"Basham has made a fundamental category mistake: She has confused traditionally moderate evangelical social justice concerns with the platform of the Democratic left. Contrary to her claims, most of the allegedly left-leaning evangelical leaders...

currentpub.com/2024/09/16/rev… she has selected for excoriation did not acquire their social ethics from the Dem Party; they..inherited it from mainstream Am evangelical theology. The people whom Basham, a politically conservative Southern Baptist, accuses of being closet leftists are not theological liberals.

"Trump has done what no Democrat...could have done. He has...made the Republican Party de facto pro-choice. Having stripped the pro-life plank from the GOP platform, having said that Governor Ron DeSantis’s ban on abortion after six weeks is “too harsh” & a “terrible mistake,” 🧵

https://twitter.com/Peter_Wehner/status/1828561776285298991

...and having promised to veto a national abortion ban, Trump has now gone one step further, essentially advocating for greater access to abortion.
But that’s not all.
The public is more pro-choice today than it was at the start of Trump’s presidential term,

For decades, conservative evangelical power brokers defined "truth" in terms of what advanced their idea of Truth--which neatly aligned w/ their own agenda.
They founded institutions, organizations, publishers, & media platforms to advance, defend, and perpetuate this Truth. 🧵 They platformed writers who amplified pre-determined narratives. They shunned, de-platformed, and cast out those who questioned these Truths. They educated kids to debate, feeding them pre-established talking points. They replaced disciplinary expertise w/ in-house apologetics.

SBC church learns of abuse, calls police, then tells congregation.

That's it, that's the story.
1/5

https://twitter.com/bobsmietana/status/1800148549939954103

And also this: "The student and her family are well-loved in the congregation, acc to Hickory Grove Executive Pastor Steve Adams, who said the church was trying to care for them in a horrible situation."
Kudos to @bobsmietana for covering this.
I wish it weren't newsworthy.
2/5

@geekyguyjay @blakecallens @bonhoefferchild So “muscular exercise of temporal authority by men, & the forceful application of male dominion in civic affairs” isn’t run-of-the mill comp. I’m all for working w/ comps on this (I do every day), but these guys alone pose the risk they do not b/c people support them… @geekyguyjay @blakecallens @bonhoefferchild But because conservative evs will elect a guys who hands them power. I highlight gender not because I’m “egalitarian,” a category that makes sense only in ev circles, but because I’m a historian of gender who has studied authoritarianism.

Is the whole “Christian nationalism” discourse just a smear campaign against Chrs? A lot of CN sympathizers are pushing this claim, & it’s in their interest to do so. But read @TaylorMatthewD’s thread.

https://twitter.com/taylormatthewd/status/1761245847897993239

Are there some who will use “CN” to try to marginalize the views of conservative Christians? In this political landscape, of course. But without exception, every single reporter I’ve talked with on this issue has taken great pains to distinguish a devout Christian faith from CN.

Let me correct a few facts here. Rob Reiner did not "secure" me as a "talking head" for this film. I've been in the loop on this since 2021, before Reiner, before Partland agreed to direct, before funding. It started as an adaptation of @kathsstewart's book THE POWER WORSHIPPERS.

https://twitter.com/JohnFea1/status/1733323236148941062

Stewart's book is essential reading. If you haven't read it, do. Stewart is a meticulous journalist who has long documented the networks behind the Religious Right, their funding sources, goals, methods. Again, essential reading.
amazon.com/Power-Worshipp…

"So in Speaker Johnson we have a man whose Christian worldview has led him into a hall of mirrors—historically, scientifically, legally, and constitutionally."--@Peter_Wehner 1/4

https://twitter.com/Peter_Wehner/status/1719395839813017669

"A “rule-of-law guy” who laments a lack of “absolute standards of right and wrong” was a key participant in undermining the rule of law and has been a steadfast defender of Donald Trump, who has done so much to shatter absolute standards of right and wrong. 2/4

Just a couple weeks ago I got an email from a reader who thought my depiction of Billy Graham was "a bit off." His family connections to Graham's ministry went deep.
I don't always have time to respond to every note, but I had a couple minutes & sent a very brief reply... 1/

https://twitter.com/CAHutch1990/status/1710129972793282560

...saying that my focus was on the Graham of the 40s-60s to show how Chr nationalism is baked into the roots of neo-evangelicalism & how BG was complicit in that, even though later somewhat chastened.
He thanked me & that was that...until he wrote back earlier this week. 2/

So what *did* I say about inerrancy? Nothing that hasn’t said before by other historians. By @sdowland & Elizabeth Flowers, specifically.
Let’s take a look: “Accounts of the battles over the SBC commonly focus on the question of biblical inerrancy, but the battle over inerrancy was in part a proxy fight over gender.”
If you know me, you’ll know I chose each word here deliberately.

