On November 23, 2012 Michael Dunn fatally shot Jordan Davis at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida. Police say that Dunn shot and killed Davis over a dispute of loud music. The shooting sparked national attention because it was almost nine months to the day that George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin. Dunn stood trial for the murder of Davis and while the jury found Dunn guilty of 3 counts of attempted murder, they were hung on the murder of Davis. During... Read more

Evangelicals are more likely to be divorced than the average American—even Americans who claim no religion. This unexpected claim comes from an unexpected source: three researchers at Baylor University.  Jerry Park, Joshua Tom, and Brita Andercheck report that about 17 percent of white conservative Protestants and 16 percent of black Protestants are divorced, compared to 14 percent of all Americans. They point to the research of demographers Jennifer Glass and Philip Levchak, who argue that the evangelical encouragement to marry... Read more

Reza Aslan is a religious scholar, a professor of creative writing and a journalist. In another age, he would have been called a renaissance man. In fact Aslan’s range of knowledge and his self-confidence have been used by some of his detractors to challenge his account of the historical Jesus in Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. However, his critics generally target Aslan’s credentials on the basis of his background (he is an interdisciplinary academic with multiple... Read more

Presidents’ Day directs particular attention to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both born in February. It also provides an occasion for focusing briefly on others who have held that esteemed office. What have been their church affiliations, including that of Barack Obama whose views on religion are hotly debated? The first half-dozen were heavily impacted by the Enlightenment of the 18th century. Four of the six – Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe – were from Virginia, each of them officially... Read more

As Valentine’s Day approaches, it seems normal to think of love, perhaps with cynicism or hope or a mix of conflicted emotions.  Last year, I wrote a post on this site about Valentine’s Day, and I’m happy to contribute this year around the same time.  But this year I’ve been doing a different kind of reflection.  Maybe it’s because I just took my artificial Christmas tree down this past weekend, but I’ve been a little slow to get in the Valentine’s... Read more

There are so many “philosophies-of-disciplines” that my wife, who does not share my love of philosophy, sarcastically asks if “there is a philosophy of toenail clipping.” However, philosophy of religion has been a stalwart and respectable sub-discipline of philosophy. There are philosophers who disagree—A. J. Ayer once replied to a philosopher who mentioned philosophy of religion, “Oh. . .I didn’t know there was any such thing.” Other than positivists such as Ayer, philosophers of all stripes, including atheists, agree that... Read more

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal delivered a speech Thursday evening (at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library where he will make the case for why defending religious liberty is important. The Governor outlined attacks on religious liberty, including from the Obama Administration, and solutions to combat these efforts. His remarks are below.Gov. Jindal:Thank you…it’s an honor to speak here…I’ve been looking forward to this night.I have spoken out aggressively in recent months about the disastrous effects of Obamacare, about our... Read more

A new study released by researchers as Case Western on religion and addiction shows that religious people are more likely to think they have a problem with pornography than nonreligious people—even if they barely watch it at all. The study, titled Transgression as Addiction: Religiosity and Moral Disapproval of Perceived Addiction to Pornography” and published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that on the whole, religious people were just as likely to view pornography as nonreligious people—something that the researchers did... Read more

A recent piece by Amer F. Ahmed outlines a phenomenon he calls “social justice elitism.”  Ahmed is the associate director of multi-ethnic student affairs at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He notes a tendency among certain students to “out social-justice” each other by denouncing the subtle prejudices of others. Ahmed’s essay is echoed by a popular discussion on the blogosphere about “social justice warriors” or “SJWs.”  Urban Dictionary defines SJW as: A pejorative term for an individual who repeatedly and vehemently engages in arguments... Read more

The Rev. H. Beecher Hicks Jr. is stepping down as pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church in the Shaw neighborhood of northwest Washington, D.C., citing health problems as the reason for his retirement. Hicks has served as pastor of Metropolitan Baptist for 37 years, making him one of the longest continuously-serving pastors in the District of Columbia. He announced the decision to his congregation from the pulpit on Feb. 2. Hicks told a meeting of approximately 200 members of his congregation... Read more