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Religious Groups Are Fighting Trump to Keep Families Together

But they didn’t always oppose ripping kids from their parents.
Billy Graham at the pulpit.

American Evangelicalism and the Politics of Whiteness

If white evangelicals are united by anything, it isn't theology.
Jeff Sessions.

The Fight to Define Romans 13

Jeff Sessions used it to justify his policy of family separation, but he’s not the first to invoke the biblical passage.
Book of Mormon

Mormons Confront a History of Church Racism

The Mormon church is still grappling with a racial past.
Donald Trump shaking hands with Mike Huckabee.

Church of The Donald

Never mind Fox. Trump’s most reliable media mouthpiece is now Christian TV.

God Gave Rock and Roll to You

Fiery, energetic and preached by charismatic frontmen, Pentecostal Christianity had a big influence on rock and roll in its formative years.
President Trump and religious leaders praying in the Oval Office
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Today is a National Day of Prayer. Should That be Legal?

How solid is the wall between church and state?
William Sloan Coffin Jr. and his daughter.

Anti-War Protests 50 Years Ago Helped Mold The Modern Christian Right

Vietnam created a rupture in the Protestant church.

The Gods of Indian Country

How American expansion reshaped the religious worlds of both settlers and Native people.

Where Sunday School Comes From

Sunday school was a major part of nineteenth century reformers’ efforts to improve children’s lives and morals.

A History of the Jerks: Bodily Exercises and the Great Revival

A digital archive of first-person accounts from the turn of the 19th century chronicling an unusual display of religious ecstasy.
Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux.

New Documents Reveal How the FBI Deployed a Televangelist to Discredit Martin Luther King

Elder Michaux, a popular black evangelist, aided the bureau's campaign to destroy King's reputation.
Intricately painted Easter eggs.

Why Easter Never Became a Big Secular Holiday like Christmas

Hint: the Puritans were involved.

Writing Jewish History

Histories of the Jews reveal a lot about the times in which they were written.
Billy Graham at the pulpit.

Billy Graham’s Legacy

A roundup of historians' commentary about Billy Graham in the wake of his death.

The Revolutionary Roots of America’s Religious Nationalism

America's sense of religious nationalism was forged in the same fires that ignited the profoundly secular French Revolution.

Modern Mindfulness is Rooted in a Racist History

Before Americans turned to Buddhism for life hacks, they treated it like a dangerous cult.

The Last Temptation

How evangelicals became an anxious minority seeking political protection from a not traditionally religious president.

Kneeling for Hollywood

How Hollywood portrays religious prayer.

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker: A Scandal of the Self

The long historical roots and continuing relevance of the disgraced preacher's story.
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Billy Graham, ‘America’s Pastor’?

He became known as an apolitical preacher. But Graham started out as an ardent conservative.
Billy Graham

Billy Graham Was On the Wrong Side of History

Racial tensions are rising, the earth is warming, and evangelicals are doing little to help. That may be Graham’s most significant legacy.

Why Billy Graham Was Determined to Globalize Evangelicalism

Recognizing that Americans are not the future of his religion, the late preacher embraced a global world.
A painting of George Whitefield preaching to a crowd.

Darkness Falls on the Land of Light

Divisions in society and religion that still exist today resulted from the "Great Awakenings" of the 18th Century.
Thomas Jefferson's two-volume personal copy of George Sale's 1734 translation of the Qur'an. Library of Congress.

Why Thomas Jefferson Owned a Qur’an

Islam in America dates to the founding fathers, says Smithsonian’s religion curator Peter Manseau.

Are White Evangelicals Sacrificing The Future In Search Of The Past?

The religious profile of young adults today differs dramatically from that of older Americans.
Protestor outside the Supreme Court, with a Bible and a sign denouncing bigotry.
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Discriminating in the Name of Religion? Segregationists and Slaveholders Did It, Too.

If religious freedom trumps equality under the law, it provides a “cover” that actually encourages discrimination.

5 Questions with Ronit Stahl

A Q&A with the author of "Enlisting Faith: How the Military Chaplaincy Shaped Religion and State in Modern America."

Cancer and Captivity: Reflections on Affliction in Puritan and Modern Times

It seemed to me that the conditions of cancer and captivity shared physical, emotional, and spiritual correspondences.
"Liberty Leading the People," an 1830 painting by Eugene Delacroix.

Religion and the Republic

Looking to the French Revolution and the writings of Tocqueville for insight into Trump’s America.