
Excerpt
Recalling the Spiritual Vision of Robert Hayden, America’s First Black Poet Laureate
An adapted excerpt from Josef Sorett’s “Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics”
By Josef Sorett
Excerpt
The Decline of White Christian America
For most of the twentieth century, in White Christian America the terms “Christian” and “Protestant” were virtually synonymous. Questions like “And where do you go …
By Robert P. Jones
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How Faithful People Can Change Politics
On August 11, 2011, at a time when bipartisan members of Congress were trying to work out an agreement on the federal budget, eight Republican …
By John C. Danforth
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Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of American Religious Nationalism
Scholars have variously depicted Thomas Jefferson as everything from a crypto-Unitarian with a deep love of Jesus to a priest-baiting infidel. My own view is …
By Sam Haselby
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The King’s Chapel and the King’s Court: Richard Nixon, Billy Graham, and White House Church Services
When Richard Nixon entered the White House, he brought his good friend Billy Graham with him. A constant presence and trusted adviser, the minister became, …
By Kevin M. Kruse
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No Politics in Church? Not So Fast.
American Christians are increasingly aware that the church has a political image problem, and are increasingly eager to repair it. Association with the Religious Right, …
By Sam Speers and Kristopher Norris
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The Past Imperfect of Barack Obama
Speaking at the ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches last month, President Obama posed a question that captured why many …
By Peter Manseau
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A Sunday Spent with Jimmy Carter
Southwest Georgia is Baptist country. The back roads heading south out of Columbus are bracketed by red soil, scruffy pines, and clapboard buildings sporting names …
By Randall Balmer
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Mission at Nuremberg: An Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis
Wilhelm Keitel had been general field marshal, second only to Adolf Hitler in Germany’s military hierarchy. Now, on a cold, rainy October morning, at 1:00 …
By Tim Townsend
Excerpt
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 150 Years Later
On November 19, 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the dedication of America’s first national cemetery, on the site of the battle that had turned the …
By Stephen Prothero