Eric Brown is a Nashville native, graduate of American Baptist College and Vanderbilt University with two Masters, and currently works for the Children’s Defense Fund. he can be reached on Facebook here. Eric’s Articles:1. A Reflection on the Inward Journey: Eric Brown and the Call to North Nashville 2. Poverty and Violence: A Reflection Read more

by Crystal St. Marie LewisR3 Contributor This morning, I rolled out of bed to do something that I must admit I’ve become far less enthusiastic about doing now than I have been in years past. I rose from the comfort of my pillows, blankets and breezy open bedroom window to prepare myself for church. I was going there again (after only having gone a few times this year) to answer an unexplainable beckoning in my soul…I am one of several... Read more

About a decade ago, the historian David Chappell wrote a thoughtful book about religion and the civil rights movement, titled A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow. Among other ideas, Chappell presents the argument that the supporters of civil rights, ultimately, had religion on their side. In other words, while there were plenty of southern Christian opponents of the civil rights movement (including those Birmingham clergy who — fifty years ago this month — prompted Martin... Read more

Hardly a month goes by when we don’t read about the decline or collapse of organized religion in America. But religion — including the organized sort — remains vital and vibrant, defying the predictions of doom that appear with numbing regularity. The latest round of these discussions follows the publication of two studies showing that 20 percent of Americans claim no religious affiliation when asked to state their religious preference. The number of “nones” has doubled in the last two... Read more

Last week, in a move that seems more reminiscent of 1783 than 2013, North Carolina legislators proposed a bill declaring their right to establish an official state religion. In doing so, the two GOP lawmakers from Rowan County, who were supported by 14 other Republican members of the House, directly challenged federal and constitutional authority. “The North Carolina General Assembly asserts,” the bill states, “that the Constitution of the United States of America does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making... Read more

We are headed for a religious apocalypse — if we are to believe the statistics and the commentators, that is. Study after study tells us that Americans are leaving religion in droves, with the number of spiritual but not religious (SBNR) increasing dramatically. In fact, the “nones,” as they are often called, now account for one-fifth of all Americans — a significant number from anyone’s perspective. Based on these statistics (as well as anecdotal information), some religious scholars predict the death of Christianity and maybe even... Read more

Candida Moss says Christians need to get over their martyr complex. Her new book, “The Myth of Martyrdom,” identifies two significant problems with how we imagine Christian martyrs. The first involves our ancient past: simply, Christians did not suffer persistent (or even frequent) persecution from the Roman authorities. Many of the ancient Christian martyrdom accounts amount to pure fiction, and all of them have been embellished to address concerns from periods much later than the lives of their heroes. Second,... Read more

Watching reactions to the papal election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, I have been knocked over, even awed, by their far-flung and contradictory range, by their passion, and by the fiercely polemical attitudes that have constellated in discussions about him. Mapping these responses tells much about the crossroads Roman Catholicism straddles today. The most striking responses attending Francis’ ascent in the United States have been the adulation and plaudits from white liberal Catholics and progressive Latinos, each for different... Read more

When he was named the Pusey Minister of Harvard University’s Memorial Church, Jonathan Walton became the latest in a line of prominent African-American ministers to call the greater-Boston area home. The New York Times noted as much in its coverage of Walton’s installation ceremony that took place last November, linking Walton to his predecessor, the late Reverend Peter Gomes who led Memorial Church from 1970 until his unexpected death in 2011. Martin Luther King Jr. earned his doctorate at nearby Boston University... Read more