White Evangelical Racism

Last updated on: March 24, 2021 at 11:26 pm By johnturner

Anthea Butler’s White Evangelical Racism is a tough, hard-hitting book. She pulls no punches. There’s no spoonful of sugar accompanying this medicine. This is a book that sears without soothing. “Racism,” she begins, “is a feature, not a bug, of American evangelicalism.” What is American evangelicalism? While other historians point to theological definitions or situate the subject within a particular historical movement or moment, Butler employs the “working definition” in the contemporary United States. American evangelicalism is white. And conservative.... Read more

Will Reformed Evangelicalism Divide Over Racial Politics? The 19th-Century Stone-Campbell Movement Offers a Clue

Last updated on: March 23, 2021 at 10:59 pm By Daniel K. Williams

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 (as well as a popular author and a major figure in the “young, restless, and Reformed” movement) wrote an insightful article for the Gospel Coalition tracing a movement fissure that is in the making. On one side of the divide are Reformed racial progressives who support Black Lives Matter and denounce Donald... Read more

The Realignment of American Christianity

Last updated on: March 21, 2021 at 6:43 pm By Chris Gehrz

Why a minor detail in the announcement of Beth Moore leaving the Southern Baptist Convention got Chris wondering if we're going to see a realignment of American Christians along new lines. Read more

For God So Loved the World He Gave Us Sundried Tomatoes

Last updated on: March 21, 2021 at 5:45 pm By Agnes Howard

God wants you to be temperate but could not possibly expect you to be svelte. Growing up Catholic, I knew that what you ate mattered to God, who substituted fish for meat on Fridays in Lent and, I hoped, was pleased when I gave up chocolate that one time. But it never occurred to me that God might care how much you weigh until I went to college. In the dorm room of a Christian fellowship leader I saw a... Read more

The Religious History of March Madness

Last updated on: March 20, 2021 at 12:38 am By Chris Gehrz

Wondering how unusual it is that this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament includes colleges and universities like Abilene Christian, BYU, Gonzaga, Grand Canyon, Liberty, Oral Roberts, and Villanova? Chris takes a look at the religious history of March Madness. Read more

Blessing Sin and Losing Catholics

Last updated on: March 18, 2021 at 7:07 pm By Philip Jenkins

This week, Pope Francis approved a document saying that that Catholic priests were not allowed to bless same sex unions or marriages, and by extension, to recognize them as marriages in any true sense. Specifically, said the text from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, God “does not and cannot bless sin.” I have no wish to discuss the theological background here, but some of the reactions do demand attention. The first obvious comment is that the decision... Read more

#LeaveLOUD and the Evangelical Reckoning

Last updated on: March 18, 2021 at 8:35 am By Kristin Du Mez

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 public with their exit stories. Tisby is not the first Black Christian to leave after a sojourn in white evangelical spaces, but he wants to change the terms of departure. For too long, most Black Christians have been leaving discreetly. In 2018, the New York Times... Read more

The Making of Biblical Womanhood: The Introduction

Last updated on: March 17, 2021 at 8:09 am By Beth Allison Barr

In less than 5 weeks, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth will be published. My writing on the Anxious Bench birthed this book, and so I thought it appropriate for the Anxious Bench to be the first public space to host the introduction. I am thankful for Brazos Press allowing me to do this. So here’s the moment I decided to take on Christian patriarchy. –And thanks to all my Anxious Bench readers who have walked with... Read more

Am I a Christian Minister?

Last updated on: March 15, 2021 at 7:29 pm By Chris Gehrz

Are Christian college professors also Christian ministers? Chris wrestles with questions at the heart of a lawsuit involving an evangelical college. Read more

Remembering Patrick

Last updated on: March 13, 2021 at 7:50 am By Philip Jenkins

The St. Patrick’s Day celebrations this year will be another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic. Normally, of course, many millions of people around the world commemorate St. Patrick as a symbol of Irish national pride, and that will continue, marches or no marches. I intend no slight whatever to that national consciousness. What is sad, though, is that portraying Patrick as a generic medieval saint with a powerful fondness for the color green prevents us seeing a real and genuinely... Read more

What is the correct order of the seven churches addressed in Revelation?