"The premise for empathy has to be equal humanity," Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reminds us. Daniel Schultz on what it is that you're leaving if you leave white evangelicalism. Plus: Rebecca Traister on "identity politics;" John Broich on journalists and autocrats; and Church World Service on how you can help refugees. Read more
"White evangelicals don’t care as much about corruption in political leadership as they used to. A Public Religion Research Institute poll released in October reported that white evangelicals have dramatically revised their opinions about politicians’ personal morality, in recent years." Politicians' "personal morality" stopped mattering once we had a president who couldn't be attacked on the basis of his personal morality. It stopped mattering when it ceased to be politically useful. Read more
Huge, heartfelt thanks to all for the overwhelming response to my fundraising appeal this week. Thank you. Thankyouthankyouthankyou, you beautiful, generous people. You've restored a bit of solid ground beneath our feet. Thank you again, and again, and again. I can't say it enough. Read more
The doctor says a few weeks in a cast should allow the tendons in my wife's arm to heal. The doctor didn't explain how we're going to get by without her income for the next two months. So this is a fundraising appeal. Read more
It will happen this way, slowly and quietly at first, then faster and louder, and then it will be done. Read more
Spent my weekend rack-diving at the Big Box. Hope yours was more fun. Some Monday thoughts and links, including: Farewell John Glenn; what Mr. Rogers taught me about religion and ETI; the Bible is not a reference book; and don't be confused about the meaning of Donald Trump's endorsement by the Klan. Read more
"Do not answer trolls according to their folly, or you will be a troll yourself. Answer trolls according to their folly, or they will be wise in their own eyes." Read more
"She says that the stories told of Washington's piety and prayers, so far as she ever saw or heard while she was his slave, have no foundation. Card-playing and wine-drinking were the business at his parties, and he had more of such company Sundays than on any other day. I do not mention this as showing, in my estimation, his anti-Christian character, so much as the bare fact of being a slaveholder, and not a hundredth part so much as trying to kidnap this woman; but, in the minds of the community, it will weigh infinitely more." Read more
When looked at scene-by-scene in this way, it becomes clear that Left Behind is a published first draft. The authors didn't bother with any rewriting. They never even bothered with re-reading. Respect for craft and respect for your audience go hand in hand. Likewise, disrespect for craft and disrespect for your audience go hand in hand. Read more
The conversation between historians Adam Laats and John Fea on the relationship between evangelical colleges and Christian nationalism is interesting on its own, but it’s also a terrific model of how to have such a conversation here in the realm of “social media” where the mutual respect and candor they’re showing isn’t always the rule.* Laats responded to Fea today, clarifying his own argument, where the two agree, and where they may still disagree. I wrote yesterday that it seemed to... Read more
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