What I learned from (almost) attending a Trump rally
In January 2016, Donald Trump claimed that he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot someone and not lose supporters. With the impeachment inquiry underway, his words ring prophetic. With...
View ArticleHey, John MacArthur. You have a culture. It’s called white (Christian)...
Dear John, So I imagine you’ve been caught by surprise at the popularity/notoriety of that little audio clip released last week. I mean, it wasn’t as though you weren’t expressing something you haven’t...
View ArticleWonder Woman 1984 in 2020: Fear Amid Prosperity, Then and Now
I belong to an all-female super-hero-movie-viewing group. Imagine my delight, then, when the trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 dropped this weekend. I was also thrilled for a second reason: I make a big...
View ArticleComing Soon: 2020 Must-Reads in Christianity and Politics
The frenzied commentary around Mark Galli’s Christianity Today editorial has not only revealed widely diverging opinions within the evangelical community about the Trump presidency, but also about...
View ArticleShould the United Methodist Church Split over Same-Sex Marriage?
I am not a Methodist—well, not anymore. I grew up in the United Methodist Church (UMC), but have been a member of various other denominations since my college years. So the current debates within the...
View ArticleThe Spiritual Danger of Monuments
Monuments to flawed heroes of the past are spiritually dangerous – but removing them may lead to even greater spiritual blindness. At a time of new expressions of deep anger over a centuries-long...
View ArticleOs Guinness, Eric Metaxas, and Their Dangerous Myths of American History
Today we welcome Abram Van Engen to the Anxious Bench. Abram is Associate Professor of English and holds a courtesy appointment in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington...
View ArticleYou Want Context? Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Crotch Shot and Family-Values...
Earlier this week Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University and one of President Trump’s leading evangelical supporters, once again found himself at the center of controversy. And once again,...
View ArticleWhy the Pro-Life Movement Lost Its Black Supporters
In the mid-1970s, Blacks were more likely than any other group of Americans to oppose abortion, according to public opinion surveys. Overwhelmingly Democratic and far more liberal than almost all...
View ArticleJesus and John Wayne: A Guide for Biblical Manhood
A good book can turn your life around. I just finished Jesus and John Wayne by my fellow Anxious Bench blogger Kristin Kobes Du Mez. It was a revelation. I’ve been around for a while. I grew up in the...
View ArticleDangerous Christian Nationalism? A conversation between Abram Van Engen and...
Last month, Abram Van Engen contributed a post here at the Anxious Bench on “Os Guinness, Eric Metaxas, and Their Dangerous Mythos of American History.” That post prompted Os Guinness to respond to...
View ArticleJesus and John Wayne: An Afterword
Back in June, in anticipation of the book’s release, I published Jesus and John Wayne: the backstory. Now, nearly three months out from publication, I thought I’d take the opportunity to reflect on the...
View ArticleQuail and Confections: Lessons in Political Civility from Kentucky
Political tension does not preclude civility. Dining together and watching opera together may help.
View ArticleConfronting Toxic Christianity
The latest scandal to rock American evangelicalism is more of the same but with a fresh, updated feel. James MacDonald, Paige Patterson, Mark Driscoll, and Bill Hybels, to name just a few evangelical...
View ArticleJosh Hawley, Betsy DeVos, and Abraham Kuyper: A Reckoning
Today we welcome Janel Kragt Bakker to the Anxious Bench. Janel is Associate Professor of Mission, Evangelism, and Culture at Memphis Theological Seminary and the author of Sister Churches: American...
View ArticleJoe Biden, Josh Hawley, and the Schism in American Civil Religion
Today we welcome Daniel Meeter to the Anxious Bench. Rev. Meeter has retired from nineteen years as the pastor and teacher of the “Old First” Reformed Dutch Church of Brooklyn, New York. During this...
View ArticleDiscipline and Punish: A Guide to Power in American Evangelicalism
“Are you going rogue?” The question startled me. It had come from a professor at another Christian university, someone I hadn’t met before. This was in the months before Jesus and John Wayne published,...
View ArticleA Lenten meditation on the death of Rush Limbaugh
Today we are pleased to welcome former Anxious Bench blogger Tim Gloege back to the blog. I started listening to Rush Limbaugh at the beginning of his national radio career in the late 1980s. I...
View Article#LeaveLOUD and the Evangelical Reckoning
Earlier this month, Jemar Tisby shared his story of leaving white evangelical spaces with the hastag #LeaveLOUD on his Pass the Mic podcast, the first in a series of episodes where Black Christians go...
View ArticleWill Reformed Evangelicalism Divide Over Racial Politics? The 19th-Century...
Is the theologically conservative Reformed wing of evangelicalism going to permanently divide over race and politics? This month, Kevin DeYoung, a pastor and professor at Reformed Theological Seminary...
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