Religion Dispatches
…ding up to this year’s election.“ (For more on Pray the Vote, go here) The promo for Craig Detweiler’s new book Into the Dark reads: “Detweiler, a well-respected film expert and media spokesperson on Hollywood and Christianity, examines forty-five twenty-first-century films that resonate theologically—from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Little Miss Sunshine—offering groundbreaking insight into their scriptural connections and theological applica…
Read More…ing that Obama should be impeached because he is a Muslim (complete with a promo promising free guns, paid for by “a millionaire” who wants you “protected against what’s coming.”) The video in the email is by evangelist Jack van Impe, known for his premillennial rapture theology and his disconnected rambling in Bible verses. It is entitled “President Obama’s Religion in Question” and argues that he is really a Muslim. Joan, who claims in an email…
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…inciple that imagining creates reality has captivated modern readers,” the promo copy explains. The publisher probably didn’t expect the book to resonate quite so uncomfortably with the political moment when they chose November 8th—Election Day—as its publication date. But indeed, Donald Trump’s distinctive style has roots in the spiritual tradition of which At Your Command and The Secret are both a part. Neville was just ahead of his time. Born i…
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…ches will present a series of articles from the magazine’s Fall 2023/Winter 2024 issue. To fight a War on Terror, the state needs terrorists. Indeed, it creates them. As author, researcher, and organizer Dr. Maha Hilal observes, “If you followed the logic of the U.S. government when it comes to post-9/11 detentions, the prevailing wisdom seems to be that if you treat a person like a terrorist, they become one.”[1] The Public Eye, Fall 2023/Winter…
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…1789, to 1917, to 2020” who erroneously thought politics should not only “promote and support virtue,” but should “usher in universal harmony.” The bottom line, as Hazony puts it, is that “you’ve been dispossessed. And what we’re watching…is a completely new America in which liberalism has been replaced by this woke neo-Marxism as the dominant ideology.” And so now, “for us Christians,” as Rod Dreher, senior editor at the American Conservative an…
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…mocratic voters (83%) and Independents (73%) are Skeptics or Rejecters. The 2024 election will be largely contested over the few Republicans suspicious of Christian nationalism and Independents friendly to it. You can literally map out these differences. Blue states have very low levels of support for Christian nationalism. Red states are just the opposite. And the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisc…
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…h 2016 and 2020. There is absolutely no reason to think that will change in 2024. Instead of suggesting that there might be some significant section of (White) “faith” voters who can be reached given that fewer than half of White evangelicals view Trump as a “somewhat religious” man (6% of them deem him “very religious”), one should pause here to ask how the distinctive faith of these demographics affects their vote—particularly in light of data t…
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“Mamas are the key political force in 2024 and we need to harness that energy!” Ron DeSantis called down from the stage in the Franklin Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in Philadelphia, where 650 “joyful warriors” had gathered for the second annual “Moms for Liberty Summit.” The Florida governor was met with raucous applause—just as when he claimed that “[the Left] has awakened the most powerful force in the country: mama bears!” DeSantis, along wi…
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…ramifications for the upcoming presidential elections. At the beginning of 2024, mention of a report on Russian persecution of Ukrainian Christians started showing up in some evangelical publications, mostly notably in a February 6 story in Christianity Today. The report, “Faith Under Fire: Navigating Religious Freedom Amidst the War in Ukraine,” was published in November 2023 by Mission Eurasia (an evangelical mission agency founded when the Sov…
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…ocratic turnout. Trump understands that if the abortion issue dominates the 2024 campaign, his bid may well be doomed. So he’s seeking to elicit a reaction so visceral and powerful that it overshadows abortion rights. This is precisely what making the election about his use of fascist tropes would accomplish. The 2024 election will either be about abortion rights, or it will be about Trump. One way or another, it will be a referendum. Which framin…
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