I had the privilege of interviewing Randall Balmer about the propaganda of abortion in evangelical politics for my upcoming season on propaganda. The episode won't release until March of 2024, but you can see the YouTube version now. https://youtu.be/a-bH1Xatvp0 #randallbalmer #abortion #againstabortion #religiousright #moralmajority #propaganda #evangelicalism #conservatism #republican #falwell
In light of our conversations online right now, this book is as timely as ever. Thanks @JemarTisby for the encouragement. Get your copy now, and maybe grab one for a friend to read too! Available in Kindle, Audio, and Hardcover - LINK IN BIO.
In one sitting read ‘Bad Faith’ by evangelical historian Randall Balmer. Book with plenty of footnotes and bibliography details how abortion issue never gave rise to the very political Religious Right. Rather it was a suit brought against a tax exempt whites-only charter school and then the IRS took a look at the tax exempt status of the segregated Bob Jones University. Racism was recast as ‘religious freedom’. Resonated with lots more voters than any other single issue including abortion. Reagan won on the issue. So, reading history anew, it’s racism that undergirds the beginnings of our polarization. This book is worth a read. Especially now that abortion is on the block. Pun unintended here. #racism #ushistory #badfaith #religiousright #race #booklover #reader #randallbalmer #abortionmyths
"Today, children, we will be using our teeth!" . #loveit #RandallBalmer #BadFaith #faithandpolitics #history #racism #ReligiousRight #amreading #singleissuevoting #justdont
I have too many and too few words for today. I wrote a blog and that helped. You can read it @indwell_movement We must understand the history of Christian Nationalism if we are to see any form of collective change. #christiannationalism #deconstruction #bartehrman @straightwhitejc #bradonishi #deconstructingfaith #january6th #january6 #christianity #roxannedunbarortiz #elainepagels #jamescarrol #saramoslener #randallbalmer #thykingdomcome #whiteheadandperry #mariegriffith #kristinkobesdumez #jesusandjohnwayne #jesus #justice #racialequality #racialtrauma #collectivetrauma @resmaamenakem #embodiment #constantine #constantinessword @luisdaniellecastillejo
Imagine civility beyond social and political tribalism. Is such a thing even possible? Harold Heie thinks so. Check out Heie's new book, "Let's Talk," from Cascade to hear his case. Rather than just cursing this darkness, Heie presents what he considers to be a "better way" for those who disagree about contentious issues to respectfully engage one another, a way that is deeply informed by his Christian faith perspective; a way that reflects his understanding that to listen carefully to those who disagree with you and to then talk respectfully about your disagreements is a deep expression of the love for others to which Jesus calls all those who claim to be his followers. **Available for purchase now at the link in bio.** #civility #richardmouw #marknoll #davidgushee #brianmclaren #randallbalmer @dpgushee @brian_mclaren
2021, Book #63 — Bad Faith by Randall Balmer — 4/5 stars #badfaith #randallbalmer #readingchallenge #books #bookstagram #readersofinstagram #bookaholic #bookaddict #booksbooksbooks
Six years ago today. One of my favorite memories. Her Dartmouth religion professor from this summer is one of Carter’s biographer’s. #randallbalmer What an extraordinary human being Jimmy Carter is. Let’s cherish him while we still can. #morethanjustpresident #humanitarian #gifttotheworld #sundayschoolteacher
We talked with Randall Balmer about his new book, "Bad Faith: Race the the Rise of the Religious Right." An excerpt from that conversation: "I believe that Bad Faith demolishes once and for all what I call the abortion myth, the fiction that the Religious Right mobilized in direct response to the Roe v. Wade decision of January 1973. The historical record, as well as testimony of those who were there at the origins of evangelical political activism in the late 1970s, tell a very different story." #race #ReligiousRight #politics #abortion #newbook #book #RandallBalmer #BadFaith #faith #christian #RoeVWade #RonaldReagan #Regan #evangelical
We're always excited when @publisherswkly interviews one of our authors. Swipe right to read an excerpt. The conversation continues at https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/86832-historian-calls-for-an-evangelical-reckoning-on-race.html #BadFaith #RandallBalmer #race #politics #ReligiousRight #election #evangelical
Available now, and endorsed by @pb_curry of @theepiscopalchurch: "Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right." #BadFaith #RandallBalmer #book #newbook #religiousright #politics #political #abortion #race
Ive been listening to this podcast from @straightwhitejc (brad onishi) who grew up in a Southern California evangelical world like mine and makes clear a lot of the unknown idolatry we held. I was immersed in the Bible every day of my life, and in my adolescence chose to live, work and interact with people all over the world. I keep returning to the sermon on the mount, and thinking those of us who were part of the conservative white side of US Christianity, or, evangelicalism, with the best intentions, built our houses on the sand. It is hard to hear this and often even harder to “repent” as the Bible says. Peter laid down his sword and Jesus was killed. Jesus did come back, but it wasn’t to show Peter how to have a successful career, spouse, 2.4 kids and a nice house in the suburbs, it was being “led to places he did not want to go” eventually crucified upside down. Of course we can find ways to avoid taking responsibility: the slaveholding side of the Baptist church is the largest Protestant denomination despite being on the wrong side of every historical movement since their original pro-slavery stance in 1845, even keeping it *enshrined in their name* as the Southern Baptist Convention. The group of people I've really connected with, the New England Transcendentalists were ascendant at the same time as the SBC, and were probably most united in their dissatisfaction with dominant christianity and their moves to oppose slavery and advocate for women's rights. They did free a lot of slaves, inspire people like Tolstoy, MLK and Ghandi, and their second generation got women the right to vote, but for the most part, like Peter, they died in poverty. We can do much better but Jesus was probably right, “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it will not bear much fruit.” And evangelicals have a much bigger sword than Peter, a lot of historical power, we don’t want to lay it down.
