Forgiveness or Hypocrisy? Evangelicals, Abuse, and the Witness of Rachael...
Access Hollywood. Roy Moore. Stormy Daniels. The cast of characters may shift from one scandal to the next, but evangelical Christians have remained remarkably consistent in their response to the...
View ArticleIs It Time to Put Away “the Prophetic”?
A few weeks back, evangelical theologian Richard Mouw explained over at Religion News Service why he declined to sign “prophetic” declarations. (You know, the official statements proliferating about...
View ArticleChristianity and Evangelicalism
As prominent evangelical leaders gather this week at Wheaton, IL, to discuss how the Trump era “has unleashed [a] ‘grotesque caricature’ of their faith,” historian James Bratt of Calvin College joins...
View ArticleThe Church of James Dobson?
Is Focus on the Family a church? It depends who you ask. And it depends when you ask, apparently. Back in 2016, Focus on the Family reportedly asked the IRS to classify the organization as a church, in...
View ArticlePoisonous History and Its Antidote: Christian Nationalism, Black History, and...
On April 26, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, in Montgomery, Alabama, opened its doors. The memorial is visually stunning. Around 800 rusted iron columns hang from above, each representing...
View ArticleSo, what is going on at Patheos?
As the news has spread of Warren Throckmorton’s sudden removal from Patheos, many of the rest of us continue to ask why. And look over our shoulders. The problem is, the reasons Throckmorton was given...
View ArticleImmigration Exclusion as Religious Exclusion
Melissa Borja, assistant professor in American Culture at the University of Michigan, returns today to the Anxious Bench. This week the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision to uphold President Trump’s...
View ArticleBiblical Porn: Mark Driscoll’s Evangelical Empire
Feminist anthropologist Jessica Johnson has just published a fascinating study, Biblical Porn: Affect, Labor, and Pastor Mark Driscoll’s Evangelical Empire, with Duke University Press. She joins us...
View ArticleEvangelicalism is an Imagined Religious Community
Perhaps you’ve heard. One month ago, evangelical women “hit pause” on the culture wars. It might surprise you to hear that this olive branch was extended in response to President Trump’s proposed...
View ArticleHobby Lobby Evangelicalism
Is evangelicalism a political movement? There’s been a lot of talk about how to define evangelicalism of late, much of it centering around this quesion. I’ve been guilty of contributing more than my...
View ArticleBefore Evangelicals Believed in Family Values
That evangelicals are pro-family is one of the ironies of American religious history
View ArticleEvangelicals, Let’s Talk About Violence Against Women
So, it turns out close to half of all white evangelicals think Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed even if Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault are true. (An NPR/PBS NewHour/Marist...
View ArticleWhy is Fear an Evangelical Habit of Mind?
This past weekend, a man entered a Pittsburgh synagogue and massacred 11 people gathered for worship. The assailant was armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, three Glock .357 handguns, and a heavy dose of...
View ArticleIf Trump were a Democrat: A Fantasy
Today we welcome George Marsden back to the Anxious Bench. One of the preeminent historians of evangelicalism, George previously weighed in on whether evangelicalism can survive Trump. Here he returns...
View ArticleThe Mysterious Project of Putting Christ Back in Christmas
“In a culture dominated by sharp opinions, admitting uncertainty comes at a cost.” So concludes Jonathan Merritt, in his Atlantic story on Christian musician Lauren Daigle. Daigle had come under fire...
View ArticlePete Buttigieg and The Politics of American Greatness
On Sunday, Pete Buttigieg made it official. He’s running for president, because he wants “to tell a different story than ‘Make America Great Again.’” But one way or another, his, too, will be a story...
View ArticleRachel Held Evans, Beth Moore, and the Power of Evangelical Coalitions
As news spread of Rachel Held Evans’s death, one quote continued to pop up in my social media feed, a quote from her book Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church: But the gospel...
View ArticleMen Without Chests: On Weaponizing C.S. Lewis
Today we welcome Josh Parks to the Anxious Bench. A recent graduate of Calvin College with majors in English literature and violin performance, Josh is an MA student in medieval studies at Western...
View ArticleWhen Gender Theology Doesn’t Fit in Our Boxes: Then and Now
I love to study people who don’t fit in boxes. These people explode our assumptions about which ideas or which actions go together. They help us think outside our own boxes in productive ways, whether...
View ArticleThe Problem of Timeless Sexual Morality
It’s been a difficult stretch for traditional Christian sexual morality. Values once held dear are being tossed aside with abandon. One after another, Christians are “slipping from the grounded banks...
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