Lost In Trespasses and Sins

Last updated on: September 1, 2016 at 1:54 pm By D. G. Hart

Is she describing Donald Trump or President Obama? I get Evangelicals, those hard-working, hard-loving, hard headed salt of the earth types across this country. They are my people and I love them. Yet, Donald J. Trump terrifies me. He is everything I was raised by these good people to stand against: Belittling, lover of self, boastful, unrepentant. He rejoices in exploiting weakness, in cheating the little guy, something the Bible condemns again and again. He lies constantly, lies easily disproven,... Read more

Islamic Exceptionalism

Last updated on: August 30, 2016 at 4:16 pm By D. G. Hart

Ever since visiting Turkey I have been fascinated by the interaction between Islam and the West. Turkey is notable if only for Mustafa Kemel Ataturk’s effort to remove Islam’s political aspects and create a secular society. Comparisons between Christianity and Islam are also illustrative for making plausible the notion — foreign to many serious Christians in the U.S. — that secularization owes its very existence to Christianity. The Christian religion is not against the secular but actually allowed the West... Read more

What is the Shelf-Life on Memory?

Last updated on: August 24, 2016 at 3:45 pm By D. G. Hart

Are Europeans in the EU allowed to remember Europe’s Christendom past? Are Armenians allowed to persist in their memories of the Turks’ genocidal policies? Are white people who live in the southern United States allowed to celebrate the South’s heritage? Are Americans allowed to remember the greatness of the American founders (who were also racists)? A lot of memory seems arbitrarily impermissible. Consider whether Yale should remember John C.Calhoun or Princeton Woodrow Wilson. So when Kevin Levin opines “A black... Read more

Christian Intellectuals Are Overrated

Last updated on: August 22, 2016 at 2:20 pm By D. G. Hart

Alan Jacob’s Harper’s piece on the evaporation of Christian intellectuals and his subsequent exchange with Owen Strachan has appeal on several levels though I am not sure the world beyond evangelical (current or former) Protestants is watching (Harper’s has no comments, only Strachan’s piece at Patheos has some). For those who haven’t read the original piece or the back and forth afterward, Jacob’s piece asks why no Reinhold Niebuhr’s or John Courtney Murray’s anymore, and answers with a lament about... Read more

What Would Mohamed or Jesus Do?

Last updated on: August 20, 2016 at 11:17 am By D. G. Hart

Shadi Hamid has a new book out that argues the fit between Islam and modern liberal societies will never be comfortable. The book has lessons for Christians who sometimes seem to employ Islamic forms of piety more than they should: The founding moments of Islam and Christianity couldn’t have been more different. . . . Where Mohamed was the head of a state, Jesus was a dissident against a reigning political order, the Roman Empire. Because there was no real... Read more

Church Unity Eliminates Jobs

Last updated on: August 17, 2016 at 1:57 pm By D. G. Hart

That assertion is obvious. If Methodists and Presbyterians both have editors of denominational magazines, then form one denomination, Methbyterians, they will have one magazine with one editor. But the ecumenical strivings between Roman Catholics and mainline Lutherans (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as opposed to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) has another set of wrinkles on the job front. The Roman Catholic Church does not ordain women. ELCA does. In fact, the presiding bishop of the mainline Lutherans, Elizabeth A.... Read more

Damned If You Do, Dead if You Don’t

Last updated on: August 11, 2016 at 4:41 pm By D. G. Hart

Trigger warning: this post may sound excessively pro-police. Don’t blame me. Blame David Simon, the journalist who with the Baltimore Sun spent a lot of time with homicide detectives and turned that into the Hollywood gold of Homicide and The Wire. How could you ever not have a little rooting interest for cops after watching Bunk Moreland and Jimmy McNulty for five seasons? (For that matter, how do live in the United States, dip into pop culture occasionally and miss... Read more

If You Celebrate the American Founding, Legalize Drugs

Last updated on: August 10, 2016 at 2:14 pm By D. G. Hart

The results of this recent poll got me thinking (it’s rare). According to the Barna Group, evangelical Protestants are far more inclined to support criminalization of drugs that other Americans: Sixty-six percent of Evangelicals said all drugs should be illegal in a poll conducted in April 2016, and published August 4. Fifty-one percent of conservatives and 46 percent of “elders” (those older than Baby Boomers) agreed. This position was at odds with the opinion of the majority of Americans and... Read more

The Re-Birth of White Christian America

Last updated on: August 12, 2016 at 1:30 pm By D. G. Hart

Disclaimer: Sweet Briar College is neither exclusively Christian nor all-white. This post’s intention is not to tarnish the College with either Donald Trump, religious fundamentalism, or racial prejudice. It is to take heart from the change of fortunes for an institution that appeared to be a emblem of a by-gone era in the history of higher education. With so much contemporary banter about the United States entering a new period of its history, Sweet Briar’s recovery as an all women’s... Read more

What Must Evangelicals Do To Be Saved (from Donald Trump)?

Last updated on: August 2, 2016 at 2:15 pm By D. G. Hart

Don’t do what some Roman Catholics advocate: We attend a special Rosary group when we can, and one of the couples in the group particularly loves the Battle of Lepanto. They spread the message of God’s intervention in this tide-turning battle of the Crusades everywhere they go. This couple’s faith in the power of prayer, reinforced by their knowledge of this decisive victory of good in response to a nationwide Rosary, is amazing to see. The power of Our Lady’s... Read more