On July 5, 1852, the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester invited Frederick Douglass to give a speech on the 76th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which became known by its central piercing question, “What, to the American slave, is your…
Trump the totem
Last week’s historic verdict is worth rehearsing. On May 30, Donald J. Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a crime. Twelve ordinary citizens unanimously found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in…
He may be slick, but Ralph Reed is as wrong as ever
Ralph Reed is as slick as ever. And still as wrong as ever. The one-time wunderkind of the Christian Coalition has gone more underground of late as founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, but he’s still orchestrating and spewing…
Leave it to the states? Five takeaways about abortion attitudes in all 50 states
PRRI, where I serve as president and founder, just released one of the largest surveys ever conducted on abortion attitudes in America. Throughout 2023, PRRI interviewed more than 22,000 adults as part of its American Values Atlas, giving us not…
Understanding America’s overlooked religious middle
In America’s religious landscape, the groups attracting the most public attention are those staking out the poles in our political divides: the shrinking, aging, but still influential group of white evangelicals on the right vs. Black Protestants and the growing…
The dangers of minority rule
America is a nation being held hostage by fundamentalism. In our recent BNG webinar with Robert P. Jones and Greg Garrett and Timothy Peoples, the single thing that stuck with me most is a comment by Jones, who is among…
Americans are not equally divided on culture wars, Robert Jones explains in BNG webinar
The popular view that the United States is split in half on cultural, religious and political values is a fallacy propagated by the evangelical-controlled Republican Party, according to Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion Research Institute. “Two-thirds of the…
Register for Sunday’s webinar with Robert P. Jones with Greg Garrett, Timothy Peoples and Mark Wingfield
BNG’s first live audience webinar is scheduled for this Sunday, April 14, at 12:30 p.m. Central time. It will be broadcast live from Wilshire Baptist Church, with guests Robert P. Jones and Greg Garrett in dialogue with BNG Executive Director…
Trump the blasphemer: During Holy Week, Trump compares himself to Jesus and hawks a white Christian nationalist Bible
For the approximately two-thirds of Americans who identify as Christian, this is Holy Week, a solemn time of participation in worship services that encourage reflection and repentance ahead of the resurrection celebrated on the holiest day on the Christian calendar, Easter…