The influence of the Religious Right may overpower and obscure that of other faith groups, but a veteran religion sociologist says progressive believers promoting peace, justice and social reform have been an active and surprisingly effective force in the 21st…
A life-giving alternative to Religious Right religion
A reader recently emailed me, “If I had to choose between religious-right Christianity or atheism, I would have to choose atheism.” This reader hasn’t lost faith in Jesus. But he’s deeply troubled that American religion (at least a large segment of…
Burge’s Vanishing Church shows high costs of politicized churches
Ryan Burge, perhaps our top “quantitative scholar of American religion,” makes numbers speak, and in his latest book they tell the sad story of how politics trumped creed in evangelical churches, leaving “no place for moderates,” many of whom departed….
The God I don’t believe in
Years ago while serving as a parish pastor, I visited an inactive member of my new congregation. Although he used to attend regularly, he quit coming after his wife died. By the time I arrived at the church, he had…
Sanitizing Fascists and White Supremacists isn’t Objective or Neutral — It’s Normalizing an Authoritarian Political Project
Formerly fringe figures of the Religious and Political Right met at the National Conservatism conference earlier this month in Washington, DC to bask in their success at mainstreaming their ideas within the GOP.
Politics of Hate shows how groups use faith, Scripture to justify attacks on the ‘other’
Jesus told his disciples to love their neighbors and even their enemies and “those who persecute you.” But today, some of Jesus’ politically active followers have defied that command and “darkened America’s political soul by constructing a biblical justification for…
Children in the marketplace
Jesus said it: But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not…
Is the Republican Party too secular?
One of the most potent and frustrating images of President Donald Trump’s previous time in office was his infamous photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church in June 2020, wherein the president cleared protesters out of the public space so…
Romney bids farewell to Senate after reckoning with Trump and evangelicals
As Congress and the country focus on Donald Trump’s incoming administration and cabinet picks, Americans are paying less attention to outgoing leaders such as Mitt Romney, the principled Mormon Republican senator whose six-year term featured regular critiques of both Trump…
New reports connect dots between demographic change and ‘strange political ideas’
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…