OK, let's do this again.
Butterfield: "Du Mez wants you to believe that politics is the primary reason conservatives embrace biblical inerrancy...not because we believe this honors God..."
No, Du Mez draws on hist studies demonstrating how "inerrancy" was selectively applied.1/

https://twitter.com/colinsmo/status/1709586452693008574

"Du Mez's book makes the case that Christianity is a mere worldview--a lens through which to look at the world."
No I don't.
But as a historian my job involves examining historical manifestations of the faith, not idealized concepts of the faith. Sorry. 2/

Some seem surprised by the tone of attacks against me of late by Christian men who claim God-given authority to lead & protect women. More than a century ago, Madeline Southard called out the spurious nature of such “protection”: 1/5 Under a patriarchal system that denies female equality, Southard writes, “they may love their own women, their wives, their mothers, their sisters &their daughters,” & they might “go to great lengths to please women who attract them and from whom they wish to secure favors,”...2/

I’ll admit I have a very hard time taking things like this seriously, but worth considering what Beth Moore & I have in common:
1. We’re blond
2. We’ve called out abuse in evangelical churches
3. We’ve called out racism in evangelicalism We all know it’s no sin to be blond in white Christian spaces, so #1 can’t be the problem.
But why is it *white* women who have such destructive power? Are other women not pointing these things out? Of course they are. But they’re just more easily ignored in white Chr spaces (#3)

Listening to @BethMooreLPM on the white church & her experience in it: “If you want to control us, tell us everything is a threat.” “We wanted diversity, we prayed for it. Why didn’t we have it? Because we can’t even look at what we are doing…”
“Sometimes you’re so distracted by Bible teaching that you don’t notice the situations into which the Bible speaks.”

When asked about responses to his book READING WHILE BLACK, @esaumccaulley says:
“I thought the critiques would be better. There hasn’t been serious exegetical critique, there’s been a lot of hand-waiving.” “Lies can only be kept in place by violence and fear.”
“It is an intellectually unserious claim to say that structural racism isn’t real.”
“That’s what’s been surprising to me. The intellectual unseriousness of the critiques.”
baylor.edu/truett/index.p…

"The two songs evoke strikingly different moods and modes of being American: one rooted in the struggle for freedom for all, the other in the American expansion into lands held by others."--@robertpjones open.substack.com/pub/robertpjon… "At root, “The Star-Spangled Banner” is an anthem of assertive innocence, divine favoritism, and unbridled triumphalism. And although we mostly sing the first stanza, the final lines of the fourth and final stanza reveal its animating spirit:

Today is my turn to reflect on the new @PRRIpoll @BrookingsInst survey on Chr nationalism and the threat to American democracy: A Virtual Roundtable on the Threat of Christian Nationalism, Part 3 of 4 by Kristin Du Mez, by @kkdumez 1/3 open.substack.com/pub/kristindum… "Ultimately, what lessons can be gleaned from this survey? For Repubs, 1 unfortunate takeaway may be that it pays to play to the Christian nationalist base, at least in the short term. In terms of the state of our society & health of our democracy, the implications are sobering.

Textbook case of how abuse thrives in churches like John MacArthur's--how it's so hard to hold leaders accountable & change course:
"He tried to convince the church’s leaders to reconsider & at least privately make it right. He said pastor John MacArthur told him to “forget it.”

https://twitter.com/CTmagazine/status/1623790757210456065

"When Cho continued to call the elders to “do justice” on the woman’s behalf, he said he was asked to walk back his conclusions or resign.
Though Cho stepped down quietly, he continued to hear from other women from his former church.

Richly textured coverage of @megannlively's story:
"Evangelical leader Russell Moore calls her a “pivotal” figure in bringing awareness of sexual abuse to the Southern Baptist Convention; best-selling author and Bible teacher Beth Moore calls Lively a “hero.” 1/

https://twitter.com/megannlively/status/1603073072352968709

"What are the demands of being a Christian survivor?
Is there room for Lively’s belief that the theology banning women from spiritual leadership has often been used to silence survivors? Room to confront conservative Christianity about what it means to treat women well? 2/

Conversations around Jay Green's piece last week drew the attn of Kevin DeYoung at World, who frames calls for evidence as evidence itself of illiberalism, & dismisses Green's response to criticism as evidence the guild isn't open to critical interaction.
kristindumez.substack.com/p/what-is-acti… It did, however, prompt me to share the plenary that I gave at this year's CFH meeting. KDY cherry-picked the talk for his purposes, but if you listen, you'll see that I reject what is often understood to be "activist history" while also asking that we examine the concept itself.

Greatly appreciate this piece by my colleague @jrwalcott on Betsy DeVos's recent visit to @Calvin_Uni, her alma mater. In the spirit of DeVos's desire "to debate & advance" the policies she's promoting, & as a Chr, Walcott offers a different vision of edu:
calvinchimes.org/2022/12/04/mor… "For example, her call to support “students & not systems” fails to recognize that student learning can be supported by teachers, curriculum, financial resources, school administrators &, yes, in many cases may even require a building conducive to learning.