Daniel Schultz
Religion Dispatches
Wisconsin, United States
Contact Daniel
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Daniel:
How the Religious (and ‘Nones’) Vote May Tip 6 Swing States
Let's look at the bad news from this Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) tracking survey first: despite remarkably lousy-but-stable favorability numbers (41% approve, 55% disapprove), Pres. Trump has a strong chance of being re-elected in November, unless the situation changes significantly be → Read More
Rev. Rob Lee Lost Congregation For His Anti-Racism Speech: Here’s Why He Should Have Packed His Bags First
Liberal viewers of Monday's episode of The View (scroll for video) may have been surprised to hear the story of Rev. Rob Lee, a young white, minister who was recently pushed out of his pulpit for speaking out against racism. I wasn't. If you don't know the backstory, Lee is an indirect descendant → Read More
Hillary-the-Preacher, and Why Journalists Can’t Let Go of the “Democrats Don’t Get Religion” Story
Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't Hillary Clinton's fault? → Read More
So You Think You Can Dance, Or At Least Lead A Populist Moral Movement
I want to write just a quick response to Nicholas Laccetti's piece on the new Poor People's Campaign from earlier in the week, since it touched on some of my thoughts here at RD. To start, let me say that I sincerely welcome differing opinions on the shape of the religious left—or not the religio → Read More
The New Religious Left: A Marketing Dream or Political Reality?
The religious left movement is stuck between the universalism of its aims and the particularity of the people who constitute it. → Read More
Alabama Senate Considers Giving Church Its Own Police Force; Irony Reportedly Dead
Tomorrow night, as we head into the home stretch of Lent rounding the corner to Easter, members of my congregation and I will gather for an agape meal. It's not a seder, but an intimate eucharistic worship service wrapped around a dinner party in a liturgy that's about as close to the actual practic → Read More
Why The Religious Left Isn’t Coming Together, and Why It Matters
So my article from last week on the supposedly emerging religious left has attracted some conservative appreciation, which is not really surprising. More disconcerting is exactly who liked the piece: Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary presi → Read More
Fact-checking Scripture: “Those who do not work should not eat.”
Occasionally, a bit of scripture will float into public discourse, often in the context of politicians and civilians sorting through the implications of some bit of policy. The citations are as a rule fairly shallow, as one side or the other tries to leverage the moral authority of scripture. Someti → Read More
Is The Religious Left Emerging as a Political Force? No.
You ever hear the saying, "same shit, different day"? I'm reminded of that very phrase a lot in the religion-and-politics beat. A lot. Exhibit A: an op-ed in today's New York Times declaring "To Win Again, Democrats Must Stop Being The Abortion Party." The argument is pretty much exactly what you → Read More
Will Church Attendance Reduce Bigotry? A Response to Peter Beinart
We're studying theories of baptism in the college course I teach on prayer, worship, and the sacraments. Just yesterday we reviewed New Testament imagery for baptism: union with Christ, forgiveness of sin, the like. The one that really stands out at the moment, though, is incorporation into the chur → Read More
Sympathy for the Devils: I Was a Pastor to Trump Supporters
With every lurching brawl that brings America's Problem Child one short finger closer to the Republican nomination for President of the United States (and that much closer to what looks like a sure and crushing defeat in the general election), one question becomes ever-more salient: who are the → Read More
If Religious Leaders’ Valuable Words on Election Vitriol Fall in the Woods Do They Make a Sound?
Nobody listens to religious leaders these days. Nobody. → Read More
Christian Voter Guide: Jesus is Wrong on the Issues and Wrong for America
In light of this Christian Post article on the "Christian Voting Guide" put out by Rev. Steven Andrew, I was curious to see how Jesus himself would stack up against other candidates. The short answer is "not very well." I've taken the liberty of revising Andrew's guide → Read More
Springtime for Ross Douthat?
Ross Douthat’s latest column offers proof of Godwin's law in the headline—and goes downhill from there. And the headline (a sly reference to The Producers' "Springtime for Hitler") isn't even the worst thing in the article. To be fair, journalists don't write → Read More
“Do Not Be A Stupid Idiot!”: Religion and Resentment
Picking on commentary from WND (formerly WorldNet Daily) is about the easiest job in all of blogging. There is always something egregiously awful to take apart there. You could spend your whole career pointing out and correcting the errors in column after column—which is exactly why most people → Read More
Porn, Abuse, or Just Plain Incompatibility… Is Divorce Ever a Sin?
Americans are a bunch of sick puppies. Here's why I say that: a recently released LifeWay Research survey on divorce found that 37% of all Americans consider it to be a sin to leave your spouse because of abuse within the relationship. That's two points higher than those who think it� → Read More
Updated: G-O-D Plays a Bit Part in First GOP Debate
Update: On the social issues front, perhaps the most remarkable development of the debate didn't happen last night, but today, when FoxNews apparently edited out Jeb Bush's fumbling answer on whether as a member of the Bloomberg Foundation's board of directors, he knew about the chari → Read More
Black Lives Matter Activists Disrupt Presidential Candidates at Activist Conference
You may have heard that there was a spot of bother at Netroots Nation this week. Black Lives Matter activists interrupted a forum with Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders, wanting to know what the presidential candidates would do to end unjustified police shootings of African-Americans. Some → Read More
A Profanity-Laden Sermon for White People Who Want to Talk About Race
Encountering the grief of racism in a non-David-Brooks-ian way. → Read More
By The Numbers: Jeb Opposes Francis on Climate Change at His Peril
Ahead of the release of Pope Francis' first major encyclical Laudato Si, dealing with global warming, Republican politicians have been falling all over themselves trying to say they know how to do his job better than he does. It's particularly fun when this kind of reaction comes from → Read More