Fifty years ago, America celebrated its Bicentennial. The 200th anniversary of the nation’s founding occurred on a Sunday. For many, celebrations mixed faith, family and fireworks.
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(ANALYSIS) Being around academics for my entire working career has taught me that most of them grew up in highly populated areas and want to live in close proximity to large population centers. I never really wanted to do any of that. I’m happy to live in a small town where housing is cheap, crime is low, and traffic is non-existent. But I also realize that my environment shapes my work. I understand American religion through the lens of a guy who has lived in the rural Midwest for four decades.
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There’s that question again: How can mainstream media cover this story? Do elite journalists want to cover it? Is it cynical to thinkthat this story could, finally, end up on the front page of The New York Times if, and only if, it can be framed as yet another failure linked to Orange Man Bad?
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(ANALYSIS) Pope Leo has reaffirmed that disputes over doctrine and worship within Catholicism ultimately converge on a single question: Whether authority rests with individual movements claiming to preserve tradition or with the pope as the center of ecclesial unity.
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(REVIEW) The faith-based film industry is shifting from family-friendly dramas toward male-focused, patriotic stories for conservative Christian audiences. “Young Washington” reflects that evolution with strong action, but ultimately weakens its emotional impact by oversimplifying George Washington’s ambition and spiritual transformation, limiting its cultural and thematic potential.
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The Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, proved to be just the first bloodletting in a renewed cycle of violence and recrimination. Israel responded with its destructive campaign in Gaza. Far from the theater of war, American Jews reckoned with renewed fears of antisemitism and fractures within their own communities and families.
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(ANALYSIS) Did the founders of the United States intend to create a Christian nation? Political leaders who addressed a prayer rally on the National Mall on May 17 seem to think so: House Speaker Mike Johnson led the crowd in rededicating) the United States of America as “one nation under God.”
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(ANALYSIS) Struggling with the loss of her child, a mother asked Father Peter Jon Gillquist a question that pastors are hearing more often — about getting a tattoo.
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On June 18, the Texas Legislature released a 115-page investigative report, based on 140 interviews. The losses at the camp, it says, were avoidable. Days later, Camp Mystic filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, court records show. Unlike a chapter 7 bankruptcy, which liquidates a business, a chapter 11 filing means that the business pays a portion of its debts and keeps operating.
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The Justice Department has released the first draft of a report on religious liberty following a yearlong study ordered by President Donald Trump. The wide-ranging report deals with areas such as public school, the military, and how faith-based organizations should interact with federal grants.
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In May 2024, a Catholic parish in Kiambu County, near the Kenyan capital Nairobi, made national headlines when it allowed a polygamous man to marry one of his wives in a church ceremony. The marriage ceremony happened while the other wife sat in the pews. The church agreed that Ndachu had to write a will dividing his estate equitably between both families.
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The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that schools may separate athletic teams based on biological sex, upholding Idaho and West Virginia laws challenged under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. The decision drew praise from the ERLC, Alliance Defending Freedom and West Virginia Baptists supporting protections for women's sports.
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(ANALYSIS) In 1526, books appeared in England that no one had seen before: printed New Testaments in the English language. The public snapped them up. For the first time, people read now-common phrases such as “the powers that be” and “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” But religious authorities condemned the English Bible and burned the copies they could find.
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(ANALYSIS) In honor of America’s 250th anniversary, faith-based filmmakers have pushed out multiple patriotic and history-themed films. This summer has seen a mix of historical dramas, war epics and documentaries — all of which are widely available for Christians (and non-Christians) to watch this Fourth of July weekend.
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(REVIEW) To understand post-Christian Western culture, watch “Hazbin Hotel.” As America continues to secularize and divide along religious and political lines, our culture is rewriting how we think about human nature and redemption. With its second season, the series encapsulates our evolving post-Christian imagination — and the ways we’re worse off for it.
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Tourists used to just stop in Lima on their way to Cuzco and Machu Picchu. These days, it has become a destination with trendy restaurants and restored historic buildings that tell the story of “The City Of Kings.” Founded in 1535 by Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro, Lima was once the most important city in South America.
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As Independence Day approaches, this week’s Religion Unplugged podcast episode features culture critic Joseph Holmes and his investigation into the faith of our first president.
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Los turistas solían detenerse en Lima únicamente de camino a Cuzco y Machu Picchu. Hoy en día, se ha convertido en un destino con restaurantes de moda y edificios históricos restaurados que cuentan la historia de la “Ciudad de los Reyes”. Fundada en 1535 por el conquistador español Francisco Pizarro, Lima fue en su día la ciudad más importante de Sudamérica.
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(ANALYSIS) In the end, Vance is a work in progress — as all Christians ought to be. The Veep never quite reconciled with his father before he died. But there’s a “second chance” with his long-troubled mother, now substance-free and happily part of the family circle doting on her grandkids.
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As colonists and Native nations navigated war, alliances, disease, displacement and competing claims to land, Christian missions became intertwined with politics and survival. Some Indigenous people rejected Christianity, others adapted it to their own traditions, revealing a complex history shaped by both faith and colonial expansion in early America.
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