White Christians must learn about hope from the African-American experience. Today, on the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, University of Pennsylvania historian Anthea Butler reflects on hope. Here is a taste of her piece at Faith &...
George Floyd
National politicians respond to the Chauvin verdict. Do you see a pattern here?
In case you still don’t know, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd. Here is how Twitter is responding: As of 8:43pm on Tuesday evening, April 20, 2021 the following national politicians...
We are learning more about who was doing some of the shooting in the Minneapolis streets after the death of George Floyd
Here is Holly Bailey at The Washington Post: A Texas man who claims to be a member of the Boogaloo Bois, a far-right anti-government extremist group intent on starting a second civil war, is facing a riot charge, federal prosecutors...
Are the police killings of unarmed Black men isolated incidents?
This graph is from a June 2020 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute: Here is Dawn Araujo-Hawkins at The Christian Century: Two days before Rusten Sheskey, a White police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, fired seven shots into the back...
Trump at 2016 GOP Convention: “Beginning on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored”
“The most basic duty of government,” Trump said at the 2016 GOP convention, “is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.” How should we think about...
David and Tim Barton: The Boston Tea Party was not a “riot.” Don’t you know they called it a “party?”
Thousands of white evangelicals get their history from David Barton (founder) and Tim Barton (president) of an organization called Wallbuilders. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txieT4ufDZI&w=560&h=315] In light of the recent peaceful protests and riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death, the Bartons...
What happened when an evangelical university created a scholarship named after George Floyd
On August 3, 2020, Bethel University, a Christian school in St. Paul, Minnesota, announced the George Floyd Scholarship. The scholarship, named after the Black man killed by police during a May 2020 arrest in Minneapolis, is open to “incoming African...
Obama’s speech at John Lewis’s funeral
Watch: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1pKoCq1bn0&w=560&h=315] I was struck most by the way Obama rooted John Lewis’s life, and by extension the civil rights movement, in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the vision of the founding fathers, and our failure to live...
When the *imago Dei* gets politicized
I have noticed a lot of conversation of late about the Judeo-Christian idea that human beings are created in the “image of God” (imago Dei). In his speech at Mount Rushmore last weekend, Donald Trump said “Every child, of every...
What happened in Gettysburg this weekend?
Jimmy, a friend of friends who works in a local ministry to drug and alcohol abusers, was in Gettysburg this weekend. Here, in his own words, is what happened: Over the last 2.5 years, I have been in a...
Saturday night court evangelical roundup
What have Trump’s evangelicals been saying since our last update? Samuel Rodriguez is upset about the prohibition on singing in California churches. You cannot permit tens of thousands to march in protest without masks and demand that 100 worshipers refrain from singing. That my...
Thursday night court evangelical roundup
What have Trump’s evangelicals been saying since our last update? Court evangelical Tony Perkins joins several other evangelical Trump supporters to talk about the 2020 election: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnEOG1basWI&w=560&h=315] A few quick comments: 15:58ff: Perkins says that Christians “have a responsibility” to vote along “biblical...
Tuesday night court evangelical roundup
What have Trump’s evangelicals been saying since our last update? Rudy Giuliani shares a tweet from a spokesperson for Liberty University’s Falkirk Center. Notice how Giuliani uses Jenna Ellis’s tweet of Psalm 27 to make a political statement. When he says “we all...
Monday night court evangelical roundup
What have Trump’s evangelicals been saying since our last update? Mike Pence’s nephew hosted a court evangelical conversation with Paula White, Johnnie Moore and Samuel Rodriguez. This is an event sponsored by the Trump campaign. Watch: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znrLg80dxjQ&w=560&h=315] At the 5:30...
Episode 70: Systemic Racism
If our mailbox in the wake of the death of George Floyd is any indication, many listeners of this podcast and readers of The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog are making honest efforts to understand the meaning of phrases...
Fox News mistakes a Monty Python quote for the words of a Seattle protester
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO2vrHd4iD4&w=560&h=315] Monty Python strikes again. Read this piece at The Independent: Fox News’ coverage of the Seattle protests has taken another hit after the news organisation quoted a Reddit Monty Python joke as real for its viewers. Martha MacCallum, host of Fox News’ The Story,...
Lonnie Bunch on race in America
Lonnie Bunch is the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Over at The Atlantic, Adam Serwer talks with Bunch about our current moment. Here is a taste: Adam...
Wednesday Night Court Evangelical Roundup
Since my last update, a few things have changed in court evangelical land. Neil Gorsuch, one of two Donald Trump Supreme Court nominees, has defended LGBTQ rights and has proven he may not be the best court evangelical ally when...
Charles Marsh unleashes a devastating assault on court evangelical Eric Metaxas’s misuse of Bonhoeffer as it relates to Black Lives Matter
Court evangelical Eric Metaxas wrote a popular biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer that was panned by Bonhoeffer scholars. University of Virginia theology professor Charles Marsh wrote a biography of Bonhoeffer that was praised by Bonhoeffer scholars. When Metaxas invoked Bonhoeffer to...
What happened to *The New York Times*?
Last week the editorial page editor of The New York Times resigned after he was criticized for publishing an op-ed by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton that called for the use of federal troops to quell violence in the wake of the killing...