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By RANDALL BALMER

Mitch McConnell’s announcement that he will not seek reelection next year brings to a close the political career of the longest-serving Senate leader history. He is also the longest-serving senator from Kentucky.

By RANDALL BALMER

Before O.J. Simpson’s white Bronco led police on a slow-speed chase down a Los Angeles freeway in 1994, leading to his trial the following year, Americans considered the events unfolding in the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, during July 1925 the “trial of the century.” Many of the issues raised in the second-story courtroom of the Rhea County courthouse are still contested a hundred years later.

By RANDALL BALMER

At one time, American evangelicals equated New York City with Babylon, the ancient site associated with power and corruption. Now, it appears, they have shifted their attention to Washington, D.C.

By RANDALL BALMER

I have no brief for Harvard University; my institutional loyalties lean toward Princeton, where I did my graduate studies, to Columbia and Dartmouth, the two schools that employed me for the past four decades, and to Yale for several delightful years as a visiting professor. But it appears that Harvard understands the cardinal rule of the playground: It’s impossible to appease a bully. The only acceptable response is to stand tall and, if necessary, fight back.

By RANDALL BALMER

Back in the heyday of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, I frequently lectured on the origins of the Religious Right, pointing out that, despite all the leaders’ dodging and weaving, their movement began in defense of racial segregation in the 1970s, not in the more high-minded opposition to abortion.

By RANDALL BALMER

I first met Jimmy Carter at a small gathering prior to an academic conference at Emory University. What he wanted to talk about was what he characterized as the “unsurpassed joy” of telling others about Jesus.He was referring, of course, to his own...

By RANDALL BALMER

For Christians, the season of Advent, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, is the season of hope and anticipation. It is a glorious time, one seemingly at odds with the calendar itself because it coincides with the shortest days of the year (in...

By RANDALL BALMER

“Religion and Christianity are the two biggest things missing from this country,” Donald Trump declared.Despite (or perhaps because of) the messenger, the argument for Christian nationalism has been amplified in recent years, and Christian nationalism...

By RANDALL BALMER

While the eyes of the nation remain focused on the presidential contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, equally riveting dramas are playing out in various states, including here in New Hampshire.The nation’s governors and gubernatorial...

By RANDALL BALMER

Faithful America, the activist organization associated with mainline Protestantism, has issued what it calls its “most important list of top Christian-nationalist False Prophets ever.” What is Christian nationalism? After hearing the refrain about the...

By RANDALL BALMER

After the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the candidate declared, “It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”Trump’s acolytes agreed. Franklin Graham credited “God’s hand of protection” to spare the life of the former...

By RANDALL BALMER

As someone who was reared as an evangelical, I resisted for decades the charge that white evangelicals were racist. Sure, I knew about segregation academies and places like Bob Jones University, but I was also aware that many evangelical megachurches...

By RANDALL BALMER

Like many campuses across the nation, Dartmouth College has been roiling with unrest over the war in Gaza.On May 1, the college’s president called in local police and state troopers with riot gear to arrest 89 students, faculty, staff and community...

By RANDALL BALMER

I wish I could say that the death of Beverly LaHaye on April 14 signaled the end of an era, but I’m afraid that’s not the case.Please understand that I’m not reveling in her demise (or anyone else’s), but she together with antifeminist Phyllis...

By RANDALL BALMER

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, a Religious Right organization, has a history of involvement with the Ku Klux Klan in his home state of Louisiana. In 1996, while running the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of his friend and...

By RANDALL BALMER

Sometimes I’m asked how someone who grew up evangelical—a fundamentalist, really—became an Episcopalian and eventually an Episcopal priest. I typically reply with a semi-flippant answer: It was a reaction to the aesthetic deprivation of my...

By RANDALL BALMER

Early in my career, a senior colleague warned that funky things tend to happen during the first year of a college presidency. As a new president settles into the job, poor decisions and unforced errors seem to follow almost inevitably — although they...

By RANDALL BALMER

In the late 1980s, while I was teaching at Columbia University, I received an urgent request to attend a meeting at Union Theological Seminary. I don’t recall everyone who was in the room, but the half dozen or so in attendance included several...

By RANDALL BALMER

As someone who studies religion in North America, I’m often asked if there are any non-evangelical megachurches. The answer is an emphatic yes. I recently spent a Sunday at one, St. Andrew United Methodist Church, in the suburbs of Denver.Many...

By RANDALL BALMER

Louie Gohmert, Republican member of Congress from Texas, announced last week that he was giving up his seat to run for attorney general in Texas.At the very least, this should be entertaining.Gohmert is widely considered the dumbest member of Congress...

By RANDALL BALMER

James Huntsman wants his money back. We’re not talking here about a refund for a defective car battery or food processor. We’re talking about millions of dollars that Huntsman claims to have donated to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...