Dylann Roof, the white Christian man who murdered nine African Americans during the closing prayer of a Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015, was back in the news recently after a federal appeals court upheld his conviction…
Facing the clear and present danger lurking among white evangelicals today
BNG is pleased to announce a new partnership with Robert P. Jones and PRRI that will bring a new column by the author to BNG’s site every Monday, beginning today. Earlier this month, we were in a remarkable space between…
Good news on vaccines: Faith-based approaches are leading more to take the shot
Aversion to COVID-19 vaccines is declining in the U.S. in part because faith communities are influencing some skeptical Americans to reconsider their opposition to vaccination, new research shows. A survey conducted in June by Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith…
Interviewer asks Robert Jones how far white Christians will go to control government
White Christians increasingly appear to support democracy only as long as they’re in charge of running it, author and researcher Robert P. Jones said in one of his most candid interviews to date. Jones, founder of Public Religion Research Institute…
New national survey flips the narrative on mainline Protestants and the ‘nones,’ but why?
Two giant questions leaped off the page as the interpreters of American religion began reading the latest data dump from Public Religion Research Institute July 8: How could this data about mainline Protestants be correct, and why is the data…
Du Mez sees link between sexual abuse cover up and complementarian theology
The white evangelical inclination to cover up sexual abuse in churches and denominations derives in part from a complementarianism ideology, according to Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured…
Alliance of Baptists updates its covenant and hears calls to action against injustice
The economic, racial and social injustices exposed and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic have called progressive Christians to bolder-than-ever action on behalf of the oppressed, pastor and writer Aurelia Dávila Pratt said during her opening keynote address to the Alliance…
This Good Friday, I’ll be at the hanging tree
We cannot on Good Friday disconnect the crucified Jesus from what Ignacio Ellacuria, Salvadoran martyr, called “the crucified peoples of history.” American Christians must place the Cross alongside the lynching tree, as James Cone makes unforgettably clear in his last…
On coronavirus beliefs, ‘It’s evangelical Protestants against everyone else’
When asked in October to list their top concerns, white evangelicals listed abortion, fair presidential elections and terrorism. The coronavirus didn’t make the cut, noted Robert P. Jones, CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute. “Looking at their…