Articles
Molly writes about religion, politics, and higher education for the New York Times and has also contributed to the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and other publications.
The Culture Wars
“Charisma Rules The World”
New York Times, June 16, 2025
Despite the experts’ interactive graphics and the tricks that large language models can do, it has only gotten harder to understand the worldviews and political choices of half the country (whichever half you don’t belong to). Perhaps, then, we should pay more attention to the human quirks that confound statisticians and that A.I. can’t quite crack — desires and drives that have not changed much over the centuries. That means rescuing a familiar word from decades of confusion and cliché: charisma.
“Is There a Way to Dial Down the Political Hatred?”
New York Times, June 11, 2021
President Biden tends to hammer on the theme of national unity, often in theological terms. On Memorial Day, he described the ongoing battle for the “soul of America,” a conflict between “our worst instincts — which we’ve seen of late — and our better angels. Between ‘Me first’ and ‘We the people.’” In January, in his Inaugural Address, he quoted St. Augustine: “A people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love.”
“Can We Guarantee that Colleges Are Intellectually Diverse?”
New York Times, August 30, 2019
Politicians and donors want to impose one set of solutions. Schools around the country are trying to find their own way.
“Can Black Evangelicals Save the Whole Movement?”
New York Times, April 20, 2019
African-American spiritual leaders are talking about racism — and some white churchgoers are listening.
“Is There Such a Thing as an Authoritarian Voter?”
New York Times, Dec. 15, 2018
Political scientists want to know. They’re not the only ones.
“How to Escape from Roy Moore’s Evangelicalism”
New York Times, Nov. 11, 2017
Kaitlyn Schiess has a sterling evangelical pedigree. She grew up in evangelical churches in Colorado and Virginia and graduated from Liberty University before entering Dallas Theological Seminary last year to prepare for a career in the church. But lately she has been frustrated by evangelicals’ failure to challenge the prejudice and predation in their midst.
“A State of Alienation”
New York Times, Nov. 9, 2016
The 2016 election pushed the boundaries of common sense in many ways. Here in North Carolina, Donald J. Trump — the religiously indifferent, penthouse-dwelling germophobe — somehow emerged as the victorious defender of the pig farmer and the country church.
“The Prophet in His Tower”
New York Times, Oct. 9, 2016
Trump vs. Clinton on women, national security and everything else. Times Opinion writers weighed in.
“What’s God Got to Do With It?”
New York Times, Oct. 8, 2016
The first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump featured plenty of magical thinking, but it was a nonreligious event. Neither candidate mentioned God. The second debate may be no different: Voters see Mr. Trump as either a prophet or an angel of death, but the only religion that interests him is his own faith in his “winning temperament.”
“Donald Trump and the Rise of the Moral Minority”
New York Times, September 26, 2015
Donald Trump’s high poll numbers among evangelicals have preoccupied the media for months. But the most interesting thing about his Christian fans is not their willingness to overlook the sins of a casino playboy.
“A Rise in Secular Libertarianism, Not Liberalism”
New York Times, June 29, 2015
America is the only country in the Western world where buying a handgun is cheaper, easier and requires less paperwork than purchasing affordable health insurance.
“Onward, Christian Healthcare?”
New York Times, January 31, 2015
When Theresa Bixby, 63, learned that she had breast cancer four years ago, she reacted as many Americans do. “One of my first thoughts was, ‘will they pay?’ ” she said. But she wasn’t talking about a conventional insurance plan.
“The Campaign in North Carolina is Not About Nothing”
New York Times, November 4, 2014
Over the last few weeks it has become fashionable to ridicule this election as a jumble of debates that don’t resonate with the average American.
“As Vermont Goes, So Goes the Nation?”
New York Times, April 6, 2014
When most liberals hear the words “third party,” they have nasty flashbacks to Ralph Nader’s spoiler campaign in 2000.
“Love Thy Immigrant Stranger As Thyself”
New York Times, May 11, 2013
Immigration reform is not a liberal idea. It is good, old-fashioned conservative policy — at least that’s what its supporters want the Republican faithful to believe.
“One Nation Under God?”
New York Times, December 22, 2012
This week millions of “Chreasters” — Americans who attend church only on Christmas and Easter — will crowd into pews to sing carols and renew their vague relationship with the Christian God.
“Catholics and the Power of Political Communion”
New York Times, September 15, 2012
Aa the 2012 presidential race enters the homestretch, both parties vow that this election is not just a choice between different policies.
