Analysis
Religious Freedom and The Testament of Ann Lee
"The Testament of Ann Lee" is a new film starring Amanda Seyfried as the founder of the Shakers religious movement. I wrote about what the film teaches us about religious liberty for Word&Way. Here's an excerpt:
As America prepares to celebrate 250 years, this film feels like a necessary interruption to the triumphal narrative. It invites us to remember that the promise of religious liberty was forged not only by revolutionaries with muskets, but also by mystics who refused to pick up arms. Ann Lee’s legacy is not merely that she founded a religious movement. It is that she embodied a form of freedom that refuses to be conscripted. In a time when faith is once again being asked to prove its patriotism, that is a testament worth hearing.
Transcript
New Report Sheds Light on the the Growing Threat of Christian Nationalism
A new report by the Public Religion Research Institute finds that support for Christian nationalism is growing in the U.S., with nearly one-third of Americans qualifying as adherents or sympathizers and higher concentrations in parts of the South and Midwest. The study highlights strong links between these beliefs and support for authoritarianism, political violence, and anti-immigrant policies, underscoring concerns about their impact on democracy and religious freedom.
Pluralism is Democracy in Action
On July 4, America will mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That day in 1776, the nation’s founders put forward a bold vision for a new democratic experiment, one rooted in shared values, with power derived from the people rather than imposed by a monarch or religious authority:
