Matthew Dougherty is Assistant Professor of History at Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto. This interview is based on his book, Lost Tribes Found: Israelite Indians and Religious Nationalism in Early America (University of Oklahoma Press, […]
Christian nationalism
Rod Dreher says that America has “few champions” like Viktor Orban, but Florida governor Ron DeSantis gives him “hope”
We covered this yesterday, but Dreher continues to drool all over of the pro-Putin/anti-Zelensky Hungarian president. Here is a taste of his post: “Viktor Organ or Joe Biden?: We cultural conservatives in America have very few champions like Orban. Maybe […]
Idaho Lt. Governor tries to defend her appearance at a white nationalist conference
Idaho Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin is running for governor. Some of you may remember her May 2021 stunt when she tried to impose a mask ban while the Idaho governor, Brad Little, was out of the state. Some of you […]
Andrew Sullivan on the post-liberal Right’s Putin problem
Earlier this week at Current I wrote about the conservative nationalists who love Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor OrbĂĄn and (to a lesser extent to be sure) Russian president Vladimir Putin. These critics of American liberalism are in a tough spot these […]
Sorry Michael Flynn, the Constitution does not mention the word “Creator” four times. In fact, it never mentions the word.
Here is Kyle Mantyla at Right Wing Watch: Michael Flynn, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who served as national security adviser to former President Donald Trump, spoke at a campaign rally Saturday for MAGA pastor Jackson Lahmeyer in Oklahoma, where he falsely claimed that âthe word âCreatorâ is in […]
Resounding gongs and clanging symbols at Charlie Kirk’s “America Fest”
Charlie Kirk’s pro-Trump, God and country organization Turning Point USA recently hosted a conference called “America Fest.” Thousands of college students, fresh off of final exams, showed-up in Phoenix to attend the event. Let’s see how things went: Colorado congresswoman […]
From the archives: Jack Hibbs dabbles in American history and it is a disaster. We need another Dudley Rutherford moment
This post is from July 13, 2021: In 2011, Dudley Rutherford, the pastor of the Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, California, sat down in front of a camera and told the inspiring story behind the writing of âThe Star-Spangled Banner.â […]
Has the phrase “Christian nationalism” lost its meaning?
Over at The Week, Samuel Goldman makes some good points. Here is a taste: It’s easy to find criticisms of Christian nationalism, which dominate both academic and popular discussions of the subject. It’s far more difficult to locate advocates, at least […]
If you want to get a sense of how many white evangelicals understand American history, check out megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs’s Facebook page
We have written about Hibbs before. He is the vaccine mandate-hating, Larry Elder-loving, pro-Trumper who pastors Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California. Over the last several years, Hibbs seems to have become a bit of a history buff. In a […]
Recovered from the archives: “An Open Letter to the Students of Charis Bible College”
Yesterday a reader told me that he was searching for this 2016 post and couldn’t find it. It seems to have disappeared from The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog. But I managed to find it at another site on […]
David Barton and the American Restoration Tour is coming to a city near you. What if we put together a shadow tour?
David Barton, the Christian Right activist who uses the American past to advance his political agenda, is going on the road with Chad Connelly, the former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. They are calling it The American Restoration […]
Jack Hibbs dabbles in American history and it is a disaster. We need another Dudley Rutherford moment!
In 2011, Dudley Rutherford, the pastor of the Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, California, sat down in front of a camera and told the inspiring story behind the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” (The video has been removed from […]
Member of Congress: “We are an army for everything that Jesus has purchased for us and our children, and our childrenâs children”
I might not pay attention to this kind of idolatry, blasphemy, and heresy if it wasn’t coming from a member of the House of Representatives. According to the Christian nationalist theology of Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert, Jesus died to redeem […]
Anyone who wants to believe that Independence Day is a Christian holiday should read Frederick Douglass’s “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?” David Barton speaks at First Baptist-Dallas.
Yesterday was “Freedom Sunday” at First Baptist-Dallas. I have commented on this yearly service several times. Read my commentary here and here and here. My position on these patriotic services has not changed. In the past, First Baptist-Dallas pastor Robert […]
Mark Noll and Vince Bacote on Christian nationalism
A good conversation sponsored by The Trinity Forum. Some comments: I love Mark Noll’s workspace. Do I see an exercise bike? I love that Vince has a copy of Carl F.H. Henry’s autobiography Confessions of a Theologian on his bookshelf. […]
How do Christian nationalists deal with the Establishment Clause?
Recently, a scholar in another discipline asked me how Christian nationalists who study the American past “ignore, navigate around, or distort the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” I address this in Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A […]
The Midtown Scholar’s Grand-Reopening!
I am very excited about this weekend’s re-opening of the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg! Back in April 2020, I joined Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, for the bookstore’s first pandemic […]
Doug Mastriano’s Christian nationalism
We have covered Doug Mastriano before. Check out our posts on the controversial Pennsylvania state senator here. Mastriano is the subject of Eliza Griswold’s recent piece at The New Yorker. Here is a taste: Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator […]
Seven Mountain Dominionism at the Mississippi National Day of Prayer
The group that organized Mississippi’s National Day of Prayer ceremony this week–an event in which the state’s governor Tate Reeves was a speaker–issued this press release: We are excited to announce the 2021 National Day of Prayer observance will beheld […]
Joe Biden did not mention God in his National Day of Prayer proclamation. Conservative evangelicals are not happy.
Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer. Biden issued a proclamation: Throughout our history, Americans of many religions and belief systems have turned to prayer for strength, hope, and guidance. Prayer has nourished countless souls and powered moral movements â […]