Washington Post Originally Posted: June 15, 2018 Evangelicals need less politicking, more soul-searching Partisan politics are costing evangelical churches their souls. Brian Franklin works at Southern Methodist University, where he is the associate director of the Center for Presidential History and adjunct lecturer in the department of history. The Southern Baptist Convention held its annual meeting in Dallas this week. The two-day conference featured religious speakers from across the country, but the two that elicited the largest response were not pastors but politicians: Vice President Pence and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Tex.). Both Abbott and Pence used their time to their political advantage. Abbott began Tuesday morning with stories of faith and service, only to transition to culture-wars rhetoric: an invective against the secularist “onslaught against religious liberty” by “sacrilegious” [...]

Washington Post Originally Posted: June 12, 2018 Jeff Engle, Center for Presidential History was interviewed for this article. After Barbara Bush died in April, there were fears that her husband, former president George H.W. Bush, might die, too. He was hospitalized with a blood infection the day after Barbara’s funeral. But on Tuesday, Bush made history by becoming the first former president to reach the age of 94. Gerald Ford died at 93 years and 165 days. Ronald Reagan lived for 93 years and 120 days. Jimmy Carter, born four months after Bush, will turn 94 on Oct. 1. Bush will mark his birthday with his family in Kennebunkport, Maine, though it’s unlikely he will be able to jump out of a plane, as he did on [...]