Public Writings
Christian nationalism is surging. It wasn’t inevitable.
“These ideas are as old as the United States but Christian nationalism wasn’t always a major force in politics. And its rise is as much about the stumbles of its opponents in the period before the Religious Right began to dominate American politics in the 1970s as the success of those promoting this ideology.”
Evangelicals bring the votes, Catholics bring the brains
“But it remains the case that Catholic intellectuals are overrepresented in the US conservative movement. By virtue of their 19th-century separationist anxieties and their investment in institutions of higher learning, Catholics have become the brains of the religious Right in the US.”
Reinhold Niebuhr, Washington’s Favorite Theologian
“Do Comey, Obama, and other powerful people read Niebuhr because he tells them to act with humility and caution? Or is it because Niebuhr tells them that moral men have to play hardball?”
The strange, short career of Judeo-Christianity
“Defenders of Judeo-Christianity believe that they are invoking timeless principles. In fact, Judeo-Christianity is a very recent invention.”