David Gushee

man with bullhorn

‘Radical New Arrangements’: On Conservative Christian Radicalization in the U.S.

Abortion, Christianity and Politics / By

After a year of researching the matter rather deeply — including listening to conservative scholars, activists and politicians — it has become completely clear to me that a significant chunk of conservative Christians in the United States has moved from political disenchantment to a full-on radicalization that threatens our democracy. I am not just talking about …

‘Radical New Arrangements’: On Conservative Christian Radicalization in the U.S.

image of president Reagan

What Happened to American Conservatism? Engaging Matthew Continetti’s The Right

Christianity and Politics / By

It is always valuable to engage the other side. Especially when one finds the other side utterly bewildering. The other side I am trying to engage is American political conservatism. My guide today is Matthew Continetti, a brilliant conservative policy wonk with all the “right” credentials — a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, columnist for Commentary magazine, …

What Happened to American Conservatism? Engaging Matthew Continetti’s The Right

Angry Conservative Congresspersons

When Christianity Becomes Toxic ‘Christianism’

Christianity and Politics, Evangelicalism / By

Many people appear baffled about the hard-right turn in U.S. conservative religion. It’s not just a turn to politics, or to hard-right politics, that is problematic. It is the apparent amorality, the cruelty, bigotry and snarling spirit that is so impossible to reconcile with the Spirit of Christ. It’s the nasty cast of characters who are …

When Christianity Becomes Toxic ‘Christianism’

The French Dreyfus Affair and Trump’s Big Lie

Christianity and Politics, Truth and Truthfulness / By

We are witnessing an extraordinarily disturbing juxtaposition in U.S. politics right now. In Washington, the January 6 Committee, primarily using testimony from Republicans and former Trump administration officials, is once again shredding Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, meanwhile revealing the extent and damage of Trump’s desperate, likely criminal attempt …

The French Dreyfus Affair and Trump’s Big Lie

US Capitol

Is ‘Fascism’ the Right Name for the Trumpist Hard Right in America?

Christianity and Politics, Truth and Truthfulness / By

Long after it seemed dead and buried with Mussolini and Hitler, the term “fascism” has been making a comeback — not as the self-description of authoritarian politicians and parties, but as an epithet applied by their enemies, or as an analytical category applied by scholars. It is not uncommon, for example, for leaders ranging from Vladimir …

Is ‘Fascism’ the Right Name for the Trumpist Hard Right in America?

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Southern Baptists, Sex Abuse, and Systemic Evil

Evangelicalism, Truth and Truthfulness / By

Having abandoned the denomination in which I was converted over forty years ago, I am not a part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), whose moral credibility has just been torn to shreds by the devastating Guidepost Solutions report on twenty years of SBC Executive Committee (EC) mishandling of sexual abuse allegations in SBC churches. But I …

Southern Baptists, Sex Abuse, and Systemic Evil

Hasidic Jewish Man

Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions

Christianity and Politics / By

In 2015, highly esteemed Princeton political philosopher Michael Walzer published The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions. The title itself immediately arrested me, as it crystallized a current intuition of mine. I believe the United States and several other countries are currently experiencing religious counterrevolutions to the cultural and moral (often labeled “secular”) revolutions that …

Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions

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