Follow Up to My Post about Denominations… Over the past year I have read many news articles in various sources claiming that church attendance in the United States is dramatically decreased. The statistics vary a lot, so I won’t bother to offer any here. My point is simply that, according to many journalists and other observers and commentators, Americans are flocking away from churches. *Sidebar: The opinions expressed here are my own (or those of the guest writer); I do... Read more

Update and Reflections about Editing the Handbook of Denominations Some time ago I took on the task of editing, including revising and updating, the reference volume Handbook of Denominations in the United States 14th edition. This reference book used to be called “Mead’s Handbook of Denominations” and its first editor’s name always appears on the cover and title page even though he has been dead a long time. As I explained here earlier, I have always had as strong interest in... Read more

Some Evangelical Leaders Finally Come out against Trump (Widening the Gap among American Evangelicals) Recently two influential evangelical leaders have denounced Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump without endorsing Hillary Clinton. (Both have also carefully not actually opposed Trump’s candidacy but restricted themselves to criticizing him personally.) Throughout this long, agonizing presidential campaign the American media have trumpeted Trump’s support by so-called “evangelicals.” I put “evangelicals” in quotation marks because, as I have said here many times before, most of the... Read more

And What Now, Christians Who Intend to Vote for Donald Trump? A Question…. First, a bit of background. This presidential election year, 2016, has been an especially tumultuous one here in the United States. Many Americans, including many professing Christians, have hailed the nomination of billionaire businessman Donald Trump by the Republican Party as a great triumph, a step forward toward “making America great again” and toward reversing federal government policies perceived as anti-Christian. Many Trump supporters, on the other... Read more

Reflections about Billy Graham I was recently privileged to hear a superior talk/lecture about Billy Graham—the “pope of evangelicalism” and “America’s pastor.” The talk was by church historian Grant Wacker, retired professor at Duke Divinity School and author of many books. Wacker’s biography of Graham was recently published by Belknap Press (2014) and is entitled Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation. I have not read it yet, but I plan to. So this is not a book review;... Read more

A Double Standard about Worship? African-American Worship and Caucasian Pentecostal Worship As usual, before I get into my “musings,” I must define my terms. Here I am using “worship” in the specific sense of “what goes on in church on Sunday morning and other gatherings for praise to and adoration of God.” Here I am not talking about the kind of “all Christian life is worship” idea. I’m setting that aside for the moment. (I happen to agree with Nicholas... Read more

Recommended Reading: Washington Post Essay by Christian Conservative Erick Erickson Re: Donald Trump The essay appeared in my local newspaper Friday, September 30 and was given the headline “Why One Celebrated Conservative Christian Won’t Vote for Trump: Victory Would Imperil Christianity in US.” I’m sure you can find the essay and read it if you are adept at using a search engine. The local newspaper says that “Erick Erickson is one of America’s foremost conservative activists.” He is, by his... Read more

Please Do Not Blame All White Men for Donald Trump Recently, since the first, public, televised debate between America’s two main presidential candidates (September 26), I have noticed many people attempting to blame men, especially white men, for Trump’s egotistical, buffoonish, extremely rude, uninformed performance in that debate. The tone of such posts on social media tends to be “typical of white men.” May I say clearly, unequivocally, as loudly as I can in this medium, TRUMP DOES NOT REPRESENT... Read more

Review of Evangelicalism in America by Randall Balmer I consider Randall Balmer a friend; I hope we will still be friends after I publish this review of his most recent book which is scheduled to “hit the bookstore shelves” (meaning “be available for purchase by the general public”) on October 1 this year (2016). I also hope to remain friends with my friends at Baylor University Press. *Sidebar: The opinions expressed here are my own (or those of the guest... Read more

“#Some Lives Matter” and Calvinism: My Response to the T-shirt Recently several people have sent me photos of a T-shirt that displays on its back the slogan “#Some Lives Matter” and below that the word “Calvinism.” Obviously, it’s someone’s idea of a cutesy critique of Calvinism piggy-backing on the war of slogans I alluded to in my immediately preceding post here. So here are my thoughts about it. First, I take “Black Lives Matter”—both as a slogan and a movement—so... Read more