Some of you recall Jay Green’s Current piece “Lee Greenwood Christianity.” Read it here. Over at Slate, Molly Olmstead reports on the Greenwood-inspired God Bless the USA Bible. Here is a taste: In May, controversy over “the ultimate American Bible” briefly...
Bible
The American Bible Society in the days following September 11, 2001
From The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society: One of the highpoints of the ABS engagement with its home in New York City occurred following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the towers of the World...
Is there a link between complementarianism and the proper evangelical response to mask wearing?
Some evangelical groups facing mask mandates in their local school districts are sharing sample religious exemption forms that their fellow evangelicals can use. Here is one that came across my feeds today: I, _________, hereby state that I have chosen...
Joe Biden: Please stop using the Bible in political speeches
After a busy first week of classes I am finally getting around to this story. In the past I have been very critical of politicians who use the Bible to advance political ends. In the last administration I was particularly...
Election fraud “expert” testifies at Texas State Senate hearing. Quotes 2 Peter 1:10 on “election.”
Watch: The woman speaking in this video is Dr. Laura Pressley. She is testifying on election fraud before the Texas State Senate Committee on State Affairs. You can watch her entire testimony at the 12:28:20 mark of this video. What...
Bible Passage of the Day
2 Corinthians: 5:17-21 (RSV): 17 Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the...
Should Congress be in the business of discerning the will of God?
Conservative Christians are irate about what happened recently on the floor of the House of Representatives. During a debate on the Equality Act, Florida congressman Greg Steube argued against the act by reading Deuteronomy 22:5 and a passage from a...
A tale of two prayer breakfast speeches
On February 3, 2021, the day before the National Prayer Breakfast, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State called for Joe Biden to endorse the separation of church at the breakfast. Here is a taste of the release:...
Tony Perkins finds “cancel culture” in the Bible (and other Trump evangelical news, including Eric Metaxas’s book launch)
In the last several days we have seen the Republican Party get closer to the breaking point. Trumpism in the form of Marjorie Greene and her enablers is pitted in a war for control of the party against the likes...
Joe Biden’s Bible
Biden will be sworn in on Wednesday with his hand on an old family Catholic Bible. Kamala Harris will use Thurgood Marshall’s Bible. Here is a taste of Dan Silliman’s piece at Christianity Today: Presidents are not required to take...
Mike Pence quotes Ecclesiastes; says it is time for the nation to heal
Last night the House of Representatives asked Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. He refused to do it. Here is the letter he sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: The next to last paragraph caught my attention....
When it comes to presidents quoting scripture and spiritual writers, Joe Biden may surpass Barack Obama
In 2012, I asked readers of my now defunct Patheos column if they would vote for a man who: …gives praise and honor to God before a public audience? …wants to seek God’s face with other believers? …admits that prayer...
Episode 78: How a 1630 Sermon Shaped American Exceptionalism
Our guest in this episode is Abram Van Engen, author of City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism. He helps us make sense of the phrase “city on a hill” in John Winthrop’s famous 1630 sermon A Model of...
Episode 75: The Jefferson Bible
Did you know that Thomas Jefferson edited a copy of the Christian gospels? In this episode, Smithsonian curator and author Peter Manseau joins us to talk about the so-called “Jefferson Bible” or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. We explore...
What Matthew 4 REALLY says about Christians and power
Recently an evangelical pastor who was a college of classmate of mine wrote to me praising Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Amy Coney Barrett as Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement on the Supreme Court. He seemed very excited about the nomination...
Liberty University’s Falkirk Center meets all expectations at its “Get Louder” event
Yesterday, Liberty University’s Falkirk Center, the culture war wing of the largest Christian university in the world, held a 1-day conference titled “Get Louder: Faith Summit 2020.” Evangelical Trump supporters were encouraged to yell and scream more, fight more, and...
There is nothing new about what happened to conservative evangelicals this week. But how will they respond?
It was a rough week for conservative evangelicals in the United States. The president of the largest Christian university in the country resigned after a sex scandal. A popular evangelical radio host and author was caught on tape punching an...
GOP Convention: Night 3
Yesterday was my first day of face-to-face teaching since March. I am not yet in “classroom shape,” so I was exhausted by the end of the day. Mentally, I was still reeling from multiple technology failures (mostly due to my...
What are the court evangelicals saying about day 3 of the DNC convention?
Last night we heard from Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris. So what are the court evangelicals saying? Johnnie Moore, the man who describes himself as a “modern-day Dietrich Bonhoeffer“: “I tell you this so that no...
Michelle Obama’s DNC convention speech was deeply Christian
After the first night of the Democratic National Convention I tuned into Fox News. Laura Ingraham was on the air and, as might be expected, she was trashing the convention. I stopped watching after about forty minutes of analysis from...