The GOP prepares for its 2004 convention. Episode 31: “Where’s the Christian Right” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: If you like what you hear, and want...
Christian Right
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 “The Star-Spangled Banner.”...
Episode 30: “We Worship an Awesome God in the Blue States”
Barack Obama delivers an American sermon and becomes a household name in the process. Episode 30: “We Worship an Awesome God in the Blue States” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above new episodes of this narrative history podcast....
How Thanksgiving became a capitalist holiday
In Monday’s Evangelical Roundup (available twice a week to Current patrons at the Surface level), I included a piece by Wallbuilders president Tim Barton in which he claims that the seventeenth-century Pilgrims defeated socialism. Here is Barton: We often think...
A David Barton disciple, Liberty University graduate, and state legislator wants to ban 800 books from Texas public schools
His name is Matt Krause. He is a Texas State Representative and a speaker for Wallbuilders, an organization founded by David Barton that uses the American past to promote right-win political agendas. Here is Talia Richman and Allie Morris at...
Episode 27: “Evangelicals Get Passionate About the ‘The Passion of the Christ'”
Hollywood star Mel Gibson releases a movie about the last week of the life of Jesus and it opens a new front in the culture wars. Episode 27: “Evangelicals Get Passionate About the ‘The Passion of the Christ’” dropped last...
Episode 26: “Evangelicals Remember Ronald Reagan”
Former president Ronald Reagan died on June 5, 2004. Evangelicals were eager to reflect on the role he played in the rise of the Christian Right. Episode 26: “Evangelicals Remember Ronald Reagan” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level...
Episode 25: “The Fight Has Just Begun”
The Christian Right responds to the Senate’s decision not to pursue a Federal Marriage Amendment Episode 25: “The Fight Has Just Begun” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser:...
Episode 24: “Let the People Speak”
The Senate debates and then votes on a Federal Marriage Amendment Episode 24: “Let the People Speak” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: Listen to Episodes 0, 1,...
Eric Metaxas wants your vote for culture warrior of the year!
Christian politics at its “best.” By the way, he’s right about Candace Owen. Last year she beat out Alan Sears, founder of Alliance Defending Freedom; actor Gary Sinise; Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA; Abby Johnson, pro-life advocate; and...
Kathleen Parker on religious liberty…in 2004
As I prepared for this week’s episode of A History of Evangelicals and Politics podcast I came across a column from syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker. I read it in the June 28, 2004 issue of the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune....
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...
Episode 21: “The Pro-Federal Marriage Amendment Coalition Emerges”
Evangelicals rally around George W. Bush Episode 21: “The Pro-Federal Marriage Amendment Coalition Emerges” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: Listen to Episodes 0, 1, and 2 here. If...
The Mar-a-Lago evangelicals are back with something called the “National Faith Advisory Board.” Let’s break it down!
The American people removed the king and his evangelical court from the throne last November, but some of the pro-Trump evangelical courtiers are not going down without a fight. Here is Forward magazine: Former Trump evangelicals are launching a new...
Evangelical roundup: Texas Heartbeat Act edition
What are evangelical Christians saying about the Texas Heartbeat Act? Here’s a bonus addition of the roundup. And it’s not behind the Current paywall! 🙂 James Dobson on Facebook: Just before midnight last night, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a...
Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center just released the summer issue of its journal “Reclaiming 1776.” Let’s take a look.
Liberty University president Jerry Prevo begins the journal with a quote from John Adams: Before my God, I believe the hour has come. My judgement approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and...
What kind of person treats someone like this and then brags about it during an interview at an evangelical church?
Eric Metaxas is a millionaire who makes his money scaring Christians into believing that the American republic is devolving into the Third Reich. He claims to know this because he wrote a book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I have to give...
Biden botches the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Christian Right pounces.
The Christian Right response to the Afghanistan situation should remind us that it is primarily a political movement. Charlie Kirk, the founder of Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center, knows what is really going on here. It’s all about Biden...
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...
Episode 17: “The City by the Bay Starts Marrying Same-Sex Couples”
San Francisco beats Massachusetts to the punch and starts issuing marriage licenses. The Christian Right responds. Episode 17: “The City by the Bay Starts Marrying Same-Sex Couples” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history...