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Attraction to Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories Can Be Traced to the Christian Apocalyptic Imagination

By Aaron Ricker

…mouth-to-mouth with a speed rivalling the virus itself. Many of the half-truths and untruths involved capitalized upon the already-thriving online market for conspiracy theories. About three in ten Americans, for example, apparently think the virus was created in a top-secret lab (including four in ten conservative Republicans). Almost half of Canadian respondents believe at least one conspiracy theory about Covid-19: the virus was spread to the…

The Promise of Immortality in a Tech-Enhanced Heaven

By Lisa Webster

…h the totalist version of that certainly has led to a lot of death and destruction, but the assumption that we can do almost anything in the environment that sustains us and it’ll be OK. LW: It’s true the idea of hubris or human overreaching implies that there’s a God, or gods, deciding how far is too far to reach. And, as you mention in the book, there’s a powerful dystopian sci-fi legacy that takes that equation to heart: we create artificial in…

Theocracy: “What Would Be So Bad About It?”

By Julie Ingersoll

…anings — or her defense of theocracy as a concept. The Ahmansons supplied crucial early support to Rushdoony’s writing, his early efforts in the creationist movement, and to the establishment of his Chalcedon Foundation (which Rushdoony’s son Mark now runs). In 2004 Max Blumenthal traced the Ahmansons’ contributions and argued that they were key financial backers in the effort to bring about theocracy as envisioned by Rushdoony. In the Christianit…

Evangelical PR Blitz Before Midterms Won’t Fix the ‘81% Problem’

By Chrissy Stroop

…ties correlate with less support for the president, but among churchgoing Trump voters the opposite holds true. So what’s going on? According to Djupe and Burge, “We suspect that people are responding to these surveys with the responses they think are more socially desirable—not with their actual feelings.” The fact that people may lie in answering survey questions is fundamental to doing serious sociological research. The evidence for this, which…

Evangelicals Clutching Pearls Over Student Debt Relief: Lord Have Mercy!

By Peter Laarman

…elical Protestant) reaction to Biden’s action, as reported in Christianity Today and elsewhere, where scholars and cranks play whack-a-mole with Bible verses having to do with debt. What I like best is the Can we proof-text this? We probably shouldn’t. But let’s try anyway! aspect of it. Not to mention the dominant focus on rival passages in the Hebrew Bible without much, if any, attention paid to how Jesus responded to debt peonage in his time an…

Should Evangelicals Smoke Pot?

By Eric C. Miller

…f pot? It is associated with superficially pleasant disengagement from the world. It connotes a kind of indolence and “tuning out” that is not an option for people who want to become agents of compassion and neighbor love, not to mention its association with all kinds of immaturity. Are these the eternal truths of pot, the only possible way marijuana can be used? No. But these cultural realities are still relevant for the discerning Christian. Cul…

The Protestant Mainline Makes a (Literary) Comeback

By Gary Dorrien

…religious progressives like me have reached so few people beyond the small worlds of the academy, church and community organizing in which we live. Progressive Christianity today, by whatever name, is characterized by an ethos of egalitarian civility that makes it allergic to developing strong leaders. It works in a coalitional style and speaks in the voice of an improvisational ensemble, or as James Wind says, an always-evolving chorus. We don’t…

The Evangelical Abortion Myth: An Excerpt from ‘Bad Faith’

By Randall Balmer

…he state is responsible.” A few evangelical voices, including Christianity Today, questioned the ruling, although the magazine published an editorial three years later entitled “Is Abortion a Catholic Issue?” That editorial affirmed the general principle of right to life but concluded: “There are, of course, other considerations, such as the rights of the parents and the much-debated question of when life begins.” The overwhelming response to Roe…

Regnerus Ducks Responsibility for Study’s Misuse

By Peter Montgomery

…t was not feasible” because of difficulty in finding a sample size. Regnerus tells Christianity Today that, in hindsight, he wishes he had been “even more vigilant than I was in making sure readers always understood” what the study was actually about: “adult children of parents who have, or have had, same-sex relationships.” For gay parents and the children they are trying to raise, that is a shamefully tepid response to the way the Regnerus stu…

The Left Behind: Why Are White American Christians So Racist?

By Daniel Schultz

…either completely drives these changes, nor is completely at their mercy. Rather, like any religious institution, it intersects them in difficult and ambiguous ways. As much as Christians would like to proclaim God’s sovereign majesty leading the unchanging gospel through the darkness of a fallen world, the truth is, the church, like any human institution, changes and adapts to present circumstances, sometimes better than others. Given the magnitu…