Politics and not Religion

October 20, 2020 By D. G. Hart

What if economics and geography matter more than religion for electoral outcomes? Ken Woodward discussed that point in a recent article for Commonweal. What follows is an excerpt that bears particularly on the evangelical electorate. For more of Woodward’s thoughts about religion and politics, and especially the place of Roman Catholicism in the United States, listen to this discussion at the Religious Nationalism Pudcast. The emergence of the Evangelical vote—or at least the white portion of it—would appear to contradict... Read more

Why Doesn’t Joe Biden Talk about Faith the Way the POTUS who Inspired Him Did?

October 16, 2020 By D. G. Hart

What to make of Joe Biden as a Roman Catholic politician? The categories for evaluating a Roman Catholic’s faith these days is far different from the way it used to be, even if those older politicians, such as John F. Kennedy, was the inspiration for younger politicians (though old now) such as Biden. Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego pushed back against those questioning Biden’s personal Catholic faith based on his positions on abortion rights. “One very sad dimension of... Read more

Jerry Falwell Jr., We Never Knew You

September 7, 2020 By D. G. Hart

Not that the former president of Liberty University didn’t make for some titillating headlines, but the attention that evangelical scholars and journalists have given to Jerry Falwell, Jr. has been — how to put it — excessive. The Protestants with whom I commune in the Presbyterian and Reformed world never put much energy into following Falwell. Nor did we pay much attention to the fortunes of Liberty under his leadership. I am sure conservative Presbyterians attend Liberty, but many more... Read more

The Meaning of the Jerry Falwell, Jr. Scandal

September 1, 2020 By D. G. Hart

Some observers of evangelicalism are obsessed with Falwell, in part seemingly because he is another reason to discredit a flawed president and his born-again supporters. Some of these observers also engage in schadenfreude (pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune). For instance, from a few weeks ago, to the question of why Liberty University’s trustees put Falwell on an indefinite leave of absence: Was it because he created a Blackface face-mask and tweeted about it? Was it because the... Read more

What About Nostalgia for a View of the Past?

August 6, 2020 By D. G. Hart

Nostalgia has been on the ropes lately. The reason is apparently a new reckoning with systemic comprehensive injustice. I’m not sure who started it, but here’s a brief rundown. Here’s not Johnny but John Fea: In times of great social and cultural change, the nostalgic person will turn to a real or an imagined past as an island of safety amid the raging storms of progress. In other words, to quote Boym again, “progress didn’t cure nostalgia but exacerbated it.”... Read more

Christians Favor Secularism if the Option is Islam

July 24, 2020 By D. G. Hart

The objections to the news that Turkey plans to use Hagia Sophia as a mosque has upset many Christians in the East and the West, going all the way up to Pope Francis. Here is a good summary of reactions among Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox: The World Council of Churches (WCC), a community of churches seeking unity in the Christian faith, whose members include over 350 churches across from across the globe, expressed hope that Hagia Sophia would... Read more

Losing Whitefield

July 10, 2020 By D. G. Hart

“Trust the science” has been a phrase used fairly often during the pandemic. Recent news about the University of Pennsylvania’s decision to remove the statue of the evangelist, George Whitefield, from its Philadelphia campus raises questions about the trust that historians receive and deserve. The announcement interprets Whitefield’s significance this way: The case for removing Whitefield is overwhelmingly strong. He was a well-known evangelical preacher in the mid-eighteenth century, who notably led a successful campaign to allow slavery in Georgia.... Read more

How Evangelicals Can Vote for Joe Biden this November (if the governors let them)

July 9, 2020 By D. G. Hart

Recent protests along with some of the demands of protesters, no matter how peaceful, may make look Joe Biden look much more attractive than say those on the Left who don’t seem capable of providing order and stability. Consider Al Mohler’s willingness to defend support for President Trump in a recent New Yorker interview: Yes. President Trump is a huge embarrassment. And it’s an embarrassment to evangelical Christianity that there appear to be so many who will celebrate precisely the... Read more

How the Vandals became Christian

June 30, 2020 By D. G. Hart

This is not about Germanic tribes after the Christianization of the Roman Empire. It is instead about modern day protesters who commit acts of vandalism, chiefly (woops) against statues that memorialize prominent political and military leaders from the past. These protesters may be expressing unknowingly truths revealed in Scripture. If you think that’s a stretch, consider the case for the Harry Potter series as a vehicle of the gospel: Although many factors have contributed to making the series a worldwide... Read more

The People Who Support and Erect Monuments

June 26, 2020 By D. G. Hart

They may be your and my neighbors. One of the themes that emerged in the “conversation we had to have” about Confederate Monuments three years ago was that they were products of a particular period in the Jim-Crow, Lost-Cause South. Here’s how the American Historical Association put it: The bulk of the monument building took place not in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War but from the close of the 19th century into the second decade of the 20th.... Read more