One of the goals of my research agenda is to make my work accessible to a larger audience who will hopefully get a more nuanced and objective understanding of the interaction of politics and religion. Below are links to my work that has appeared in outlets that appeal to a general audience.

Myself and a number of colleagues who study religion and politics wanted to create a forum for scholarship in our sub-field to reach a wider audience. We believe that academics engaging in public scholarship can help shape the debate based on empirical evidence instead of heated, partisan rhetoric. I have published a number of posts regarding text analysis, machine learning, and the measurement of evangelicalism.

My post list is available here

Are Evangelicals More Empathetic? July 16, 2019. 

A Deeper Look at Immigration & Potential Targets of the ICE Raids. July 14, 2019

Only Half of Kids Raised Southern Baptist Stay Southern Baptist. May 24, 2019.  

Are Evangelicals More Altruistic than Other Groups? April 25, 2019

Is Religious Decline Inevitable in the United States? April 17, 2019

Race, Religion, and the Future of American Evangelicalism. April 1, 2019

Evangelicals Show No Decline, Despite Trump and Nones. March 21, 2019. 

Clinton Voters Much More Likely to Leave Evangelicalism than Trump Voters (with Paul Djupe). April 30, 2018. 

50 Years After MLK, Sunday Segregation Isn’t Theological. April 4th, 2018. 

Congrats, Billy: Stats Show Your Evangelical Movement Is Still Going Strong. March 2, 2018

Where Protestants and Catholics Go When They Leave Their Churches. February 20, 2018

Plenty of the ‘Nones’ Actually Head Back to Church. February 6, 2018

Almost No One in the US Believes in a ‘Consistent Ethic of Life’. September 12, 2017. 

Young, Female, and Pro-Trump. July 26, 2017. (Contributed Analysis)

In God’s Country. August 14, 2019.

Organized Religion is Losing Its Followers. April 15, 2019

Talk of a rising religious left is unfounded. It already exists. April 11, 2019

Are nonreligious Democrats emerging as a counterweight to the evangelical right? April 1, 2019

Regular churchgoing doesn’t make Trump voters more moderate. It makes them more enthusiastic for Trump. (with Paul Djupe)

Romney is running for Senate. Even if he wins, the Mormon Church has already lost powerful status in D.C. February 16, 2018

Hate saying ‘Merry Christmas’ now? Everyone has Trump on the brain. December 22, 2017. 

A sin issue or a gun issue? Why evangelicals are deeply skeptical of gun-control laws. November 6, 2017. 

Some evangelicals question whether they have overlooked the rural church. December 15, 2016.

Just like political parties, religious groups see their rivals as extremists. August 9, 2019.

Why do evangelicals support Trump? Blame the suburbs. July 30, 2019

Rise of the ‘nothing in particulars’ may be sign of a disjointed, disaffected and lonely future. July 3, 2019.

Most Southern Baptist women would welcome a woman pastor. It’s unlikely to happen. June 11, 2019.

Why politics may kill white churches. May 29, 2019.

Gallup: Number of Americans who belong to a church or house of worship plummets. April 18, 2019.

Nones’ now as big as evangelicals, Catholics in the US.  March 21, 2019

More Americans identify with no religion that ever before but three states see evangelical growth: study. Fox News. July 15, 2019.

Who Do Non-Religious Democrats Prefer? 538. June 3, 2019.

Why Democrats Struggle to Mobilize A ‘Religious Left’ 538. May 29, 2019.

C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Program. April 21, 2019.

At Easter, faith leaders reflect on the future of their churches amid declining attendance. Deseret News. April 18, 2019.

Is America becoming Godless? The number of people who have no religion has risen 266 per cent – one third of the population – in three decades. The Daily Mail. April 4, 2019

There are now as many Americans who claim no religion as there are evangelicals and Catholics, a survey finds. CNN. April 13, 2019

President Donald Trump wants to add a citizenship question to the census. What about a question on religion? Deseret News. April 11, 2019.

The Power of the Pulpit. Governing Magazine. April 2019.

Christianity is losing ground in the US, new survey says. New York Post. April 3, 2019.

‘On Paper, the Election Is the Democrats’ to Lose.’  New York Times. March 27, 2019.

Religious “Nones” Are now a Force to Be Reckoned with. Patheos. March 22, 2019.

Atheists Now Nearly as Numerous as Evangelicals. Beliefnet. March 2019.

Younger evangelicals look an awful lot like older evangelicals post-2016. Vox. November 12, 2018.