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Who’s Going to Church?

August 2023

Dr. Ryan Burge has a dual career, teaching Political Science at a university and serving as a pastor in an American Baptist church. A self-confessed data nerd, he pores over polling data in search of trends in religion. Recently he posted a column on “Four of the Most Dramatic Shifts in American Religion Over the Last 50 Years.” Things typically change slowly in religion surveys, he says, but these four trends “still blow my mind.” I’ll provide a brief overview ...

Lunch with Bono and U2

July 2023

I’m staring at a computer screen in my Colorado office one fine fall day in 2001 when the phone rings. “Hello, my name is Jack Heaslip,” says a voice with a foreign accent. “The boys in the band call me Father Jack, and I’m their chaplain.” He proceeds to tell me his role in helping to bring together four aimless souls at an Anglican school in the mostly-Catholic Republic of Ireland. They formed a garage band that went on to ...

The Long View

June 2023

Her own mother, my grandmother, was born in 1898 and lived 102 years. The year she turned 94, an election year, we had an extended conversation about politics. “Who was your favorite president?” I asked. She thought for a moment and declared, “Roosevelt.” “I can understand that,” I replied. “After all, he led us during World War II, and started many important programs, like Social Security…” “Not that Roosevelt!” she interrupted. “I mean Teddy Roosevelt.” She told of taking a ...

A Cry of Grief

May 2023

That first day, I awoke at sunrise in their basement guest quarters. Soft morning light filtered through the trees as cheery birds announced the new day. I opened a book I had brought along for a Zoom book group: In This World of Wonders, by Nicholas Wolterstorff, a renowned Christian philosopher who had taught at Calvin College, Yale University, and the Free University of Amsterdam. After writing many acclaimed works of philosophy, a few years ago Wolterstorff published this personal ...

Sharpening the Faith Angle

April 2023

Ask a New York- or D.C.-based journalist what they know about evangelical Christians and you may well get an answer like, “They’re the ones who voted for Donald Trump.” The typical reporter tends to view society through a political lens and has little exposure to religion. Carl Cannon, Editor of the news website RealClearPolitics, acknowledges the problem. “I was practically born and raised in the news business, and know firsthand that newsrooms are exceedingly secular places,” he says. “But the ...

Blog Posts

Who’s Going to Church?

Lunch with Bono and U2

The Long View

A Cry of Grief

Sharpening the Faith Angle

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