“Southern Baptist Convergence”
New York Times, June 18, 2012
The secular media usually ignores the thousands of pastors, missionaries and church volunteers who gather every summer for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“Leaps of Faith”
New York Times, March 1, 2012
For the past three and a half years, Republicans have struggled to explain a great conundrum. If they are the party of authentic America with a mystical connection to the will of the people, then how, exactly, did Barack Obama get elected president?
“The First Principles of Rick Santorum”
New York Times, February 9, 2012
Last month, when prominent evangelical pastors and political activists emerged from their Texas powwow to announce that they had anointed Rick Santorum as their standard-bearer, the blogosphere pronounced the endorsement too little, too late, and kept all sights firmly on Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich — until this week.
“Who Is John Galt and Why Is He On Lululemon Bags?”
Slate, November 18, 2011
Ayn Rand groupies, yoga enthusiasts, and the American genius for self-absorption.
“Sign Here, and Here, and Here”
Slate, July 13, 2011
Family leader’s “Declaration of Dependence” is just one in a long line of evangelical manifestos.
Education
“What Besieged Universities Can Learn From the Christian Resurgence”
The New Republic, August 11, 2025
Educators can fight back against Trump’s attacks by re-embracing “old-fashioned” disciplines and ideas.
“Why Universities Should Be More Like Monasteries”
New York Times, May 25, 2023
Nery Rodriguez just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a major in economics, but one of the most significant courses she took there had nothing to do with marginal utility or game theory. When she registered last fall for the seminar known around campus as the monk class, she wasn’t sure what to expect.
“If It Was Good Enough for Socrates, It’s Good Enough for Sophomores”
New York Times, Dec. 2, 2022
This is the season for final exams, but maybe we should drop the pencils, paper and keyboards and start talking instead. The thought is scary at first.
“This Is Not Your Grandfather’s MBA”
New York Times, May 5, 2022
If you want to be a leader confident in your deepest values and your role in the universe, go to business school. At least, that’s what business schools say. In recent years, they have branded themselves as places where students learn to stay “true to your mission” and undertake a “truly-life-changing experience” that values “health, happiness, and purpose” as well as “authenticity and renewed passion.”
“The Fight Over Tenure Is Not Really About Tenure”
New York Times, Sept. 20, 2021
Why should universities guarantee jobs to a bunch of elitists who study esoteric subjects and brainwash students with left-wing politics? This critique of tenure in higher education is as old as tenure itself, and it’s gaining ground.
“A Once-In-A-Century Crisis Can Help Educate Doctors”
New York Times, April 10, 2021
The horrors of Covid-19 may give proponents of the liberal arts an unexpected opening.
“‘When You Get Into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion’”
New York Times, Sept. 25, 2020
The movement might help us deal with the problems posed by remote learning.
“The Trouble with Empathy”
New York Times, Sept. 4, 2020
Can we really be taught to feel each other’s pain?
“The Anti-College is on the Rise”
New York Times, June 8, 2019
Students, teachers and reformers are pushing back against the failures of mainstream higher education.
“The Misguided Drive to Measure Learning Outcomes”
New York Times, Feb. 23, 2018
I teach at a big state university, and I often receive emails from software companies offering to help me do a basic part of my job: figuring out what my students have learned.
“Memorize That Poem!”
New York Times, Aug. 26, 2017
LATE one night this spring, Justin Snider, an assistant dean at Columbia University, was riding the uptown No. 2 in Manhattan when the train ground to a halt. After about 15 minutes — with little information about the delay and no cell service — everyone in the car was getting restless. Suddenly, inspiration struck. “I asked neighboring passengers if they wanted to hear some Shakespeare, and no one objected,” Mr. Snider told me.
“U Can’t Talk To Ur Professor Like This”
New York Times, May 13, 2017
At the start of my teaching career, when I was fresh out of graduate school, I briefly considered trying to pass myself off as a cool professor. Luckily, I soon came to my senses and embraced my true identity as a young fogey.
“Can I Go To Great Books Camp?”
New York Times, Dec. 3, 2016
Kate Havard is taking a break from American conservatism. “I’m not sure what’s happening with my party right now,” she said from Jerusalem, where she is studying Hebrew. “I need a timeout.” When she returns to her job in Washington at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, she’ll seek refuge among a small group of young conservatives who believe that studying the history of ideas helps them keep Donald J. Trump in perspective.
“Stop Saying ‘I Feel Like’”
New York Times, May 1, 2016
In American politics, few forces are more powerful than a voter’s vague intuition. “I support Donald Trump because I feel like he is a doer,” a senior at the University of South Carolina told Cosmopolitan.
