https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to ronald reagan en https://religiondispatches.org/2023/06/08/top-five-less-sensational-more-dangerous-things-remember-about-pat-robertson-1930-2023 Sure, it’s easy to poke fun at Pat Robertson for his 2,000-pound leg press claims or to scold him for his vile Haiti comments, but Robertson thrives on the ‘persecution.’ Our list spins the Robertson moral differently and shows just why he’s been a truly dangerous figure. Thu, 08 Jun 2023 05:27:59 EDT Mark Hulsether 1fafedef-45b2-4e43-b38e-9022ff5e97e4 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/19/we-believe-god-has-special-plan-every-single-life-oklahomas-strict-punitive-and-total Anyone who grew up in the Christian Right could have told you that Roe v. Wade was never “settled law,” despite what the pundits said. We conservative evangelicals were always sincerely gunning for Roe . I was born on July… Thu, 19 May 2022 05:23:18 EDT Chrissy Stroop 9d779d15-4cd9-42e8-80b4-b9f7973d725e https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/03/how-evangelicalisms-twin-seeds-biblical-literalism-and-constitutional-originalism According to a leaked draft opinion published by Politico , the Supreme Court’s five constitutional originalists have joined Justice Alito in overturning Roe v. Wade . Many evangelicals are unsurprisingly elated. Legal scholars have found that belief that the Bible… Tue, 03 May 2022 04:26:57 EDT Austin Lee Steelman 0581c608-5537-4230-af7d-3b6207e70e10 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/04/07/evangelical-groundhog-day-times-identifies-religious-fervor-american-right-around-four In autumn 1980, I was a senior at a Christian college in California taking a course on the history of American evangelicalism. One November day, a fellow student brought a copy of the New York Times to class. With a… Thu, 07 Apr 2022 01:36:43 EDT Diana Butler Bass d937ed79-f172-4e3e-8b7f-0504d5d92488 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/01/13/uses-and-abuses-legacy-dr-martin-luther-king-jr In January 1994, a week after the King holiday, I walked into the lobby of my dorm to listen to representatives from the Israeli School of Universal Practical Knowledge (ISUPK), a Black Israelite group. Someone asked about Dr. Martin Luther… Thu, 13 Jan 2022 05:59:52 EST A. E. Brooks-Key 70673a15-ab26-42c1-a20b-d2130e0bb39a https://religiondispatches.org/2021/12/13/unintended-consequences-overturning-roe-v-wade-may-endanger-cherished-evangelical “The strongest precedent for a right to teach a child at home is Roe v. Wade .” - Former HSLDA attorney Scott W. Somerville As the Supreme Court considers Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization , a case that could… Mon, 13 Dec 2021 12:24:32 EST R.L. Stollar 928ebfa4-f138-47bc-b043-b334e328f75e https://religiondispatches.org/2021/11/03/so-you-want-write-article-deflecting-all-blame-christianity-handy-guide For over five years, the brief presidency of Donald J. Trump and its wake have produced a certain kind of editorial that still doesn’t have a name. You know the topic, and the template: earnest reporter from a coastal city… Wed, 03 Nov 2021 10:10:35 EDT Robert Repino c2020c55-5d2f-44cc-a49d-c47b155dc8c1 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/10/14/new-book-esteemed-sociologist-robert-wuthnow-struggles-show-why-religion-good-american At a time when Christian Nationalism is finally being recognized as a threat to democracy, not only by legacy media , but also by the National Council of Churches and the rapidly secularizing population of the US, Robert Wuthnow, the… Thu, 14 Oct 2021 03:31:04 EDT Peter Laarman 241cfe7a-5d47-4df3-ac75-e346a3655b29 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/05/05/lament-christian-disney-dad-what-evangelicals-really-hate-about-wokeness-disney-world Conservative Christians have long seen the Walt Disney Company as an enemy in the culture war. In 1997, the Southern Baptist Convention launched an eight-year boycott over the company’s supposed promotion of “homosexuality, infidelity, and adultery.” The appearance of gay… Wed, 05 May 2021 07:46:32 EDT Josh Parks 0cb52ec7-2ce3-4b88-9c62-a09c15875e43 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/04/13/sex-outside-marriage-dehumanizing-problem-tim-kellers-biblical-sex-ethic There’s a reason Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in New York, enjoys a greater degree of public respect than many conservative evangelical leaders who clearly crave respectability . When you take a mild jab at Tim Keller… Tue, 13 Apr 2021 05:04:48 EDT Chrissy Stroop 29068506-96d7-4081-8b3d-39b9e4bff246 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/01/13/true-meaning-law-and-order-became-painfully-clear-january-6 “Be there, will be wild!” Trump tweeted at his supporters on December 19, thousands of whom showed up in Washington, DC, several weeks later at their leader’s urging. They climbed walls, waved Trump flags, and literally broke into the chambers… Wed, 13 Jan 2021 01:20:30 EST Jemar Tisby 8f069206-3b4a-4c61-b2a3-8c3ecff4e636 https://religiondispatches.org/2020/12/21/clergy-who-ministered-through-aids-crisis-covid-both-eerily-familiar-and-puzzlingly “This is not my first plague.” In 1982, Rev. Steve Pieters was the first minister diagnosed with AIDS in the Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) , a denomination that lost a third of its clergy to the disease. In 1985, he… Mon, 21 Dec 2020 11:35:24 EST Lynne Gerber 71684e06-7b24-47ab-9d5a-1b1fd7ba4155 https://religiondispatches.org/2020/12/01/how-did-hasidic-jewry-become-stronghold-trumpism Is American Hasidism in crisis? After