Christianity

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/18/2020
  

  Trump has Changed the Way Evangelical Christians Think about the Apocalypse

  by Thomas Lecaque

  Evangelicals have largely avoided interpreting the COVID-19 pandemic as a sign of the end times because doing so would also demand that they recognize their champion Donald Trump as a morally degenerate leader. The apocalyptic rhetoric that flowed freely under Obama has been silent this year. 

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• SOURCE: The Revealer
  11/12/2020
  

  On Evangelical Masculinities (Review)

  Journalist Daniel José Camacho reviews Kristin Kobes Du Mez's book "Jesus and John Wayne" and considers the way that masculinities are expressed in non-white evangelical communities. 

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• SOURCE: ABC News
  11/8/2020
  

  Dutch Protestant Church Admits Failing Jews in World War II

  René de Reuver, speaking on behalf of the General Synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, said the church’s role began long before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.

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• SOURCE: NPR
  10/28/2020
  

  Trump Has Weaponized Masculinity As President. Here's Why It Matters

  Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez says Donald Trump's aggressively masculine political posture is dysfunctional because it requires enemies. 

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• SOURCE: TIME
  10/6/2020
  

  The Overlooked Queer History of Medieval Christianity

  by Roland Betancourt

  An attentive reading of the record shows that same-sex intimacy, gender fluidity, and diverse sexual identities were prevalent among early Christians, contrary to the claims made by some fundamentalists today that these represent deviations from historical norms. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  9/24/2020
  

  The Evangelical Vote (audio)

  NPR's "Throughline" examines the growth of evangelical christianity as a political movement and its influence over the nomination of a Supreme Court justice and the election. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/22/2020
  

  How the Religious Right Has Transformed the Supreme Court

  Law professors Lee Epstein and Eric Posner argue that the conservative bloc on the court has shifted from the libertarianism favored by big business to a more aggressive religious activism. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  9/18/2020
  

  What Trump Taught America About the Bible

  by Peter Manseau

  The Bible is a powerful talisman for the majority of Americans, but Trump’s successful use of it these past five years suggests that, to many, it is a book whose content matters less than the one holding it; an expression of tribal identity as much as creed.

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• SOURCE: War on the Rocks
  9/4/2020
  

  Topics You’re Not Supposed To Discuss At Dinner: The Role Of Evangelical Religion In U.S. Foreign Policy (Podcast)

  Lauren Turek, Ashlyn Hand and William Inboden discuss how, as Turek documents, in the late 20th century, the specific notion of human rights intersected with evangelical missionaries and their perceptions of the risks associated with communism and other important foreign policy questions, and were able to organize and influence U.S. foreign policy in a new and important way.

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  9/8/2020
  

  Why Thomas Jefferson Created His Own Bible

  by Peter Manseau

  The "Jefferson Bible," representing Thomas Jefferson's efforts to excise the supernatural and miraculous from the New Testament, is an important document of American religious culture. The story of its preservation by Cyrus Adler and John Fletcher Lacey is a remarkable tale as well that reflects changes in the political nature of American religion.

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• SOURCE: Saved by History
  8/27/2020
  

  Stars and Stripes and Blasphemy

  by L.D. Burnett

  What we heard from Mike Pence was a white evangelical Christian swapping out the Savior for the United States flag.  

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• SOURCE: The Way of Improvement Leads Home
  8/26/2020
  

  The Last Fundamentalist Empire Died Yesterday in Lynchburg, Virginia

  by John Fea

  Although he oversaw tremendous growth at Liberty University and tried to lead in the culture wars, Jerry Falwell Jr. was unable to maintain credibility as a faith leader necessary to hold his empire. It's unclear whether any evangelical organization can succeed as a business and a theological enterprise. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  8/26/2020
  

  The Evangelical Left once Had a Home in the GOP. What Happened?

  by John W. Compton

  Evangelical Christians in the political arena today support conservative Republicans. It's not just because the Democratic party moved too far left; the leaders of the New Right purged moderate Evangelicals from the ranks in the 1970s and left the religious left without a clear partisan home. 

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• SOURCE: The New York Times
  8/18/2020
  

  Is the White Church Inherently Racist? [review]

  Ph.D. candidate in history Jemar Tisby reviews "White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity."

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  8/17/2020
  

  An Interview With ‘Playboy’ Magazine Nearly Torpedoed Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Campaign

  by Rick Perlstein

  Jimmy Carter's 1976 campaign was nearly destroyed by an honest and introspective magazine interview; the fact that the magazine was "Playboy" did not help.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/11/2020
  

  The Harvard Professor Who Told the World That Jesus Had a Wife (Review)

  A new book details Karen King's 2012 discovery of a papyrus scrap suggesting that Jesus had a wife whose existence was concealed from posterity. As it turns out, the discovery was a fraud. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/13/2020
  

  We Can Tear Down False Idols of History. Thomas Jefferson Did it to Jesus Christ

  by Peter Manseau

  "Considering “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” anew today, we might begin by asking whether Jefferson’s willingness to challenge convention gives the lie to a justification of his many failings as unavoidable for a man of his time."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/9/2020
  

  After Falwell Stumbles, His Hometown Sees a Leader in Need of Redemption

  Historians of religion including Grant Wacker, Anthea Butler and John Fea comment on the significance of Jerry Falwell, Jr.'s recent public scandals and the position of Liberty University in the evangelical world. 

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• 8/16/2020
  

  Examining Christian End Times Rhetoric in the Time of COVID

  by Andrew Joseph Pegoda

  Historical amnesia and everyday privilege are what make it seem to some Christians that end prophecies are actively in progress.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/3/2020
  

  The White, European Jesus of Western Imagination is Fiction

  Opinion columnist Michael Gerson takes issue with conservative writer Eric Metaxas's comments on the ethnicity of Jesus Christ.