What is happening in Evangelical land Evangelical anti-abortion activity before Roe. The National Association of Evangelicals on the Buffalo shooting: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Buffalo: Roger Olson brings some autobiographical nuance to Jesus and John Wayne. More here. […]
Archives for May 2022
Consumer Capture
Our rights don’t come from companies. They come from being citizens.
Commonplace Book #215
Pietro Spina was Don Benedetto’s best pupil as a boy, and he remains his best pupil as a man because he has never given over his love of learning, and he never depends upon other people for his thinking. Even […]
Evangelical pastors running for office
The Washington Post video team is running a mini-documentary on pastors running for political office. The piece features Cameron McGill, a Bladen County Commissioner and pastor of White Lake Church. McGill was “recruited and trained” by the American Renewal Project. […]
The Buffalo shooting in historical context
Historian Chad Williams places the shooting in the larger context of Buffalo history. Here is a taste of his piece at The Washington Post: Historical context is necessary to fully grasp the significance of the Buffalo shooting. White-supremacist terrorism targeting […]
More reporting on Gordon-Conwell’s move to Boston
Here is Daniel Silliman at Christianity Today: After years of declining enrollments, budget deficits, and deep faculty and staff cuts, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has decided to sell its 102-acre main campus in Hamilton, Massachusetts. The historic evangelical seminary plans to […]
Dinesh D’Souza’s “hilarious mockumentary”
If you read our twice-weekly “Evangelical Roundup” feature, you have heard about conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza’s “Big Lie” movie titled 2000 Mules. The movie premiered at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Over at the conservative website The Bulwark, Amanda Carpenter offers a […]
BOOK MARKS: With Dark-Lantern and Bow-String
“‘Let us assume’ turns in a few pages into ‘We may assume,’ which, in a few more, is ‘As we have shown’ . . .”
It’s time for gun rights advocates to stop “looking the other way”
Conservative Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen calls out his fellow conservatives in the wake of the Buffalo shooting. Here is a taste of his piece: Yes, it’s inevitable that some mass shootings will occur in any society with private gun […]
Mike Pence positions himself for 2024
According to Adam Wren at Politico, the former Indiana governor and Vice-President of the United States is trying to find a lane that will allow him to praise Trump for his accomplishments and separate him from Trump’s many missteps. Wren […]
The politics of spiritual warfare is clearly present in the Mastriano campaign
Lately I’ve been reading a lot of Christian Right websites from the early 21st century and I am struck by the difference between the political rhetoric of evangelical politicians then and evangelical politicians now. In the early 2000s, evangelical politicians–George […]
The Author’s Corner with Angela Esco Elder
Angela Esco Elder is Associate Professor of History at Converse University. This interview is based on her new book, Love and Duty: Confederate Widows and the Emotional Politics of Loss (The University of North Carolina Press, 2022). JF: What led […]
Scooby Doo and the Black Robe Regiments
Effective political engagement requires real historical understanding
When it comes to abortion, conservative evangelicals act. When it comes to gun control, some call for revival but most say nothing.
In 2019, I wrote a piece at The Washington Post about the way that conservative evangelicals, mostly white conservative evangelicals, offer “thoughts and prayers” to the families of the victims of gun violence yet oppose gun control legislation. Here is […]
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary will sell Hamilton campus and move to Boston
Here is the press release: May 16, (Hamilton, Massachusetts) – In a renewed effort to focus on its roots, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an evangelical seminary of more than 1,400 global students, announced today its intention to leverage the economic value […]
The Author’s Corner with Sam Lebovic
Sam Lebovic is Associate Professor of History at George Mason University. This interview is based on his new book, A Righteous Smokescreen: Postwar America and the Politics of Cultural Globalization (University of Chicago Press, 2022). JF: What led you to […]
Evangelical roundup for May 16, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land: Southern Baptist church membership is down 1.1. million. “Jesusland” versus “The United States of Canada” revisited. Not “lone wolves”: Truth: More Shane: The president of Sojourners on reducing abortion, not overturning Roe. What does […]
What If Pro-Choice Politicians Acknowledged That Abortion Is a Moral Problem?
If they did, they might find themselves more in line with their constituencies
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Read more than you write The origins of “The Anxious Bench” blog The American debate over abortion occurs within some non-debatable parameters Racist murders in 19th-century America Did Christian nationalism […]
The Grove City College anti-woke victory is secured
Here is Grove City College psychology professor Warren Throckmorton: Get up to speed here. For our specific post of the ad hoc committee’s report click here. I know a lot of schools are going through “prioritization” right now, but nothing […]