Congregations and Polarization Project: News and Publications

White evangelicals are certainly complicit in our history of systemic racism and nationalism, but transparent prejudice against them offers no way forward for any of us.

This pandemic could be a unique opportunity to listen to other voices, to learn how others view the world, to open ourselves to other possibilities.

Rationalism has real risks. Using reason to harness my feelings and intuitions, most therapists will tell you, is not a strategy for long-term happiness.

At a time when the Facebooks and Googles of the world are a model for how to grow an organization, it's tempting to tell our churches and other faith groups that they need to 'scale.'

Political operatives of both parties have known for decades that voting behavior is about emotion, intuition and tribal affiliation — just like religion.

We all need to admit we often try to assume or infer way, way too much from religious identification.

Behind the story of Christian decline and the rise of “nones” is a long-standing debate about what religion theorists call “secularization,” the broad process by which religion gradually loses its social influence.

I have not become a Buddhist. I am too attached to several of my desires, unwilling to let them go. But I see the structure of life bending me toward this wisdom and applying some form of this discipline to me.

I’m doing my best to help my millennial students see that religion is not just a placeholder for other interests; it is a powerful motivator and many religious people are willing to sacrifice, die, and even kill in its name.