I don't have time now for a thorough analysis of the flaws of this week's research from PRRI, & how it is being covered, but I will make a few points using the framing of this RNS story as a jumping off point (the article itself has some helpful content). religionnews.com/2023/02/08/a-t… First, the headline: "Survey: A third of Americans are Christian nationalists..."

The opening line of the article: "A new survey finds that fewer than a third of Americans, or 29%, qualify as Christian nationalists."

I'm all for responsible, honest critiques of Christians, but I'm seeing folks on here literally claim no Christians personally care for an "unwanted" child. Fam, about half of the refugee resettlement agencies are Christian. Christians essentially invented the idea of a hospital Look into what percentage of hospital beds are faith-based in your state. Check out who volunteers in this country. David Platt's church literally cleared out the foster care roles in their county.

Too much of the religious analysis on here lacks an economic and class analysis without knowing it. For instance, people want to make white evangelical resistance to the vaccine a matter of power-drunk aloofness, bc the political narrative is that white e's politics' results from an unwillingness to relinquish cultural hegemony. But that is not the story of evangelicalism in US

There’s this idea that the Taliban came out of nowhere since the troop drawdown began in May, but that is just absolutely false. The Taliban had been regaining territory and strength since 2014, threatening as much as 70% of the country and controlling many districts. Human rights concerns in Afghanistan did not originate this week. The Taliban was fighting across the country. The Taliban has been dictating the lives of many, many Afghans for years.

I want to highlight some excerpts from this recent Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction report that is relevant to how we think about religion, culture & politics, & to the hubris of the dominant approach to human beings & systems. sigar.mil/pdf/lessonslea… "But instead of being a society...primed for the introduction of western...systems, it turned out Afghanistan was a complex society with ingrained traditions...neither easy to uproot and replace, nor could they be shoehorned into a Western institutional framework"

I said consistently during the primary and the general that President Biden's talk of unity was not just a tactic to judge for its political efficacy, but a standard and a burden he was placing on his presidency--one I support and think is necessary. What you're seeing now is the rest of Washington coming to terms with the fact that words matter, and that for politics to mean anything, a standard advanced in the campaign is one that has to matter while governing.

Al Mohler once again makes his case for Trump. Looks like he felt he needed to repeat what he's said before in light of Piper's post last week. I won't comment on all of it now, but here's one observation: albertmohler.com/2020/10/26/chr… After Mohler summarizes evangelical support for Trump as a "worldview" issue, and says he "quickly loses respect" for pro-lifers who support Biden, he takes a different approach to Black Christians who vote Democratic...

Sorry, but we are long past the time when political analysis that only takes one or two issues into account should be taken seriously among Christians. Weigh it out. It's OK if your scale is weighted different than mine, but my goodness...I'm not so skeptical of Christians who vote differently than I do, but I am skeptical of Christian leaders who can't find any issue--not one!--where they disagree with a politician or party.

Unfortunately, I have to provide an update here. After the Missouri Democrats' platform committee voted in favor of this language, it appears as if activists and "pro-Democratic" interest groups issued threats. Today, the Missouri Party Chair unilaterally scraped this language.

https://twitter.com/MichaelRWear/status/1014239999540256768

A few notes: I hope some enterprising reporters will investigate what led to this undemocratic change.

1. Here are some thoughts on VP Pence at SBC as someone who has been involved in both staffing national political leaders at religious forums, and currently advises Christian leaders and organizations about politics and culture. I hope you'll read the whole thread. 2. I come at these questions with some convictions about the role of politicians to engage faith, and also the experience of helping to organize and staff national political leaders' visits to religious gatherings.