Is our Religious Freedom Connected to whether we are Christian or Not?

November 9, 2015 By George Yancey

I have caught a certain amount of grief arguing that some individuals do not want to provide religious freedom to Christians unless they are in their own churches and homes. I have pointed out that such restrictions are not applied to non-Christian groups. However, when I illustrate this differential treatment with examples of punishment of Christians and non-punishment of non-Christians, many detractors work to find differences from the incidents involving Christians and those involving non-Christians. Ultimately these detractors are arguing... Read more

Want to Live Longer? Go to Church

November 4, 2015 By Bradley Wright

When I was growing up, I was a kid. My friends were kids, too. As I kid when I thought about my kid friends, I viewed of us all as roughly social equals. Sure, one friend could run faster, and another was smarter, and another more good looking, but these differences were dwarfed by our common statuses. We were all children in families and students in school and watchers of the same several television shows the night before (a time... Read more

A Policy Change

October 28, 2015 By George Yancey

In my last blog entry I dealt with a subject I felt deserved discussion but only if the discussion was informed. So I started the blog with a disclaimer that I would remove any comment I thought was merely argumentative. I did have to remove the comments of one visitor. But then a great thing happened. There was good conversation. It was the type of conversation that I have consistently hoped that would occur as a result of my efforts.... Read more

Christians have not taken over Sociology of Religion

October 15, 2015 By George Yancey

I begin this blog entry with a disclaimer. Normally I do not police the comments to my blogs very heavily. However, the topic of this discussion deals with some degree of inside baseball of social science academics and especially academics who study religion. If there is a discussion in the comments, I want it to be informed. As always I welcome dissenting opinions, but this time I am going to insist that these opinions are not merely argumentative and, dare... Read more

What Liberty University can teach Elite Colleges and Universities

October 1, 2015 By George Yancey

A few weeks ago my facebook feed was somewhat abuzz with the fact that Senator Bernie Sanders was speaking at Liberty University. Yes, that Bernie Sanders, self-described socialist, speaking at that Liberty University, the education institution founded by the man who started the Moral Majority. It was not a news event I ever anticipated occurring. Even though I am a Christian, like many people I had stereotypes about the narrowmindedness of Christian colleges and did not consider that one as... Read more

Is Forgiveness a Secular Value?

September 20, 2015 By George Yancey

Over the past few years I have heard some Christian apologetic speakers make a fascinating argument about secular societies. They argued that these societies have borrowed much of their morality from the previous Judeo-Christian culture from which they emerged. For example, a value of honesty is not based on a secular understanding of reality but because it has been rooted in the Judeo-Christian history, individuals in secular societies still appreciate honesty as much as when they lived in a religious... Read more

Introducing Heterodox

September 15, 2015 By George Yancey

Okay I know this is a bit on the lazy side. But trust me that I will have a controversial post here soon. In the meantime I just want to introduce you to Heterodox. It is part of a group that I have joined to help deal with the lack of political diversity in academia. This is not just about taking on the PC crowd. There is an atmosphere in academia that stifles rational inquiry. So I am proud to... Read more

Myths of Christianophobia Part 4 – Christians Deserve it

August 30, 2015 By George Yancey

This is my last post dealing with the myths concerning Christianophobia. In the first blog of this series I dealt with the myth that Christianophobia does not exist. In my second blog, I addressed the myth that Christianophobia is an indicator that Christians are being persecuted in the United States. For the third blog, I looked at the myth that Christianophobia is merely about the loss of Christian privilege. In this last entry of the series I will look at... Read more

Christian Divorce Rates

August 25, 2015 By Bradley Wright

I was asked by the folks at the Institute for Family Studies to revisit my earlier work on divorce rates by religious affiliation. Here is the article that resulted, showing that there are some–but not major–changes in the relationship between divorce and religion. Once again, evangelicals are in the middle of the pack in terms of divorce rates, and church attendance associates with much lower divorce rates. Read more

Myths of Christianophobia Part 3 – It is about Loss of Privilege

August 24, 2015 By George Yancey

This is my third post dealing with the myths concerning Christianophobia. In the first blog of this series I dealt with the myth that Christianophobia does not exist. In my last blog, I addressed the myth that Christianophobia is an indicator that Christians are being persecuted in the United States. For the third myth I will look at one of the ways some attempt to justify Christianophobia. They argue that Christians are not experiencing bias or discrimination, but instead Christians... Read more