Coming next month, "Bad Faith"—the true story of the origins of the Religious Right. Randall Balmer's new book uncovers the roots of coded evangelical watchwords like " #religiousfreedom" and " #familyvalues." You can read the first chapter of the book at https://eerdword.com/bad-faith-preview/ #newbook #preview #book #books #instabook #BadFaith #RandallBalmer #evangelical #abortion #race #faith #christianity #bobjonesuniversity #republican #republicanparty
Randall Balmer's "Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right" tells a surprising and disturbing origin story. You can watch the #trailer here: https://youtu.be/hz7a9riZLmk #audiobook #BadFaith #RandallBalmer #audible #listen #amlistening #book #readmore #reading #comingsoon #newbook #politics #MoralMajority #religiousright #race
We just signed FOUR new #translation contracts with Holy Wave Plus Publishers in Seoul, South Korea. @holywaveplus's mission is to “help the next generation of Christians who will carry the Korean church on their shoulders, develop outstanding Christian intelligence, and discern the spirit of the times.” We’re thrilled that they’ll make four new Eerdmans books available in #Korean: 1. Randall Balmer's “Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right” #RandallBalmer 2. Steven D. Smith’s “Pagans and Christians in the City: Culture Wars from the Tiber to the Potomac” 3. William Lane Craig’s “In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration” @reasonablefaithorg 4. Janet Kellogg Ray’s “Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark: The Bible and Modern Science and the Trouble of Making It All Fit” @janetkelloggray #seoul #SouthKorea #books #book #bookshelf #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #translate #holywave #publisher #publishing #publishinglife
“When Than Tsídéh, whose name means Sun Bird in the Tewa language, arrived at the Oñate monument, ready to protest, the statue of the Pueblos’ tormentor was gone. “I started to sing,” he explained, his long hair flowing in the breeze, “in honor of my ancestors who I know were slaughtered by this man.” And then Than Tsídéh did what his long-ago ancestors, because of Oñate’s brutality, could not. He danced. 421 years ago, Conquistador Don Juan de Oñate ordered the pueblo destroyed in what became known as the Acoma Massacre; 800 to 1,000 Pueblos died in the siege. The survivors, approximately 500, were put on trial, and Oñate rendered the sentence: All men and women older than 12 would be enslaved for 20 years, and Spanish soldiers were instructed to chop off one foot of every man over 25 years old.” A statue honoring Oñate was on this pedestal for over 30 years. Resilience, strength, grief, joy, hope. #indigenous #indigenouslivesmatter #firstnations #decolonize #resilience #strength #uprising #dance #endracism #antiracist @sunbird_1111 #amplify #nativeamerican #reparations #justice #randallbalmer @latimes Photo credit: #mollymontgomery
I just came across this book while researching pro-slavery baptists breaking off from their northern counterparts to become Southern Baptists in 1845. It deals with the history of race and the church from 1492 to present. (The picture is from @books.barbells.beer I wish I was drinking that right now!) . One surprising story is about the early popular Puritan preacher George Whitefield: . “Whitefield was more moderate on race than many of his white contemporaries…[yet] over time his moderation on slavery morphed into outright support...Georgia would be a slave free region but...On a trip to Georgia in 1738, Whitefield began planning what would becom the Bethesda Orphanage. He named the new orphanage Bethesda, or ‘House of Mercy’...Faced with the vicissitudes of starting a nonprofit organization and ensuring its financial viability, Whitefield looked to slavery to secure Bethesda’s welfare. He turned to the wealthy allies he had gained during his revivals in South Carolina for support. With the help of his friends near Charleston, Whitefield purchased a 640-acre plantation and planned to use the profit from the crops produced there to support the work of the orphanage. Whitefield was virtually guaranteed a profit from his plantation activities because he did not plan to pay his laborers. ‘One negro has been given me,’ he wrote in a letter. ‘Some more I plan to purchase this week.’ . Whitefield began petitioning the political leaders of Georgia, which had been founded as a free territory, to allow slavery. He suggested that allowing slavery could improve the financial fortunes of the land and claimed that economic ruin was the only alternative: ‘Georgia can never be a flourishing province unless negroes are employed [as slaves].’ . As Jonathan Wilson hartgrove and Frederick Douglass say “between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference — so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked.” . There are also sections about the formation of the religious right in the 1970s which were initially pro-abortion but anti-desegregation.
