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1980s

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...

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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...

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MAGA: 1980 version

John Fea   |  September 19, 2021

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

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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...

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Help Us Decide Tonight’s Quarantine Debate

John Fea   |  April 30, 2020

Watch: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NOZU2iPA8&w=560&h=315] My twenty-two-year-old daughter can’t get her head around the suggestion that anyone would perform this song, in this way, unless it were some kind of parody or joke.  She sees this video as some kind of Saturday...

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Saved By Bruce

John Fea   |  August 17, 2019

Earlier this week I saw Blinded by the Light, the feel-good movie about a Pakistani teenager named Javed Kahn living in Luton, England during the Thatcher years.  Javed’s depressing life is transformed after he is exposed to the the music...

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The “Real” Reason Televangelist Jim Bakker Went to Jail

John Fea   |  July 8, 2019

Here is an excerpt from University of Missouri historian John Wigger’s book PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire (Oxford University Press, 2017): …on March 19, 1987, Jim Bakker resigned in disgrace from PTL after...

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What Do Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and Andrew Johnson Have in Common?

John Fea   |  January 21, 2019

Fillmore, Pierce, and Johnson were sitting presidents seeking reelection who failed to win the nomination of their political party.  And it almost happened in 1980 as Ted Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter for the Democratic Party nomination. Could it happen in...

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CCM Comes to a Presidential Funeral

John Fea   |  December 8, 2018

Anyone who attended a Christian college or was part of an evangelical youth group in the 1980s knows this song.   Love it or hate it, Michael W. Smith‘s “Friends” is a Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) classic.  Yesterday I learned that...

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Some Historical Perspective on the Trump Evangelicals

John Fea   |  October 29, 2018

I am happy to contribute to this video posted today at The New York Times. Retro Report spent over an hour interviewing me at Messiah College back in August.  I was apparently not as engaging as Cal Thomas, Jerry Falwell Jr....

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Does Bruce Springsteen Explain Donald Trump?

John Fea   |  March 10, 2016

Andrew DeYoung has written a very interesting piece at The Stake suggesting that the message of Bruce Springsteen’s songs resonates with the concerns of people who are supporting Donald Trump for President of the United States.  It is a nuanced...

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The Eagles and Evangelical Christianity

John Fea   |  January 31, 2016

With the death of Glen Frey last week I felt a sort of obligation to watch the CNN documentary movie about his band, the Eagles.  I know it’s cliche to say this, but its true: the Eagles have really provided...

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Does”Born in the USA” Finally Reflect Conservative Values?

John Fea   |  March 2, 2015

Some of you may recall my piece on Rick Perry’s use of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” at a rally last month.  You can read it here.  It is entitled “Why Rick Perry Should Think Twice Before He Makes...

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The Decaying Ruins of PTL

John Fea   |  October 30, 2014

Most of you know the story of PTL (Praise the Lord) ministries, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker‘s television ministry that collapsed under a sex scandal and subsequent revelations of accounting fraud. Jim ended up in jail.  He and Tammy Faye...

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Happy 30th Birthday “Born in the USA”

John Fea   |  June 4, 2014

Springsteen’s Born in the USA turns thirty today.  I was a teenager when this album appeared and it has been with me ever since.  I bought the cassette through Columbia House as part of those membership drives in which you...

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This Week’s Anxious Bench Post at Patheos: “Be Ye Glad: Christian Music in the 1980s”

John Fea   |  July 18, 2012

Last week while I was in Ocean City, New Jersey, my family and I attended a concert by the Christian group GLAD.  Evangelicals of a certain age will remember GLAD.  They began in the 1970s as a progressive Christian rock...

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Still on the Side of Love

John Fea   |  July 11, 2012 3 Comments

I became an evangelical Christian in the mid-1980s and this was the kind of stuff I used to listen to back then.  Classic! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPstiMRlB-k] Believe it or not, I saw this group–GLAD (that’s their name–it is not an acronym)–in […]

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