The rhetoric last summer at commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington was quite different from that heard at the original march in 1963. Lament replaced the determination to gain “jobs and freedom.” Speakers deplored the Supreme Court’s rollbacks of affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act. They condemned the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. Instead of celebrating the great march, the anniversary events sounded a plea for a new civil rights movement. Largely missing... Read more

Long Beach International Film Festival Digital Edutainment Conference Call for Proposals—Deadline March 3, 2014 LongBeachIndie.com Long Beach Indie, an international film festival and artist summit, announces its 1st annual Digital Edutainment Conference. Taking place August 27-31, 2014 at the Long Beach Convention Center and Cinemark at the Pike Theater Complex, our mission is to celebrate global diversity by encouraging submissions from emergent and established scholars representing every region of the world. Theoretical and practical approaches are welcome as we hope to create an... Read more

I got a text a few days ago from a friend I used to pastor a few years back. We’ll call him Rob. Rob was texting to say, “Happy New Year!” The thing is, it was one of those mass messages that he sent to his entire inner circle. I wasn’t even paying close attention, but before I realized it, I had replied to all ten people in the message feed. A few seconds later, my phone rang. I knew... Read more

Join Memphis Theological Seminary as we celebrate the 2014 Dr.Barbara A. Holmes Lectures in African American Studies. When: February 24-25, 2014 Where: Monday, February 24, 2014, at 7:00 p.m. – St. Paul Baptist Church, 2124 East Holmes Road, Memphis, TN  38116Lecture: “Christ in a Commercialized Culture: The Dilemma of the Postmodern Preacher” Tuesday, February 25, 2014, at 11:10 a.m. – Lindenwood Christian Church, 2400 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN  38112Lecture: “A Vision of a Stare:  Prophetic Leadership in A Voyeuristic Age” About the... Read more

If evangelicalism were a person, here’s what I’d need to say: So, Evangelicalism… it’s me. I’m guessing this won’t come as a huge shock to you because our relationship has been strained for quite some time now, but I need to tell you: This relationship isn’t working for me anymore. I wish I could say that this is a “it’s not you, it’s me” type of situation, but let’s be real:this actually is about you. No, it’s not about what... Read more

Fundamentalism is a paradox. Its partisans—of any faith—call for the return to an imagined arcadia in which God’s voice boomed plainly from scripture. Yet as a historical phenomenon, fundamentalism is wholly modern. It is a set of reactions against the aftershocks of the Enlightenment and the evolution of global capitalism: the breach between faith and reason, the rise of the secular public square, and the collapse of traditional social hierarchies and ways of life. Creatures of modernity, fundamentalists have happily... Read more

When the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases about the conflict between new healthcare mandates and religion, it sparked a heated conversation on the religious rights of for-profit corporations. In Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. v. Sebelius and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius, the Court will decide whether these corporations can refuse to cover as part of their employee health care plans certain types of contraception, which they allege prevent fertilized eggs from implanting and therefore object to on religious grounds. As... Read more

Thomas J. Little, The Origins of Southern Evangelicalism: Religious Revivalism in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1670-1760 (University of South Carolina Press, 2013).Here’s an important and (relatively) new title to call to your attention, especially for those of you in colonial history, southern religious history, and eighteenth-century American studies. In this work, Thomas Little seeks to revisit the “origins” question – in this case, the “origins of southern evangelicalism.” And he does so through intensive, painstaking research into religious practices in South Carolina... Read more

by Candice BenbowR3 Contributor One of my biggest pet peeves has always been that the majority of African-American sociologists of religion, who specifically study the relationship between Black people and Christianity, have not been Christians, members of any faith tradition or were not closely connected to a Black church. I remember telling my advisor, a Du Bois scholar, that it is impossible, despite how significant Du Bois’ contributions were to the study of Black religious life, to divorce the fact that... Read more

Jesus, if he existed, was a man who most definitely embodies what we would call today a progressive hippie. He went against the organized rules of the corrupt church of the time, and he helped to spur a newer (by the standards then), more open-minded field of thought. He was allegedly killed for it, and now these idiots are spewing hate, ignorance and condemnation in his name. I would be okay with the pastors and priests preaching it if they preached... Read more