I and others have been saying this since Donald Trump signed the order in May. Now Trump’s lawyers are finally admitting it. Here is a taste of Derek Hawkins’s piece at The Washington Post: President Trump promised a new world for...
executive order
My Latest at Religion News Service: “The Evangelical Courtiers Who Kneel Before the President’s Feet”
Here is a taste: (RNS) According to Merriam-Webster, a “court” is “a sovereign’s formal assembly of councilors and officers.” A court is made up of “courtiers,” which the dictionary defines as “one in attendance at a royal court” or “one...
Trump Throws A Bone to Conservative Evangelicals. Now He Can Move On.
The evangelical community’s response to Donald Trump’s recent executive order on religious liberty has been largely negative. As I wrote yesterday: “I don’t think Trump cares about religious liberty. But he is very good at saying the kinds of things...
Get Up to Speed on the Response to Trump’s Executive Order on Religious Liberty
On Thursday, Donald Trump signed an executive order “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty.” We commented here and here. Here is what others are saying about the order: Jaweed Jaleem at the Los Angeles Times on how religious leaders who push politics...
Trump’s Executive Order on Religious Liberty Didn’t Do Much
Here it is: EXECUTIVE ORDER PROMOTING FREE SPEECH AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to guide the executive branch in formulating...
76% of White Evangelicals Support Trump's Refugee Ban
Pew Research Center has the data. This is more evidence of a deep divide among Christian who identify with the label “evangelical.” You may recall that hundreds of evangelical leaders condemned the ban last week. Historians of American evangelicalism should...
Evangelical Leaders Oppose Trump's Refugee Ban
I was recently on the phone with a religion reporter for a national outlet who is very good at her/his job. The reporter was trying to get a sense of the diverse nature of white evangelicalism. For example, we talked...
Half of Trump Voters Believe the "Bowling Green Massacre" Justifies a Muslim Ban
Read all about it here. If you think that history and history education is not important or worthy of funding please think again. If the poll referenced above is correct, half of Trump supporters believe that this fake massacre not...
What Am I Missing on This Trump Muslim Ban?
Trump’s executive order states: Upon the resumption of USRAP admissions, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, is further directed to make changes, to the extent permitted by law, to prioritize refugee claims made by individuals...
A Tale of Three Protests
This could be the first weekend of the Trump administration in which the country has not experienced a major protest march of one form or another. As I write this on Saturday morning, the weekend is still young. But I...
Historian Heather Cox Richardson on Trump's Muslim Ban: "It's a Shock Event"
Heather Cox Richardson of Boston College is one of my favorite historians. I highly recommend her most recent book To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party. Today Richardson gave me permission to publish a piece she recently posted...
Did Giuliani Say That Trump's Executive Order on Refugees Was Meant to Be a Ban on Muslim Immigration?
It sure sounds like it: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGOwEOTYfuE&w=560&h=315] I love Princeton historian Kevin Kruse tweet on this: Once again, Giuliani says out loud the part they were supposed to keep quiet. On national TV. https://t.co/MZW67WJgYn — Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) January...
Dwight Eisenhower on Refugees
Dwight Eisenhower to the Congress on Immigration, March 17, 1960. Here is a taste: To the Congress of the United States: I again urge the liberalization of some of our existing restrictions upon immigration. The strength of this nation may...
George Washington Quote of the Day
GW to Rev. Francis Adrian Vanderkemp, May 28, 1788. Here is more on Vanderkemp and his immigrant experience. A taste: Sir: The letter which you did me the favor to address to me the 15th. of this instt. from New...