- Faith on View

Recovering from religious trauma: Healing begins with believing

A young woman stands isolated in a brick building, her back leaning against a brick wall, with hands clasped at her lips with her head bowed.

The number of people sharing stories of religious trauma has increased significantly in recent years. Religious cultures in the United States all too often create broken institutions led by broken people, who do everything imaginable …

Billy Graham is shown in this black and white image as he speaks.

One of my pastors offered a humorous shorthand for dealing with the complexities of defining American evangelicalism when I was a teenager. He repeated the joke, popular at the time, that an evangelical was anyone …

Round red, white, and blue "I voted" stickers are scattered on a white table in soft light.

I’ve always loved history and politics. My earliest reading was filled with adventures on the American frontier. I was probably the only kid in Bernice, Louisiana excited that we were off of school on January …

The black and white image shows the outdoor proceedings of the Scopes trial with multiple men dressed in white dress shirts.

The two aging gladiators met on a makeshift wooden platform outside the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, TN. The most famous courtroom scene in American history did not even take place in a courtroom. The …

I got my first taste of Spirit-filled higher life theology from the long-serving recently deceased pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta, Charles Stanley. Stanley’s The Wonderful Spirit-Filled Life and its accompanying sermon series were released …

Ralph Macchio and Mary Mouser from The series Cobra Kai stand talking by a car in a screen capture.

“I thought we were the good guys.” Samantha Laruso (Mary Mouser) shares her disillusionment with her dad, Daniel (Ralph Macchio) in the first episode of season three of the Netflix series Cobra Kai. Her hopes …

I am pausing to reflect on the fickle fate of kings as I prepare to unleash the French Revolution in my undergraduate civilization class next semester. January anniversaries present an interesting study of both the …

Pelham's engraving of the Boston Massacre showing soldiers firing into a crowd.

Private Hugh White stamped his feet and rubbed his hands together to warm them in the blistering cold of a March evening in Boston. Snow blanketed the ground around the Custom House he was tasked …

An old looking stamp image with a book and pen and a banner talking about freedom in America.

I had a pastor friend who at one time I considered to be a mentor. Sadly, he proved to be a disappointment both as a friend and as a mentor. I remember as a very …

A burgundy passport is shown laying on a map.

One of my Facebook friends posted a rather bizarre photo a couple of years ago. He and his sons professed a fervent evangelical Christian faith and also a strong dedication to the “Tea Party” political …