And while we're setting the record straight, let's remember Robertson isn't a Baptist minister anymore. Yep, he ain't a reverend.
In the Bible, God has a preference for the poor and outcast, but this message is lost on many contemporary readers. A new edition seeks to remedy this ignorance, even as it turns a tidy profit for the publisher.
A Secret History of Satan
The Devil created by American culture is made in the image of American culture; our beliefs about Satan are part of a theological narrative that has shaped religion, pop culture, and even, in some cases public policy.
Jesus Goes to the Dark Carnival: Hell House Gets a Makeover?
Evangelical-sponsored haunted houses known as “Hell Houses” were spooky attractions filled with the ghosts of the culture wars. Now, a softer, gentler version, the “Judgement House” claims to eschew politics, but does it?
What We Really Talk About When We Talk About Health Care
What looks like discussion about deductibles and co-pays, preventative treatment, and end-of-life care, is really about something else entirely. And then there’s all the yelling.
The logic of Evangelical theology tends to reduce systemic social problems to individual sin — not racism, for example, but racists. How did this play out among Republicans, and their constituencies, during Sotomayor's confirmation hearings?
Smashing Our Idols: A Response from Evangelical Leader David Gushee
After pursuing a dialogue with David Gushee, in response to a suggestion from a commenter on RD, I realize that Gushee's "welcoming" church model, though imperfect, is a sign of progress, not regress.
St. Paul the Pacifist: A Christian Response to Torture
In light of a recent finding that evangelical Christians are more likely, statistically, to support the use of torture, a scholar proposes an approach to nonviolence based on the teaching of Christianity’s first theologian.
Reports of the Death of the Episcopal Church are Greatly Exaggerated
While the mainstream press has been eager to proclaim the demise of the Episcopal Church, a brief tour of church history reveals that 100,000 Conservative Anglicans defecting from the 80 million-member Communion is nothing more than a case of the spiritual sniffles.
Sure we are supposed to pray for our enemies, but for some Christians, Democrats are the enemy you dare not pray for, the party you dare not join. And the prejudice goes both ways.
“Godly Or Bad?”: The Return of Ted Haggard
There’s something about American evangelical life that tends toward the production of these sex sagas and tonight’s HBO documentary on Haggard airs just as new dimensions of the sex scandal emerge.
Heterosexual With Issues: Haggard’s Self-Hate
Former pastor Ted Haggard is desperate for redemption, but he can’t do the one thing that might make it possible—admit and accept that he’s gay.
Women’s Liberation Through Submission: An Evangelical Anti-Feminism Is Born
Six thousand evangelical women gather to support biblical womanhood, and hear from theological leaders about the great influence wielded by “a woman on her knees.”
John McCain: No God But Country
The president’s faith, according to John McCain, is “[the] number one issue.” Having scoured the public record, the author reports back with a startling proposal: John McCain may not believe in God.
A colleague suggests, in response to Andre Wills' recent RD article, that being evangelical is no more antithetical to the prophetic strand of the black church than R&B is to gospel music...
Does Obama's coded evangelical language signal a shift from black prophetic politics to the evangelical politics of personal salvation?
By the Way: Fractured Religious Right Endorses McCain
Evangelicals meet in Denver to pump fists for McCain; the old leadership wasn't all that was missing...
Dispatches from the Beltway: Beyond the Graying and Greening Religious Right
Less strident, less partisan, less defensive—the emerging evangelical center defies the stereotype...