“Lecture Me. Really.”
New York Times, October 17, 2015
Before the semester began earlier this fall, I went to check out the classroom where I would be teaching an introductory American history course.
“Texas Textbooks: A Case Study for Creationism’s Staying Power”
Religion & Politics, January 14, 2014
The Texas textbook wars have finally yielded a win for the Enlightenment. In November, the state school board delayed final approval of a biology textbook that explains evolution as fact, but last month an expert committee overruled all objections and gave the book the green light for sale to the state’s public schools.
Faith and Reason
“Sacred Reverb”
Christianity Today, September/October 2025
From Gregorian chants to CCM megahits, we need music that confronts us with the gospel’s strangeness.
“Tim Keller’s Critique of Liberal Secularism”
The Atlantic, May 21, 2023
Keller, the most influential Christian apologist and evangelical leader of his generation, died Friday at age 72.
“How Would You Prove that God Performed a Miracle?”
New York Times, Dec. 24, 2022
Josh Brown directs the program in neuroscience at Indiana University Bloomington. He has published dozens of articles on topics like the neural basis of decision making in the brain. He has wire-rimmed glasses and a calm, methodical way of speaking. And after almost two decades of keeping relatively quiet, he is now speaking openly about his most surprising research finding: He believes that God miraculously healed him of a brain tumor.
“The Evangelical Roots of Our Post-Truth Society”
New York Times, April 13, 2017
The arrival of the “post-truth” political climate came as a shock to many Americans. But to the Christian writer Rachel Held Evans, charges of “fake news” are nothing new. “The deep distrust of the media, of scientific consensus — those were prevalent narratives growing up,” she told me.
“Hallelujah College”
New York Times, January 17, 2016
Last fall, as student activists around the country protested racism on their campuses, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas dismissed secular universities as havens for “leftist, coddled kids.”
“Wanted: A Theology of Atheism”
New York Times, May 30, 2015
One Sunday last month, I walked into an auditorium past greeters and a table loaded with coffee, fruit and cookies. Onstage two young men tuned their guitars. A blank screen hung down, a silent signal that not knowing the words would be no excuse for not singing along. But this was no typical church service.
“John Stott, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien: Why American Evangelicals Love the British”
Religion & Politics, May 1, 2012
John R. W. Stott’s death last July, at the age of 90, prompted an outpouring of grief and fond memories all over the Christian world. But nowhere were there more panegyrics than among American evangelicals.
“Not Your Father’s L’Abri”
Christianity Today, March 2008
The Swiss retreat now tends less to philosophical skeptics than to disaffected evangelicals.
“Onward Christian Scholars”
New York Times Magazine, Sept. 30, 2007
Every Friday afternoon in Moscow, Idaho, a strange commotion overruns Main Street. A stream of young men and women parade down the sidewalk, wearing black academic gowns that billow and flap as they walk.
Foreign Affairs
“The Death of a Grand Strategist”
Politico, April 4, 2021
Charles Hill taught a style of statecraft and thinking that is almost lost to the world. We could all learn something from him.
“Canada’s Polite and Diffident Independence Celebration”
New Yorker, July 1, 2017
The last Presidential election drove many liberals to muse about packing up and fleeing to Canada. Not many actually did so, but Cori Carl had already made good on the fantasy. She and her wife were committed New Yorkers but felt increasingly disillusioned with the “political backlash after Obama,” she told me. A visit to Toronto charmed them.
“Where In the World Can We Find Hope?”
New York Times, Feb. 17, 2017
Liberal democracy in the West is on the fritz. The leader of the free world larded his recent news conference with false claims, while British legislators dither over their citizens’ reckless decision to leave the European Union.
“Brother’s Keepers”
Foreign Policy, August 2, 2011
American evangelicals were always big believers in democracy — until it reached the Arab world.
“The Missionary Position”
Foreign Policy, June 13, 2011
Mormonism will affect the foreign policies of Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman — just not in the way you might expect.
“Thou Shalt (Sometimes) Kill”
Foreign Policy, May 11, 2011
Bin Laden’s killing has divided Christians. While Americans celebrated, liberal Europeans felt unease — but they’re the ones who may need to take another look at the Bible.
Profiles
“Dumbed-Down Catholicism Was A Disaster”
The Atlantic, Dec. 11, 2024
America’s most watched bishop, Robert Barron, is scouting out a new future for Christianity.
“The Soul Truth”
The Assembly, April 28, 2022
One of North Carolina’s most prominent pastors, the charismatic J.D. Greear of The Summit Church, is trying to convert the Triangle with love and a hard line: You’re damned without Jesus. Can it work?
