Joshua Mitchell

Protestants have to get their act together so that we can have real pluralism.

IRD/Providence hosted a conversation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation on Cancel Culture.

While I am in large agreement with Shadi Hamid’s essay, I find myself a bit underwhelmed for a few reasons.

Mitchell’s contrast of wokeism with Christianity not only explains our confused and confusing times, but also showcases the truth, beauty, and freeing peace of the true Christian Gospel.

What if religion wasn’t waning after all? What if, instead, the language and categories of religion—indeed, even religious fervor—simply migrated to a different sphere of American life? In American Awakening, Joshua Mitchell argues that identity politics is ultimately a relocation of religion to the realm of politics.

Is secularism taking hold? Is paganism reemerging? Do we live in a strange time characterized by a return to paganism, though with Christian characteristics? Whichever account is correct has implications for America in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.

We need a return to a sober Christian Realism that appreciates our fallenness, the fallenness of the world, and our limits in shaping world events.

We were mostly right about his hateful rhetoric, fundamental dishonesty, trade wars, admiration for foreign dictators, and wild inconsistency. But we overestimated Trump’s competence and work ethic. His ability to bring material harm to the United States has been limited by how little he works and how little he knows about the presidency.