Mitt Romney loves America. Not just the land but the word. It dominates his speeches, appearing in some form 50 times in an address to veterans Tuesday in Nevada. Romney’s campaign slogan is Believe in America. On the stump, he sings America the Beautiful. But amid the rallying call to a weary nation, Romney has been drawing a parallel portrait of President Barack Obama as someone who does not share, understand or believe in core American values. In speech after... Read more

Back in the early spring, polls showed evangelical Christians preferred Rick Santorum in certain states during the Republican presidential primary. There was much hullabaloo about evangelical leaders meeting to try to avoid a Romney nomination, and attention-loving Robert Jeffress, the pastor of Dallas’s gigantic First Baptist Church, made a star turn as the attacker of Romney’s Mormonism. This hostility led to much media discussion of Romney’s “evangelical problem”—the supposed challenge the candidate faced in getting religious members of the GOP... Read more

With his paintings The Forgotten Man (2010), One Nation Under God (2009), and most recently, Wake Up America! (2011), Jon McNaughton aims to leave little room for interpretation. In their remarkable didacticism—an America on the brink of political and moral disaster—McNaughton’s works serve to call the nation to arms, or at least to the polling booths. The impression is one of thorough legibility, of history as a long list of epigraphs. The artist will have nothing of ambivalence or illegibility.... Read more

Most voters continue to say it is important for a president to have strong religious beliefs. But voters have limited awareness of the religious faiths of both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. And there is little evidence to suggest that concerns about the candidates’ respective faiths will have a meaningful impact in the fall elections.little-voter-discomfort-1 The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the... Read more

Before I comment on a new survey on religion and the presidency, I want to say one thing: Barack Obama is not a Muslim. The U.S. president does not observe the Five Pillars of Islam. He does not worship in a mosque. He does not call himself a Muslim. Why not? BECAUSE HE IS NOT A MUSLIM! Also, Mitt Romney is not a Hindu. He does not believe in reincarnation. He does not worship the Hindu god Shiva. He does... Read more

It’s been 30 years since AIDS came into focus and dominated the Metropolitan Community Churches with funerals, grief, and love. We were a young, growing, international church. Even with gay men dying weekly, our membership held strong across the country, and churches were being born across the world.Many died hard and bitter deaths separated from their beloved partners and friends. Others died surrounded only by partners and friends as families of origin broke off all contact. Everyone deepened their love... Read more

I love Pew. But the problem with religious academics doing political polls and non-religious reporters covering them is that the headlines can get skewed and political implications muddled. The headlines from yesterday’s Pew poll on religion and politics should have all read: “Obama and Romney Both Face Serious Faith Problems,” with the subheading: “Election could hinge on which candidates fixes them.” To be fair, a lot of the headlines did focus on the fact that less than half of Americans... Read more

Three and a half years into President Obama’s first term as president, half of Americans cannot accurately say what religion he is, according to a poll released this week. Only 49 percent of respondents said that Obama was Christian while 17 percent inaccurately said he was Muslim. Nearly one-third of respondents said they did not know the president’s religion, according to the poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. More people – 60... Read more

*R3 Contributor Edward Blum is featured in this Daily Beast piece talking about his new book, The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America. Read the article below. *Note: Make sure you see Edward Blum on September 21, 2012 in Memphis, Tennessee when he comes to talk about the book at the University of Memphis and Caritas Village. The Color of Christ will be the R3bookclub Book of the Month in October. Talk about... Read more

The African American Communication & Culture Division (AACCD) and the Black Caucus of NCA seeks nominations from division and caucus members for the 2012 annual research awards. Awards will be granted to the author(s) of theory and/or research on specific issues of concern to African Americans, Black ethnicity, or people of the African Diaspora representing a variety of communication contexts, processes, practices, theory development, or innovative research approaches. There will be one award for an outstanding book; one for an... Read more