“I want an honest recollection of what has been done. I want a reckoning with the harm purity culture has caused so many people. Not because I have a vendetta against evangelicals (to be clear, I don’t), but because I see the disparity between my faith and the ideas purported by purity culture.” I recently expressed this sentiment to an interdisciplinary group of scholars. We were reflecting on the ways we envision our scholarship having an impact on society. I... Read more
As I have watched the rapid destruction of constitutional checks and balances and liberal democratic norms over the past month, I have continued to reflect on why so many (though thankfully not all) of my fellow evangelical Christians in the United States support this eradication of institutional safeguards. The destruction of democratic norms did not come as a surprise. On the morning of Donald Trump’s inauguration last month, I issued this warning in Current magazine: “When the second Trump administration... Read more
I have been discussing Ernest Crosby’s novel Captain Jinks, Hero (1902), which I would claim as a lost classic of radical American literature, a comprehensive assault on war, militarism, empire, institutional religion, and racism. One reason that it is lost, I think, is so much of the message is delivered quite subtly, and you really have to stay awake to catch all the allusions. No, Crosby calling the flag “Old Gory” throughout is not a typo (but try telling Autocorrect... Read more
Revivalists burn their bras in a Free Methodist bonfire Read more
In May or June 325, several hundred bishops from across the Christian world met in Nicaea, as Constantine frames it, to “face the cause of the division among you” (Constantine, Speech to the Nicene Synod, FNS 31). The divisions were theological ones, sparked from a debate between the presbyter Arius and his bishop Alexander of Alexandria, but had overflowed into the broader world. This council and the resulting creed have received exceptional attention in theological and doxological reflection, especially as... Read more
She was of medium height, with intensely black hair drawn back in a knot, and a head firmly set on her shoulders. When, with her sleeves rolled up, she was washing clothes, one could see what beautifully turned arms she had. Her waist revealed the fact that she had borne children. Her legs were the two pillars of the household. –The Cypresses Believe in God, José María Gironella, 1953 The theme of my Senior Seminar at the St. Ignatius Institute... Read more
Last time I posted about a largely forgotten satirical novel that I think is a really valuable source for understanding the history of American radical thought – anti-war, anti-racism, anti-militarism. This is Captain Jinks, Hero (1902), by the great American Tolstoyan, Ernest H. Crosby. As I read its portrait of the insanity of war and conquest, I keep harking back to Catch-22. Today, I will get into some more substance about Crosby’s ideas, and I will also emphasize the book’s... Read more
But Jesus said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14 KJV I realize I have written several blog posts about books. This betrays my enjoyment of world cinema. I am a firm believer in the power and persuasion of good films, and think they are a valuable tool to discuss faith and history. I have been somewhat fascinated by the Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky, first because... Read more
“And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost.” This voiceover from Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel helps alert us to the problems facing Middle Earth at the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring. It rhymes in a Twainian style with what war correspondent Gloria Emerson wrote about the United States in Vietnam: “We have always been a people who dropped the past and then could not remember where it had been put.” The problem in our own and... Read more
Do evangelicals like questions? I guess it depends. Personally, I like both asking questions and the challenge of answering questions. Both seem as natural as breathing to me. One of the things I like about questions is that they can be legitimately asked for the purpose of teaching the inquirer new information . . . or not. Sometimes questions are more about revealing something to the person being asked the question. I think I like asking questions so much because... Read more
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