…
Yes, Trump has a ‘radical agenda’ if elected again, but where’s the religious talk?
For months, national media have been reporting on Donald Trump’s proposed “radical agenda” if elected to a second term in the White House. What’s conspicuously absent from the volumes of promises Trump has made is much reference to “religion” or…
George Harrison, the ‘quiet’ Beatle, comes alive in new bio
The mild 2023 version of Beatlemania hardly compares to the wild 1964 version, but it has brought new musical products. “Now and Then,” the “last” song from the band, was released Nov. 2 to promote the Nov. 10 release of…
Are Americans ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ or both or neither?
Only 2% of Americans describe themselves as both “religious” and “spiritual,” while most others claim to be one or the other, according to a new study that examines how U.S. adults envision their faith identities. “Nearly half of Americans (47%)…
The real religious crisis in America
In a recent NPR interview, Russell Moore, author of Losing Our Religion, told a story about a pastor who preached a message from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. During his message, the pastor quoted Jesus saying things like “Turn the…
Growth of Christianity in China may have stalled but no one knows for sure
The growth of Christianity in China has remained flat for more than a decade, according to polls conducted in the Communist nation and analyzed by Pew Research Center. “Christianity flourished after China entered an era of economic reforms and ‘opening…
Russell Moore is preaching to the choir with an ‘altar call for evangelical America’
Russel Moore’s Losing Our Religion is at least six books in one. It’s part jeremiad, lamenting the crisis in American Christianity and describing the “collective trauma” evangelicals — including battling Southern Baptists — have inflicted on themselves and the nation…
Woe to modern-day Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes
I’m sure some Southern Baptist Convention Christians are wolves in sheep’s clothing, but my hunch is 99% of all SBCers want to be good and think they are good. They are not delusional enough to believe they are perfect, but…