Fourteen years ago, an evangelical Republican named David Kuo called on fellow believers to fast from politics from two years. It didn't happen then, but could it happen in 2020, in the wake of Donald Trump's defeat? Read more
Fourteen years ago, an evangelical Republican named David Kuo called on fellow believers to fast from politics from two years. It didn't happen then, but could it happen in 2020, in the wake of Donald Trump's defeat? Read more
Today we welcome Amar D. Peterman to The Anxious Bench. Amar is a graduate student at Princeton Theological Seminary, focusing his studies on American religious history. He is a featured writer at Ideos and his research has been published in Sojourners, Faithfully Magazine, Fathom, and more. Amar also holds a B.A. in Theology from Moody Bible Institute. You can follow his work on his website or on Twitter: @amarpeterman Over the past several... Read more
I posted recently about using quotes as springboards for discussions of particular historical eras, and their religious concerns. Sometimes, when you look at that quote in context, it becomes a little more complex, and more interesting. In this case, it leads to an unsuspected political and literary world. In this post and the next I will be looking at a major poem from George Herbert (1593-1633), who is acknowledged as one of the greatest Christian poets in English, and was... Read more
Between 2018 and 2020, Stacey Abrams helped register 800,000 new voters in the state of Georgia. Nearly half were people of color and nearly half were people under 30, both demographics that lean Democratic. As of this writing, President-Elect Joe Biden is winning Georgia by 14,000 votes. The last time Georgia voted for a Democrat for President was when Southerner Bill Clinton ran in 1992. A single Black woman, Abrams rose to become Minority Leader of the Georgia House of... Read more
Among the many reasons to be bothered by Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud, it's especially galling to see a democratic election called into question the same year that Americans celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment. Read more
When the pianist plays the opening passages of “On Eagle’s Wings,” the mood in the church always shifts. As a singer who served as a parish cantor for years, I witnessed the transformative power of this hymn firsthand. If I was singing at a funeral, the dry eyes filled with tears. If I was singing at a wedding, the smiles widened. And if I was singing at a regular Sunday Mass, the congregation stood up straighter and prepared to sing... Read more
Sometimes you find a quote that so precisely illustrates a historical or religious theme that it is hard to resist using it in writing or teaching. They cry out for a “Discuss.” Today I have a beauty for anyone interested in Global or World Christianity, and for Eurocentrism. By way of background, this present month commemorates one of the greatest anniversaries in American religious history, namely the landing of the Mayflower in 1620. It is a telling comment on present... Read more
My Anxious Bench colleague Chris Gehrz is smarter than I am. When I told him I was going to talk about the outcome of the presidential election in my Friday blog, he pronounced himself deeply impressed at my brash optimism that we would have an outright and uncontested winner by that point. How right he was. Hence, I can say little that is definite, except for the thoroughly non-partisan consolation I always offer the losing side at this point in... Read more
Anxious Elections Past The dust hasn’t even begun to settle on the 2020 election. What to say about it? According to the AP VoteCast survey, 81% of evangelicals voted for President Trump in 2020. A change of… zero percent from 2016. On the other hand, it might not be true. VoteCast also pegged Muslim support for Trump at 35%, which would be a huge increase on 2016 and seems highly unlikely. I know some outlets are much better than others,... Read more
As Abraham Lincoln spoke to a war-weary nation on the occasion of his second inauguration, he engaged in what was arguably the most profound theological reflection of any presidential inaugural address. “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other,” he declared. “It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let... Read more
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