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 […]
fundamentalism
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 […]
Former Fundamentalists Await the Apocalypse
Today a piece by Sarah Jones at New York Magazine caught my attention. Here is a taste of “Apocalypse Now?”: If you think it feels like the end of the world, you’re not alone. There is a pandemic. Donald Trump is […]
Trump Responds to *Christianity Today* Editorial Calling for His Removal
Here it is, in case you haven’t seen it: A far left magazine, or very “progressive,” as some would call it, which has been doing poorly and hasn’t been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years, Christianity Today, […]
The American Council of Christian Churches Still Exists
When post-fundamentalists like Billy Graham, Carl. F.H. Henry, and Harold John Ockenga began to forge a kinder and gentler brand of conservative Protestantism known as “neo-evangelicalism,” there were many veterans of the fundamentalist-modernist battles of the 1920s who continued to […]
Why the Recent *Politico” Piece Will Not Hurt Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Standing Among Many Conservative Evangelicals
Yesterday I posted about Brandon Ambrosino’s Politico piece exposing Jerry Falwell’s lies, shady business deals, sex life, and the tyrannical power he holds over his employees at Liberty University. One of Falwell’s employees called the president a dictator who propagates a culture […]
More on the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptists
Earlier this month we did a post on Hailey Branson-Potts’s Los Angeles Times piece on the New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement. Over at Slate, religion writer Ruth Graham also has a piece on this brand of ultra-fundamentalism. Here is a taste […]
“Red Hot Preaching” and Calls for the U.S. Government to Execute LGBTQ People: Meet the New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement
When Hailey Branson-Potts, a prize-winning reporter from the Los Angeles Times, called me to get some historical context before she attended the “Red Hot Preaching” conference in Sacramento, I told her that she was going to stick out like a sore […]
Is the Southern Baptist Convention Evangelical or Fundamentalist?: Some Thoughts on the Beth Moore Controversy
As many readers of The Way of Improvement Leads Home know, I am not a cradle evangelical. I spent the first sixteen years of my life as a Roman Catholic. I had a conversion experience as a sophomore in high […]
Christ of the Ozarks
I haven’t visited the 65.6 foot-tall statue near Eureka-Springs, Arkansas, but I learned a lot about it from Ben Railton, the “American Studier.” Here is a taste of his post: Near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, at the top of the strikingly […]
A Southern Baptist Theologian Suggests that the CCCU-NAE “Fairness for All” Motion is the Work of Satan
I am not sure which part of Wayne Grudem‘s theology Midwestern Baptist Seminary professor Owen Strachan admires more: Grudem’s belief that women should serve as “compliments” to their husbands or his belief that the gift of prophecy is real. (Side […]
*Christianity Today* Weighs-In on the Independent Baptist Sex Abuse Scandal
Over at Christianity Today, Kate Shellnut covers recent independent Baptist sex-abuse scandal as reported on Sunday by the Forth Worth Star-Telegram. I tried to offer some historical context on this movement here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home and I am happy to […]
Hundreds of Sex Abuse Allegations Found in Fundamentalist Baptist Churches
The independent fundamentalist Baptist movement emerged sometime in the 1940s as an attempt to continue the legacy of the fundamentalist movement of the 1920s. It upheld what it believed to be the true spirit of fundamentalism amid changes in the […]
When You Want to be Anti-Catholic, but You Don’t Want to Hurt Anyone’s Feelings
Aaron Griffith is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. As part of his research, he recently came across an ad for a 1949 tent revival in […]
What the Fall of Bill Gothard Means for Conservative Evangelicalism
Check out Joshua Pease’s piece at The New Republic on fundamentalist parachurch leader Bill Gothard. As a young evangelical, I read some of Gothard’s stuff. My church would often send groups to his Institute in Basic Life Principles conference in Ocean Grove, […]