Here’s a passage I have not seen enter discussions about U.S. immigration policy and the circumstances at the Mexican-U.S. border — 1 Samuel 25. Nabal was a figure whom someone might use to instruct Christians on how not to treat immigrants. This is part of the story of Saul’s efforts to kill David, a plan that turned David and his men into refugees. After the death of Samuel comes this story: 4 David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was... Read more
If I had a dime for every article or post since 2016 by an evangelical who lamented the discrepancy between born-again Protestantism and Donald Trump, I might be able to retire. Peter Wehner, a long-time adviser and speech writer for Republican presidents (the inhumanity!) and a self-identified evangelical who has a new book on American politics, has a fairly recent article in the Atlantic and so owes me 10 cents. Evangelicalism is at a crossroads. The reason is Trump (it... Read more
If you walk into the main book browsing area in Harvard Coop (as in oops) in Harvard Square (Cambridge), you will see on the banister at the second level a display of Harvard University’s various schools’ crests. What caught my eye on a visit last week, after walking around the campus of my alma mater, Harvard Divinity School, was that the Div School actually started (1816) a year earlier than the Law School. Neither was as old as the Med... Read more
Some folks in the Reformed tradition do not care for the theological debates and divisions that have marked Presbyterian church history. As such, you will find those invoking John Newton’s advice — he’s the author of Amazing Grace — about how to treat opponents: Of all people who engage in controversy, we who are called Calvinists are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation. But with some frequency you may also find Presbyterians... Read more
Born-again Protestantism was always tricky to define, but evangelical support for President Trump has sent scholars searching for a definition that will reassure those who find the president deplorable that real believers would never do such a thing. Here a piece that Billy Graham wrote in 1997 for Christianity may be handy. His account of the origins of the magazine, Christianity, stresses what practically everyone of an earlier generation knew about being evangelical — you become one in order to... Read more
With news that Nike has chosen to side with a man over a woman, Colin Kaepernick’s role in the decision got me thinking about whether David French, the evangelical columnist at National Review, thinks this is troubling development for the classical liberalism he promotes and defends. Of course, nixing a new sneaker has next to nothing to do with the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. But since Nike seemed to think that featuring the American flag that Betsy Ross... Read more
These reflections come in the context of finishing a manuscript on the spiritual life of Benjamin Franklin. Of all the debates that surround the Christian character of the American Founding and the faith of the nation’s original statesmen, most academics have little trouble disposing of Franklin within the ranks of the faithful. The Bostonian who grew up in New England Puritanism and then relocated to Philadelphia and went through a Deist phase, married an Anglican woman and made his peace... Read more
This is a follow-up to the previous post about the Presbyterian Church in America leaving the National Association of Evangelicals. It is an excuse to include an excerpt from Recovering Mother Kirk, a collection of essays about Presbyterian identity and the ways it is distinct from evangelical Protestantism. In other words, the PCA leaving the NAE on religious as opposed to political grounds makes perfect sense: “But are Presbyterians evangelical?” That was the question that kept coming back to me... Read more
While evangelical historians continue to lament the majority of born-again Protestants who voted for President Donald Trump — some have even dedicated books to the nineteen percent who did not — these same observers of American Protestantism were likely unprepared for the news that a committee on ecumenicity within the Presbyterian Church in America endorsed an overture at its current meeting of the General Assembly to leave the National Association of Evangelicals. Of course, the NAE, the organization that in... Read more
Roman Catholics worrying about whether to stay in the church has dissipated somewhat since the farther we get from the headlines of scandal (though the news does not actually slow), the less pressing the dilemmas feel. For Roman Catholics in West Virginia who recently of former Bishop Michael Bransfield, the choice may be more to withhold funds than to go to church elsewhere (either with Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox): Now that parishioners fear their funds might just be going... Read more
Putting the Protest in Protestant
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