Rev. Skipworth's courage, candor, and compassion jump from the pages of this compilation of his weekly newspaper columns, "Letters to the Editor," rebuttals from area ministers, and responses from readers written in the heart of Tennessee's Bible Belt. This book is a give and take between a progressive follower of Jesus and his often-irate readers/respondents, most of whom are biblical literalists and evangelical white Christians. With Skip, what you see or read is what you get. He not only tackles the hard issues, while wearing vulnerably, but also brilliantly translates and integrates his columns with the informed biblical and theological understanding of many of the most learned minds within progressive Christianity. While making their work understandable for his readers, friends and foes alike, he painstakingly applies their insights to the divisive theological and political issues liberal clergy and laity have tragically failed to address honestly with each other. Skip deserves our gratitude for this informed and courageous gift, and the whole church owes him our thoughtful and willing dialogue. Taken from the Foreword by Bishop Joseph Sprague.

Consistent with an ecological systems perspective, this book utilizes a whole school approach as a framework for developing and implementing comprehensive evidence-based interventions to combat bullying in schools.

Shares essays outlining recommendations for caregivers and educators, offers celebrity contributions, and includes an account of how Katy Butler campaigned to change the movie's rating to make it available to teen viewers.

Making the Bible Belt upends notions of a longstanding, stable marriage between political religion and the American South. H.L. Mencken coined the term "the Bible Belt" in the 1920s to capture the peculiar alliance of religion and public life in the South, but the reality he described was only the closing chapter of a long historical process. Into the twentieth century, a robust anticlerical tradition still challenged religious forays into southern politics. Inside southern churches, an insular evangelical theology looked suspiciously on political meddling. Outside of the churches, a popular anticlericalism indicted activist ministers with breaching the boundaries of their proper spheres of influence, calling up historical memories of the Dark Ages and Puritan witch hunts. Through the politics of prohibition, and in the face of bitter resistance, a complex but shared commitment to expanding the power and scope of religion transformed southern evangelicals' inward-looking restraints into an aggressive, self-assertive, and unapologetic political activism. The decades-long religious crusade to close saloons and outlaw alcohol in the South absorbed the energies of southern churches and thrust religious leaders headlong into the political process--even as their forays into southern politics were challenged at every step. Early defeats impelled prohibitionist clergy to recast their campaign as a broader effort not merely to dry up the South, but to conquer anticlerical opposition and inject religion into public life. Clerical activists churned notions of history, race, gender, and religion into a powerful political movement and elevated ambitious leaders such as the pugnacious fundamentalist J. Frank Norris and Senator Morris Sheppard, the "Father of National Prohibition." Exploring the controversies surrounding the religious support of prohibition in Texas, Making the Bible Belt reconstructs the purposeful, decades-long campaign to politicize southern religion, hints at the historical origins of the religious right, and explores a compelling and transformative moment in American history.

Explores how conservative Christian ideology reproduces homophobic attitudes and shares how Bible Belt gays negotiate these attitudes in their daily lives.

In a polarised milieu that too often posits “queer” and “Christian” as competing realms, this book explores the complexities of identity development, religious traumatisation, and the task of creating safe faith spaces in which LGBTQA+ people can find healing, particularly in the Evangelical context. First, Joel Hollier examines the historical path of Evangelicalism, providing context for the current terrain of the “culture war” we find ourselves in. He then parses out experiences of gender/sexuality and religious/spiritual identity development, grounding them in an evolving theoretical base. Finally, Hollier offers a rounded critique of Evangelical church structures and mechanisms of trauma that hinder the healing process, along with potential sources of healing. Central to this work are the voices of LGBTQA+ people whose stories weave together a deeper understanding of the harms the Church has perpetrated, and the path forward.

Inspired by a true story, A Lynching in the Bible Belt is an interraccial love story intertwined with a young lawyer's pursuit of justice against a wealthy white supremacist, who, in the guise of Christianity and under distortions of scripture, espouses racism and contempt for "race mixing" and incites a member of his religious fellowship to lynch an African-American high school student and his white girlfriend. Subplots include how the young lawyer gains strength and courage from his upbringing, from his best friend from childhood, and from the woman he loves, and stands up to prejudice after having lived with guilt over his own silence when confronted with prejudice in the past. The story explores the institutional prejudice that still prevades the field of law, how tolerance and racism are both passed on in families from one generation to the next, and the problems of interracial romance in the face of family prejudice. Ultimately, however, the story is about friendship, love, courage, and how they triumph over prejudice. A Lynching in the Bible Belt includes much courtroom drama, including, for sake of accuracy and authenticity, actual legal cases and principles of law, drawing from the author's experience as a trial lawyer.