I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. ~William Penn~
How can we know or trust the intentions of someone with a gun on campus? On Friday, I shared some of the reasons why guns on campus are a threat to public safety. That same day, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Brad Bartelt was sentenced to 18 years in prison—18 years for terroristic threatening (which involves a... Continue Reading →
But we can't ban students, so let's discourage guns School is back in session in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin, all places where guns are now or are soon slated to be permitted on college campuses. Like a lot of post-secondary educators, I have a lot of thoughts on the matter,... Continue Reading →
John Fea is one of my favorite Christian scholars--a historian by training, a great defender of the teaching and scholarship of history, and a person who, thankfully, takes his role as a public intellectual very seriously. He is also an astute political observer whose commentary on the 2016 election and, in particular, evangelical engagement with... Continue Reading →
Have you read The New Territory yet? It's devoted to "land, people and possibilities" of the lower Louisiana Purchase: Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas and includes feature articles and literary pieces. A beautiful place deserves a beautiful magazine, and The New Territory is gift to us. The second issue has just been published, and... Continue Reading →
The KC Public Library is a wonder! About 300 folks turned out this week to learn about the history and theology of Westboro Baptist Church and how this group fits into American religious history--and the present state of American religion. I couldn't have asked for a kinder reception from the library or a more engaged... Continue Reading →
It was a treat to work with Steve Kraske on KCUR's Up to Date yesterday for an interview for a very special reason: Kraske used to work as a journalist in Topeka, covering Westboro Baptist Church in the early 1990s, and I relied on his reporting about the church when I was doing the research... Continue Reading →
If you live in the Kansas City area, you're lucky for lots of reasons, and KCUR's Up to Date, hosted by Steve Kraske, is one of them. I'm lucky to get to be a guest on a show I've long enjoyed and learned from. If you are in the listening area, you can find Kraske's... Continue Reading →
For folks attending tomorrow night's talk at the Kansas City Public Library, here are three questions I plan on talking about during the lecture: How does Westboro Baptist Church's theology support their picketing? (See the picture below, of a church member picketing at the Supreme Court in 2010 while other church members are inside arguing... Continue Reading →
It requires quite a feat of imagination to think that Trump will uphold and advance the major causes of the Religious Right. Having basically given up on the hope that Donald Trump could pass as a Christian worthy of white evangelicals’ support, politically conservative Protestants are now trying a new tactic: admitting that he’s not... Continue Reading →
With Hillary Clinton now the official Democratic nominee and a hard fight against Donald Trump underway, what are voters to make of last week’s revelation that the DNC tried to weaponized her former rival Bernie Sanders’ (ir)religion? According to WikiLeaks, in the middle of the night on May 5, DNC chief financial officer Brad Marshall... Continue Reading →
Rebecca Barrett-Fox 