Christianity and Christianityism

Last updated on: September 3, 2015 at 5:19 pm By D. G. Hart

Some observers of international affairs distinguish Islam from Islamism. The former is a religion usually peaceful, the latter is a political ideology that threatens social order. Because Islam came into existence with political consequences, distinguishing the religion of Islam from the politics of Islam is always difficult. But Islamism is a modern phenomenon that rejects compromise with secular politics. According to Samuel Helfont: In Egypt, where modern Islamism had its beginning, the early 20th century saw intense debates over political... Read more

Whose Question, How Big?

Last updated on: September 1, 2015 at 4:51 pm By D. G. Hart

Fr. Dwight Longenecker warns Protestants about the seriousness of converting to Roman Catholicism: Ask why you are considering the Catholic Church. If you’re just church shopping you still have a long way to go. The big question is authority. If you have come to believe that the Catholic Church really is the fullest expression of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and that the Holy Father is the God-appointed successor of Peter, Christ’s apostle on earth, then get yourself... Read more

Speaking of Identity

Last updated on: August 27, 2015 at 3:47 pm By D. G. Hart

Do we need a Federal Department of Personal Identity to determine which aspects of ourselves define us. For instance, some people applauded Bruce Jenner’s decision to come out as Caitlyn. Some of those applauders were not so pleased with Rachel Dolezal’s reclassification of herself as black. If identities are malleable, why is race any less changeable than gender? Damon Linker posed the question this way: Overnight Dolezal has gone from living in a context that recognized her as black to... Read more

My Caitlyn Jenner Problem

Last updated on: August 26, 2015 at 4:38 pm By D. G. Hart

It is not that I have a problem with gender bending per se. Having an office on a floor with only one female colleague and two bathrooms, one for men and one for women, truth be told some of the men cross gender lines and use the facilities designated for women. It’s not that I fear reality television has infected Caitlyn Jenner’s outlook and that her new identity is one way to keep up with Kim Kardashian. It’s not even... Read more

Confused about Trump, Think Driscoll

Last updated on: August 20, 2015 at 4:13 pm By D. G. Hart

A couple of evangelical authors are puzzled about the phenomenon of Donald Trump. First our own Thomas Kidd tried to reconcile Trump’s popularity among evangelicals: There has been much hand-wringing in recent weeks about the persistent support of Donald Trump among “evangelicals.” Why in the world would so many Christians support a rude and crude candidate like Trump, whose pro-life credentials seem obligatory at best, and who specializes in vilifying Hispanics? If we are to believe the polls, the American... Read more

Same-Sex Foreign Policy

Last updated on: August 18, 2015 at 4:51 pm By D. G. Hart

This post may be a tad stale, but it is a consideration that is hardly hysterical. . . . there are likely to be foreign policy implications. For Americans, as the Obergefell case vividly testifies, freedom is not a fixed proposition. It evolves, expands, and becomes more inclusive, bringing freedom’s prevailing definition (at least in American eyes) ever closer to perfection. But a nation founded on universal claims—boldly enumerating rights with which “all men” are endowed—finds intolerable any conception of... Read more

What If I Simply Want My Clothes To Fit?

Last updated on: August 13, 2015 at 4:17 pm By D. G. Hart

Joseph Epstein remarked in one of his many essays that men when they turn fifty-eight start to thicken around the middle of their physiques. I guess it has something to do with the metabolism slowing down and the loss of testosterone. (I see plenty of pop-up ads for the latter and am worried what will happen not to my body but my computer if I click on one of them.) Since I have hit that magical age, I am also... Read more

A Century Ago Protestants Were Just as Pessimistic

Last updated on: August 11, 2015 at 3:59 pm By D. G. Hart

I recently blogged for Eerdmans about the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. I found that fundamentalists would not have been as surprised as we about the recent change of attitudes about homosexuality: While finishing up my book on H. L. Mencken for the Eerdmans Library of Religious Biography series, I came across this description of America in the 1920s — the decade of Mencken’s greatest fame and influence — from George Marsden’s history of fundamentalism: The fundamentalists’ most alarming... Read more

Truth about Dirty Tricks

Last updated on: August 7, 2015 at 2:11 pm By D. G. Hart

I see lots of Christians concerned about truth and integrity. Marriage and truth. Integrity and marriage. Truth and same-sex marriage. So why no demand for truth from the makers of the Planned Parenthood videos? Why does truth only apply to the other side? Remember the videos that exposed the ACORN community activists from about five years ago that also relied on fibbing to those being filmed? In case you don’t, here’s what Michael Gerson said about the ethics of journalism... Read more

Freedom of Religion to Disobey God — Say More about That

Last updated on: August 4, 2015 at 5:27 pm By D. G. Hart

A curious feature of the ongoing and understandable outrage over the videos of Planned Parenthood executives explaining the sale of fetal body parts is that the film’s maker is using religious liberty to defend lying. I don’t want to be perceived to be someone on the side of the pro-choice lobby, but evangelicals may want to think the filmmaker’s justification through before wading any more deeply into the muddy pools of constitutional liberties for religion. Here‘s one example of religious... Read more