The disgraced former president of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr., is in the midst of a legal war with his brother and the university which forced him out of office. The fight is over the legal legacy of Jerry Falwell...
fundamentalism
This pastor won’t let his wife read unless he approves of her reading material
I’ve heard about this kind of extreme complementarianism, but I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed it quite like this. Joel Webbon of Right Response Ministries appears to embrace some mix of Seven Mountain Dominionism, theonomism, and Christian Recontructionism. He is...
The chair of the Bob Jones University board of trustees steps down
We covered the recent fundamentalist coup at Bob Jones here. Mark Wingfield has the latest at Baptist News Global. John Lewis, the chairman of the Bob Jones University board of trustees, has resigned. Here is Wingfield: …[President] Pettit resigned March...
Steve Pettit resigns as president of Bob Jones University
Back in November 2022 old school fundamentalists at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina tried to remove president Steve Pettit. Apparently the popular president was allowing the wrong kind of music in chapel, letting female athletes wear “immodest clothing,”...
Bob Jones University president Steve Pettit survives a fundamentalist revolt
Several old school fundamentalists on the board of Bob Jones University recently tried to remove university president Steve Petitt. They failed. I got the news from the BJU-watching blog “What In The World.” It was also just announced to the...
A former Bob Jones student reacts to the university board’s attempt to oust its president
If you aren’t familiar with this story yet, get up to speed here. John Ellis, a former Bob Jones University student who blogs at “Practically Known Theology,” has more. Here is a taste of his post, “The (Possible) Slow, Strange,...
What is happening at Bob Jones University?
According to reporter Steve Rabey, the Bob Jones University may be facing an old school fundamentalist revolt. The board of the university may remove president Steve Pettit for allowing the wrong kind of worship music in chapel, letting female athletes...
Albert Mohler’s “Christian world view” was on full display in his ugly piece on the legacy of Ronald Sider
Albert Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, likes to talk about how he discerns current events through his “Christian world view.” Well, Mohler’s “Christian world view” was on full display yesterday in his reflection on...
Who is a fundamentalist today? George Marsden talks about the recent edition of his Fundamentalism and American Culture
Check out Marsden’s interview with Brian Kaylor at Word & Way: Marsden continues to affirm his view that a “fundamentalist” is a “militant evangelical.” This raises an interesting question. Is an evangelical who is a culture warrior a “fundamentalism?” Based...
Albert Mohler responds to David Brooks’ essay on evangelical reformers
Writing at WORLD magazine, the latest imperial conquest of the fundamentalist fiefdom over which he presides, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler has responded to David Brooks’s recent New York Times piece on evangelical dissenters. Let’s break it down:...
Thabiti Anyabwile riles the fundamentalists
Fundamentalists are fighters. They stage a militant defense of the faith from their bunker-like fiefdoms dominated by powerful masculine leaders. They see the world in black and white and will turn on anyone who dares depart from what they believe...
Fosdick’s “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” turns 100
Current Contributing Editor Daniel K. Williams reflects on this classic 1922 sermon. Here is a taste of his post at The Anxious Bench: Now that we have reached the centennial anniversary of this sermon, perhaps it’s time to ask the...
Marvin Olasky discusses his resignation from World magazine
We covered this here and here. Here is Bob Smietana at Religion News Service: Olasky had hoped to end his tenure as editor-in-chief, which began in 1994, in the summer of 2022. Those plans changed after World’s publisher announced the...
Are you reading the *Cedarville Interpreter*?
We have done several posts over the years about the goings-on at Cedarville University, a conservative Christian school in Ohio. You can read some of those posts here. Many of these posts link to pieces University of Dayton historian Bill...
Why white evangelicals criticize the Black church
In the 1980s, when I was a student at a small Christian college, some of my professors warned us about the “liberal theology” of the civil rights movement. What Martin Luther King Jr. did was notable, they said, but he...
More reporting on Southern Baptist Owen Strachan’s claim that “woke” Christians should be excommunicated
We covered this here. Here is Leonardo Blair at The Christian Post: Deryk D. Hayes, pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church at Shively Heights in Kentucky, said he believes Strachan’s comments about “wokeness” makes him look like “an open and...
Excommunicate me please!
This is the new fundamentalism. Here is Owen Strachan of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the major Southern Baptist seminaries in the country. He calls for the excommunication of people who believe in critical race theory and suggests that...
The last fundamentalist empire died yesterday in Lynchburg, Virginia
Male authoritarian figures presiding over regional empires were an important part of 20th-century Protestant fundamentalism. I began to think historically about these empires during divinity school when I first read William Trollinger’s book God’s Empire: William Bell Riley and Midwestern...
How the history of white evangelical racism has led to Donald Trump’s election and continues to shape support for his presidency
I begin with a caveat. This post is not implying that all white evangelicals are or have been racist. Many white evangelicals have been anti-racist and have fought hard to curb systemic racism in American life. But, as I argued...
What is Going on (Again) at Cedarville University?
More stuff is going on at the conservative evangelical (fundamentalist?) Christian school. We’ve been covering Cedarville for several years now. Here are some of the titles of our posts: April 24, 2014: “What is Going on at Cedarville University?” (A...