successfully rebuilding its institutions after the war, Hasidism in America has flourished. And yet, its response to COVID and its newfound reactionary political populism, leads us to ask the question: is something changing in… Tue, 01 Dec 2020 02:56:35 EST Shaul Magid 07a87f28-77f2-4fe2-9039-56b9235cd5a7 https://religiondispatches.org/2020/09/15/reconsidering-reagans-racism-trump-culmination-gippers-gop Thirty-five years before Donald Trump descended the escalator of his gaudy Manhattan skyscraper to launch his presidential run by way of a racist attack on Mexicans—“they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists,” he raged—another presidential aspirant traveled to the… Tue, 15 Sep 2020 01:05:37 EDT Neil J. Young 9cb77452-0105-4b6f-ad53-8a1bd98ee5b1 https://religiondispatches.org/2020/03/16/junior-falwell-unmasked-conservatism-lets-thank-him-it I suppose we owe Jerry Falwell Jr. a debt of gratitude. I’m serious. Falwell is the son of the late Jerry Falwell, the man most responsible for bringing fundamentalist Christianity out of the political wilderness during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Junior… Mon, 16 Mar 2020 01:17:44 EDT John Stoehr 194215bc-2153-4497-aee5-9b99b3e6e57b https://religiondispatches.org/2019/11/04/trump-white-house-cranks-religion-11-impeachment-looms Nixon asked people to pray for him and ended with “God bless America” to remind the nation that he was religious and therefore moral, and thus either innocent or deserving of forgiveness. Trump is doing the same with his gaggle of evangelical bootlickers. Mon, 04 Nov 2019 02:57:16 EST Andrew L. Seidel f0eec56a-e07d-4521-92b4-0e8092c7781e https://religiondispatches.org/2019/05/23/after-all-handwringing-were-now-seeing-exactly-why-conservative-christians-supported Many have argued that Trump is little more than a “scam artist” who has duped evangelicals into following him. But it’s the other way around: Trump didn’t use the religious right to win the presidency; the religious right used Trump to get what it wanted. Thu, 23 May 2019 01:53:19 EDT Hollis Phelps, L. Benjamin Rolsky b6d8e3c2-5357-4412-b1c4-5b95e044f4ae https://religiondispatches.org/2018/07/31/jeffress-first-baptist-church-dallas-trump-support-part-150-year-tradition Before Jeffress was W.A. Criswell, Billy Graham’s segregationist preacher, George Truett, the anti-Catholic namesake of the Chick-fil-A founder, and so on. Tue, 31 Jul 2018 04:59:09 EDT Daniel Silliman a96f7b2f-9cde-4156-a432-b198cfae81ab https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/24/tense-history-behind-jimmy-carters-liberty-u-commencement-address-0 On Saturday the Liberty University community heard a commencement address from an evangelical Christian who disagrees with Trump and Falwell Jr. on almost every major policy issue of the age. Thu, 24 May 2018 02:59:18 EDT John Fea 42ef2778-49c0-4a16-b026-a6ed48714504 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/24/tense-history-behind-jimmy-carters-liberty-u-commencement-address Last year Donald Trump delivered the commencement address at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of the university, said that Trump’s speech “will go down in history as one of the greatest commencement speeches ever.” This… Thu, 24 May 2018 12:33:03 EDT John Fea 976b0d81-2744-4060-a01a-d49e449a52ed https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/17/must-we-burn-something-get-attention-50-years-after-catonsville-nine-0 If we think about Catonsville not just as a curiosity, a minor episode in the history of radical chic, but as a provocation or a template, what do we learn? Must Americans burn something to get attention? Must religious protesters be arrested? Thu, 17 May 2018 02:51:26 EDT Jason C. Bivins 433ef49b-829f-473d-bd15-d6bbf028521d https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/17/must-we-burn-something-get-attention-50-years-after-catonsville-nine Fifty years ago today, the Catonsville Nine burned draft files at the local draft board in Catonsville, Maryland. Two Catholic priests, Jesuit Daniel Berrigan and Josephite Philip Berrigan, along with seven others trespassed on government property, walking where private citizens… Thu, 17 May 2018 09:27:13 EDT Jason C. Bivins 2ecce100-b572-4bd6-9f3a-40dd7d8095b0 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/04/17/somewhat-cynical-take-future-and-soul-evangelicalism Hidely-ho, readerinos! It’s time for one of our favorite running gags around the RD religio-sphere, to wit: “Watch Evangelicals Desperately Squirm To Avoid Being Blamed For The Consistent Pattern Of Rigid Sexual Authoritarianism And Barely-Concealed Racism Of Their Community!” Or… Tue, 17 Apr 2018 02:20:48 EDT Daniel Schultz c37a8f25-2e50-44a5-9b5c-d07304c9698a https://religiondispatches.org/2018/04/10/open-carry-racism-right-wing-fever-dream-predates-trump The idiosyncratic pantheon of Trump administration staffers continues its exodus, a stream of comic book villains exiting stage right. The combination of venality, incompetence, and pathological narcissism, however, remains. And the world lives in the Trump era’s bubble of strangely… Tue, 10 Apr 2018 12:24:11 EDT Jason C. Bivins 75ef01a6-0d43-488b-89a4-805f79987ec1 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/01/14/original-sin-flattering-mirror-uses-and-misuses-civil-rights-history By the turn of the millennium, the history of the civil rights movement had become a national story. When asked to name a “most famous American” other than a president “from Columbus to today,” high school students most often chose… Sun, 14 Jan 2018 11:59:02 EST Jeanne Theoharis caf3c78d-149c-439d-b041-8bf2d1e91278