A @cspan kinda morning #randallbalmer @carterlibrary39 #2014 #book #redeemerTheLifeofJimmyCarter #atl #atlanta #georgia
Wisdom everywhere. #dianabutlerbass #brianmclaren #lisbethmelendezrivera #jenhatmaker #johnpavlovitz #frankschaeffer #randallbalmer #barbarabrowntaylor #wildgoose2018 #wildgoosefest #wildgoosefestival #wildgoose
Disappointed in Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory by Randall Balmer. I wasn't thrilled with this or his other book I finished yesterday. He doesn't look at things objectively and he's very pro evangelical without seeing the other side. #heartofthemidwest #minnesota #minnesotalife #minnesota365 #southminneapolis #michelebakesdotcouk #michelebakescouk #michelebakes #krautgrrl #foodstagram #novelsofinstagram #readersofinstagram #touristinmycity #myhusbandismybestfriend #worlddominationtour2017 #authorsofinsta #minneapolis #denver #colorado #minneapolis #mineeyeshaveseentheglory #randallbalmer #evangelicalism
The #modern #religious right formed, practically overnight, as a rapid response to the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade. Or, at least, that's how the story goes. The reality, #RandallBalmer, a #Dartmouth professor writing for #Politico Magazine, says, is actually a little less savory to 21st century #Americans: The #religious #right, who liked to call themselves the " #moral #majority" at the time, actually organized around fighting to protect #Christian schools from being desegregated. It wasn't Roe v. Wade that woke the sleeping dragon of the #evangelical vote. It was Green v. Kennedy, a 1970 decision stripping tax-exempt status from "segregation academies"—private Christian schools that were set up in response to Brown v. Board of #Education, where the practice of barring black #students continued. As Balmer shows, feelings about Roe v. Wade were mixed in the #conservative Christian #community in the early 1970s, with quite a few evangelical leaders agreeing with the court that #abortion is a private matter. #Desegregation, however, was a different issue altogether. Anger about forced desegregation of private schools galvanized conservative Christians. #BobJonesUniversity stalled and resisted admitting black students, forcing the IRS to strip its tax exempt status in 1976, an event that spurred evangelical leaders to action. #JerryFalwell and #PaulWeyrich, two conservative #activists who had been seeking a way to marshal evangelicals into a #Republican voting bloc, pounced. Balmer writes: Weyrich saw that he had the beginnings of a conservative political movement, which is why, several years into President Jimmy Carter’s term, he and other leaders of the nascent religious right blamed the #Democratic #president for the IRS actions against segregated schools—even though the policy was mandated by #Nixon, and Bob Jones University had lost its tax exemption a year and a day before Carter was inaugurated as president. Falwell, Weyrich and others were undeterred by the niceties of facts. In their determination to elect a conservative, they would do anything to deny a Democrat, even a fellow evangelical like Carter, another term in the #WhiteHouse.
The book purchases from SBL/AAR. I also ordered Christian Smith's "The Bible Made Impossible" #georgemarsden #randallbalmer #chriskeith #richardsmoley #peterenns #christiansmith #evangelicalism #americanreligioushistory #biblicalstudies #sblaar
So I took a week off and I'm in Alaska celebrating my cousins wedding in Alaska. Cell service is not so good and frankly I'm spending more time with family than reading... But this is what I brought with me just in case! ...also I have emerson on Kindle!!!!!! #americannietzsche #nietzsche #randallbalmer #twilightoftheidols #peopleshistoryoftheunitedstates #howardzinn #thusspokezarathustra #howl #allenginsberg #journal #journaling #books #bookstagram #philosophy #history #ralphwaldoemerson
1. Interesting cover art--it is sideways. 2. Mark Noll (historian and evangelical) noted as mentor and friend in the dedication...despite Balmer's at least quasi questioning of evangelicalism. 3. Just finished the intro, it is amazing and so disappointing how many things are misconstrued by those looking at evangelicalism and how many easy things are misconstrued by evangelicals themselves. So many humans, but US Americans especially are so quick to do and so slow to think. Slavoj zizek's words of "don't do, think!" Reverberate in my head. #evangelicalism #randallbalmer #history #intellectual #zizek #marknoll