Fifty percent of all people in the United States who attend church at least once a month live in the South, according to data from the 2018 General Social Survey. A half-century ago, when more than 50 percent of people in both the Northeast and the Midwest claimed to go to church at least once a month, differences in church attendance rates between various regions of the country were barely noticeable. But today the South – along with the lone... Read more
September marks the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a welcome opportunity to discuss new books that bridge the fields of Latinx studies and American religion. In honor of this month, I interviewed Dr. William Calvo-Quiros, Assistant Professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan and author of Undocumented Saints: The Politics of Migrating Devotions, which will be published by Oxford and released next month. In Undocumented Saints, Calvo-Quiros explores the popular devotion of several saints–Jesús Malverde, Juan Soldado,... Read more
Yesterday was the 116-year anniversary of the Atlanta “Race Riot”. I put “race riot” in air quotes to affirm what a good friend of mine tweeted yesterday: that we should stop calling race massacres race riots. Indeed we should. But I would take it a step further. They were mass lynchings. Whether we consider the “riots” in Colfax (1873), Wilmington (1898), Atlanta (1906), Slocum (1910), East St. Louis (1917), Chicago (1919), Ocoee (1920), Tulsa (1921), Rosewood (1923), or others of... Read more
“Christianity projected to lose majority status among Americans by 2070, Pew model projects.” That is the key takeaway from a recently published report from the Pew Research Center. I have no problem with the report itself, which is well researched and presented, and if anything, might be over-cautious in its projections. I would argue that the real changes the study portends go beyond any mere process of counting formal believers and church members. Since 2007, Pew studies have done a... Read more
The first volley in Ron Sider's battle against right-wing evangelicalism Read more
Full title for this post (after an enlightening conversation with Hannah Anderson @sometimesalight)–Because the Experiences of Some Women Do Not Reflect the Experiences of All: An Open Plea to Reconsider the Impact of Complementarian Theology. I almost didn’t post this today. I wanted to change course and write on Al Mohler’s “discipleship of the vote” and “unfaithful” Christians who vote “wrongly.” But then I realized that, even if I wasn’t writing about Al Mohler, I was writing toward Al Mohler—or,... Read more
I have been thinking a lot about Jair Bolsonaro, the “Trump of the Tropics,” president of Brazil, my home country. I spent considerable time in Brazil in the last couple of years, traveling in the Northeastern part of the country, visiting family and researching for a forthcoming book. Bolsonaro lost in the 2018 elections in the Brazilian Northeast and will likely lose again this year. Nevertheless, even in that region, most evangelical pastors (read: Protestant) find themselves in one of... Read more
Our new regular contributor, Dr. João Chaves, releases his first post tomorrow. Having had a sneak peek of this forthcoming post, “The God of Evangélicos and the Brazilian Presidency: A Presentist Musing,” I can vouch that we will have much to glean from the historical insights Dr. Chaves brings to the Bench in future posts. As an incoming regular contributor to our team, I thought I would take a moment to introduce you to Dr. Chaves today. Dr. João Chaves... Read more
Last night, Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), stepped out onto the balcony of the Presidential Palace in Mexico City to face a throng of people gathered in the zócalo – the first such gathering since 2019. At 11pm, the popular norteño band, Los Tigres del Norte, paused their outdoor concert and the voices in the square hushed as the president, holding aloft a Mexican flag, shouted various phrases, including: “¡Viva la independencia! ¡Vivan los héroes anónimos! ¡Muera el... Read more
Christians who delve into the Quran will be surprised how many old friends they find there, including Jesus and Mary, and a lengthy roster of prophets and patriarchs. Exploring the Quran can be an excellent way of understanding the Christian and Jewish worlds of Late Antiquity, particularly the sixth and seventh centuries AD. It also tells us about some lost and forgotten byways of the semi-sort-of-canonical Bible. Most of the Quranic characters can be identified easily enough. Allowing for legendary... Read more
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