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1980s

Make Christian politics great again!

John Fea   |  September 19, 2024

This was published in 1984. The Pentecostal Evangel was the official weekly magazine of the Assemblies of God. Hat tip: Dr. Daniel Isgrigg via X.

The Author’s Corner with Andrew E. Busch

Rachel Petroziello   |  August 21, 2024

Andrew E. Busch is Associate Director of the Institute of American Civics at the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee. This interview is based on his new book, Ronald Reagan and the Firing […]

Trumpism is straight out of the 1980s

John Fea   |  August 13, 2024

Maybe when Trump says “Make America Great Again” he has the 1980s in mind. Here is a taste of Michael Grasso’s Jacobin piece, “Donald Trump and the ’80s Aesthetic“: When Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea stood onstage at the Republican National […]

Bill Walton on the Clippers

John Fea   |  May 28, 2024

From Bill Walton’s Los Angeles Clipper days:

Republicans love the 1950s

John Fea   |  May 25, 2024

When Donald Trump says we need to ‘make America great again,” most Republicans think about the 1950s. According to Andrew Van Dam at The Washington Post, Republicans believe that the 1950s was the happiest, safest, most communitarian, and moral society […]

Will Nikki Haley pull off a Gary Hart-style upset in New Hampshire?

John Fea   |  January 10, 2024

The New Hampshire primary–the first of the primary season–is scheduled for January 23, 2004. Sometimes strange things happen in the New Hampshire primary. Remember when: Henry Cabot Lodge beat Barry Goldwater in 1964? Edmund Muskie beat George McGovern in 1972? […]

“A Very Special Christmas” turns 35

John Fea   |  December 15, 2023

Did you know that The Pointer Sisters, Eurythmics, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Pretenders, John Mellencamp, Sting, Run-DMC, U2, Madonna, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Alison Moyet, and Stevie Nicks […]

Episode 121: “Reagan’s Evangelical Vision for America”

John Fea   |  October 30, 2023

How did Ronald Reagan use the media to shape his evangelical vision for America, a vision rooted in political freedom, economic freedom, and religious freedom that is still with us today and continues to define the discourse of both of […]

Why did the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals lose the World Series?

John Fea   |  May 19, 2023

Don Denkinger, the umpire who blew a call at first base in game six of the 1985 World Series, died on May 12, 2023. Watch: Here is Cardinals fan Will Leitch at The Washington Post: The reason the Cardinals lost […]

How Charles Stanley and the Southern Baptists handled the media

John Fea   |  April 24, 2023

Charles Stanley died last week. He was the senior pastor of Atlanta Baptist Church for nearly half a century, a television preacher, and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Over at Get Religion, veteran religion journalist Terry Mattingly […]

MAGA: 1980 version

John Fea   |  September 19, 2021

The Gazette of Cedar Rapids (IA), January 18, 1980.

Now I finally understand what really happened to Jim Bakker in the 1980s. He got canceled.

John Fea   |  August 24, 2021

If you want to get a feel for what is going on in the pro-Trump wing of charismatic Christianity, check out Steve Strang‘s recent appearance on the Jim Bakker Show. Strang, the editor of Charisma magazine, has a new book […]