H. David Baer (professor of theology), Alexander Faludy (journalist, church historian), and Joseph Novak (Hungarian Baptist pastor) discuss Ron Dreher’s new book, Live Not By Lies, and consider the questions: How well has Dreher described the experience of East European Christians? Is Dreher right to draw parallels between 20th century communism and American today?
Politics
Secularization Strikes Back: The End of American Religion?
“One striking feature about religious commitment today is how closely it aligns with conservative politics. Religiously committed Americans are very likely to vote Republican. Yet it wasn’t always that way. Alexis de Tocqueville famously attributed the strength of American religion… Read More ›
A Time for Theologians during the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Twenty-five years ago when I first started graduate school, I used to enjoy reading First Things, the “journal of religion and public life” founded by Richard John Neuhaus. Neuhaus was a Lutheran “neoconservative” who eventually converted to Catholicism and became… Read More ›
Hungary’s New Church Law is Worse than the First
Hungarian Parliament on December 11, 2018 / source: AP Download a copy of this article here This article was published in, and can be cited as, “Hungary’s New Church Law is Worse than the First,” (2019) Occasional Papers on Religion… Read More ›
Return of the Tyrants
My latest column for The Cresset, about lessons from Aristotle and Plato on current politics. “Democracy today is under siege. It is being replaced in parts of the world with soft authoritarian regimes that preserve but manipulate democratic trappings to… Read More ›
Russia’s Influence on Cultural Conservatives
Here’s my latest piece for The Cresset on how cultural conservatives have lost their moral bearings. “Cold War themes have returned unexpectedly with the renewal of Russian informational warfare. But unlike the Cold War, Russian propaganda today targets those on… Read More ›
Is the Idea of the Centrist Project Realistic?
Evangelizers often run into resistance, and so I’ve noticed not everyone I talk to about the Centrist Project gets excited. “Sorry, but it’s a waste of time. Third parties can’t succeed in America. We’ve got a two party system and… Read More ›
The Fall of Hungary: Viktor Orbán’s Push to Destroy Democracy
Demonstrators protesting Lex CEU / Source: CEU webpage Early in April, the Hungarian parliament, tightly controlled by the country’s autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orbán, passed a law aimed at forcing the closure of Budapest’s independent and prestigious Central European University…. Read More ›
Why I Joined the Centrist Project
I’m not much of a joiner, especially where politics is concerned, but recently I signed up with something called the Centrist Project. It’s a group that wants to overcome political polarization, which has reached a level they believe harms our… Read More ›
America’s Useful Idiot – Donald Trump
I hate to be so partisan, but Trump’s relationship to Putin is simply scary. Here’s what I wrote for The Cresset. “Among the shocks Donald Trump has wrought to American politics, one of the biggest in my view has been… Read More ›