Did the Pandemic Rejuvenate Christianity?

Away from the Headlines, Believers Across California Scrambled to Adapt—And Underwent Some Startling Changes

Judging by news coverage, the only religion trend originating in California during the pandemic was of conservative evangelical COVID denialism and defiance.

One California church, South Bay United Pentecostal in Chula Vista, filed one of the earliest lawsuits contesting state-imposed restrictions on indoor worship, a case that ultimately reached the Supreme Court. Last summer, Grace Community Church, a decades-old Los Angeles megachurch led by an evangelical elder statesman named John MacArthur, sued to block county public health directives. MacArthur, who declared in one sermon, “There is no pandemic,” drew public …

by Jim Hinch | July 28, 2021

It’s a Cold War Christmas, Charlie Brown

The Peanuts Christmas Special Tapped Into a National American Zeitgeist by 'Placing Capitalism and Christianity in the Mouths of Babes'

by Peter W.Y. Lee | December 18, 2020

Charlie Brown spends much of his first animated special in contemplation, depression, and frustration over the Christmas holiday. “Find the true meaning of Christmas. Win money, money, money,” he reads …

Can Bethel Church Make Redding, California, Heaven on Earth?

Maybe Not, but the 11,000-Member Community Gives Unsparingly to the City

by Joe Mathews | March 18, 2019

Is this heaven, or Redding?

These days, the city of 91,000 at the north end of the Sacramento Valley, seems to sit halfway between the godly and the earthly—and not just …

The Spiritual Visitation That Brought the Remains of Hawai‘i’s First Christian Convert Back Home

Henry ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia Died in Connecticut in 1818, but His Memory Led His Family to Repatriate His Body 175 Years Later

by Nicholas F. Bellantoni | March 13, 2019

Deborah Li‘ikapeka Lee, a young Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) woman, woke in the wee hours of an October night in 1992 to an inner sensation, impossible to define and equally …

The ‘Black Catholic Movement’ That Reinvigorated American Catholicism

In the Industrial North, African Americans Witnessed a Flourishing of Liturgical Innovation, New Preaching Styles, and Activist Scholarship

By Matthew J. Cressler | June 7, 2018

The story of how Roman Catholics “became American” is very well-known. Beginning in the 19th century, Catholics were a feared and despised immigrant population that Protestants imagined to be inimical …

O Ye of Little Faith in Los Angeles! Eric Garcetti Has a Message For You.

If the Mayor of the City of Angels Wants to Be President, His Campaign Should Be a Moral Crusade

By Joe Mathews | April 30, 2018

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is being coy about whether he’s running for president. But he doesn’t fool me. I’ve already written the speech, or perhaps I should say sermon, …

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