Yesterday at Nikki Haley’s announcement: Somewhere along the way Nikki Haley bonded with John Hagee, the San Antonio megachurch pastor and founder of Christians United for Israel. They have made several appearances together over the years. Back in July, she...
RIP Obituary. This October 2008 is a nice window into Powell’s politics:...
Obama and his Democratic primary challenger Hillary Clinton came to Messiah College (now Messiah University) in 2008 for The Compassion Forum, an event sponsored by CNN, Faith in Public Life, and Messiah. The forum took place about a week before...
We evangelicals aren’t inherently stupid, although we do get that way at election time. Push the scare button, give us a choice, and we’ll choose Barabbas, the people’s criminal, 9 out of 10. Nonetheless, even our political gullibility has its...
This speech should resonate with Americans today....
John McCain halts treatment for brain cancer. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIjenjANqAk&w=560&h=315]...
Barack Obama announces that Joe Biden will be his running mate (August 2008) [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stlRLN5Wd6c&w=420&h=315] Donald Trump announced that Mike Pence will be his running mate (July 2016) [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb2LpGV8-WI&w=560&h=315]...
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laCoCJaHtEM&w=420&h=315] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4V6YdL3PQc&w=560&h=315]...
Will Trump win the GOP nomination? Who will win the Republican primary? If recent history is any indication, it is far too early to tell. And with the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary not taking place until February 2016,...
Writing at The New Republic, Amy Sullivan argues that whatever kind of cultural and political clout Rick Warren once had has all but disappeared. You may recall that in 2008 Warren conducted a televised forum with Barack Obama and John...
Yes, according to Tiffany Stanley’s recent article in The New Republic. Between 2004 and 2007, when Obama announced his candidacy for president, he became possibly the most prominent Democratic politician who was comfortable speaking about religion—a liberal who gave the...
Over at Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, University of Virginia theologians Paul Dafydd Jones and Charles Mathewes offer some advice to Barack Obama about how he might use religion to overcome his mid-term doldrums. Jones and Mathewes suggest that Obama should...
The buzz over Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the inaugural prayer continues. Readers of my op-ed in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer are filling my inbox and the Inquirer on-line comments board with their reactions. The commentators on the message...
Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer is running my op-ed on Rick Warren and Billy Graham....
Alan Wolfe is optimistic about a future progressive turn among American evangelicals. Writing in today’s New Republic, Wolfe sees Rick Warren’s acceptance of Obama’s invitation to pray at the inauguration as a sign that evangelicals are moving out of their...
Last month an NYU School of Journalism class asked 3000 NYU undergraduates what it would take for them to forfeit their right to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Here were the results: •20% would give up their right to...
On the day after the presidential election, Steve Waldman of Beliefnet.com explained in the Wall Street Journal how Obama managed to “lure millions of religious voters.” According to Waldman, Obama did it by: 1. Emphasizing his personal faith2. Capitalizing on...
Arts and Letters Daily offers a full slate of reflections, editorials, and thought pieces on the election of Barack Obama.
In November 1800, Abigail Adams arrived in the new federal city of Washington to join her husband John in the presidential quarters. The new home for the president was not finished yet, but the Adams’s were intent upon living there....
I voted early this morning and then caught a plane to Minneapolis where I am doing some work for the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History. Tomorrow I will be lecturing to students from the Minneapolis Public School District. My topic...
