Do you find yourself wondering why so many strange political ideas that have little public appeal are coming forth? Normally, politicians stay away from unpopular proposals. For what reasons are these ideas surfacing now? Here are examples: Mass deportation of…
Ministers of Propaganda decodes false gospel of Religious Right
Celebrity preachers, entrepreneurial theologians, parachurch leaders and conservative pundits have sold millions of Americans a false gospel that legitimizes discriminatory social arrangements, argues Scott Coley in his provocative book, Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious…
There’s a new religious advocacy group with ties to Patterson and Conservative Baptist Network
The latest conservative, pro-family, anti-diversity advocacy group affirmed by the James Dobson Family Institute has distinctive Southern Baptist ties and takes its name from a historic Baptist legacy traditionalists might be surprised to see on such an enterprise. In an…
GOP candidates make their case to conservative Christian activists
They’re off and running, and if history is any guide, most white evangelicals will vote for one of these 11 candidates in the 2024 presidential race, now some 500 days away. So far, polls show Donald Trump far ahead of…
Pat Robertson’s Gong Show
I grew up in the shadow of the Christian Broadcasting Network. I even met Pat Robertson a few times. In high school, I acted in a commercial for The Family Channel. Some of the money Pat Robertson made from its…
No middle ground: The culpability of conservatives in queer violence
America has a problem. That’s not news to anyone. But it bears repeating again and again until we, as a nation, awaken from our collective slumber and decide to do something to fix it. A week ago Sunday morning, Americans…
‘Radical new arrangements’: On conservative Christian radicalization in the U.S.
After a year of researching the matter rather deeply — including listening to conservative scholars, activists and politicians — it has become completely clear to me that a significant chunk of conservative Christians in the United States has moved from…
Christianity: Where the end justifies the means
It is hard not to argue that conservative Christians led the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade — whether they be evangelicals, Roman Catholics, Mormons or Eastern Orthodox. Since the rise of the Moral Majority, Paul Weyrich, the Christian Coalition…
Secular revolutions and religious counterrevolutions
In 2015, highly esteemed Princeton political philosopher Michael Walzer published The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions. The title itself immediately arrested me, as it crystallized a current intuition of mine. I believe the United States and several…