“Billy Graham and the Fracture of American Evangelicalism”
Christian Century blog, November 13, 2013
Billy Graham’s 95th birthday party last week was a heartwarming event—and a media spectacle. Most accounts of the celebration emphasized the star-studded guest list: Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and Rupert Murdoch rubbed elbows with Ricky Skaggs and Kathy Lee Gifford.
“Housewives of God”
New York Times Magazine, November 14, 2010
Priscilla Shirer’s marriage appears to be just the sort of enlightened partnership that would make feminists cheer.
“The Reformer”
Christianity Today, October 2010 (cover story)
How Al Mohler transformed a seminary, helped change a denomination, and challenges a secular culture.
“The Controversialist”
Christianity Today, April 2009
Between his prolific writing, prominence in classical Christian education, and recent foray into public apologetics, Doug Wilson is becoming a mainstream evangelical. Maybe.
“Who Would Jesus Smack Down?”
New York Times Magazine, January 6, 2009
Mark Driscoll’s sermons are mostly too racy to post on GodTube, the evangelical Christian “family friendly” video-posting Web site. With titles like “Biblical Oral Sex” and “Pleasuring Your Spouse,” his clips do not stand a chance against the site’s content filters.
Sex and Gender
“400 Years Ago, They Would Be Witches. Today, They Can Be Your Coach”
New York Times, June 8, 2022
Erica Carrico suspects that if she’d lived 400 years ago, she would have been accused of witchcraft. “Women who were healers, who were connected to the moon cycle and nature, they were considered witches,” she told me. “I love following the moon. I feel divinely guided by my intuition. I’ve done the new moon and the full moon ceremony. I’ve practiced with crystals quite a bit and sage, sweat lodges. I’ve done so many things, just trying to find my way, what feels right.”
“The Podcast Bros Want to Optimize Your Life”
New York Times, Aug. 3, 2018
Don’t dismiss them as hucksters promoting self-help books and dubious mushroom coffee.
“Sex and Gender on the Christian Campus”
New York Times, June 2, 2018
The Moody Bible Institute in Chicago seems like the last place in which to expect a scandal over Title IX.
“Who Are the Gay Evangelicals?”
New York Times, February 27, 2016
The anti-gay ideology that has long held sway in American evangelicalism seems to be crumbling.
“Single Mothers with Family Values”
New York Times, October 27, 2013
When Jennifer Maggio was in her early 20s, she was raising two children by herself on the $750 per month that she earned as a manager at a furniture store in Vidalia, La. She went to college at night and was living in subsidized housing when she felt God urge her to make an unexpected choice.
“Can the GOP Become the Party of the Working Mom?”
Slate, December 5, 2011
How Michele Bachmann’s new memoir tries to woo America’s “career women.’
Varieties of American Religion
“What The Fastest-Growing Christian Group Reveals About America”
The Atlantic, June 2, 2025
Instead of killing off faith, modernity has supercharged some of its most dramatic manifestations.
“Ralph Waldo Emerson Meets His Spirit Animal”
Arc, Sept. 19, 2024
Some Americans who have lost faith in traditional institutions are finding it in this Denver church—and in themselves.
“What We Give Up for Lent Makes Us Who We Are”
New York Times, Feb. 17, 2024
Instead of giving up chocolate or fasting, “sometimes I’ll say I’m giving up self-neglect,” she told me. For Lent two years ago she began blogging through “40 Days of Self-Care.”
“Parable of the Sower”
The Assembly, Dec. 20, 2022
Like most startups, the majority of new churches fail. With the blessing of a major international evangelical network, a young pastor tries to start a church in an unexpected place. Will it take root?
“What Would Jesus Do About Inequality?”
New York Times, December 13, 2019
The faith and work movement wants to bend the gospel back toward economic justice.
“Charismatic Catholicism is Alive and Well”
Crux (Boston Globe), September 26, 2014
When Alvaro Soares moved to the Boston area from Brazil in 1999, he found himself invited to a “Life in the Spirit” seminar at a local Catholic church — a meeting for prayer, worship, and discussion that promised to renew his faith.
“Francis and His Predecessors”
American Prospect, March/April 2014
On April 27, Pope Francis will canonize two of his predecessors, elevating them to the ranks of the saints in heaven who may intercede for sinners here on Earth.
“The Complicated History of Catholics, Protestants, and Contraceptives”
Slate, February 9, 2012
Today Christian leaders are united against Obama’s birth-control coverage rules. In the past, the Pill and condoms divided them.
“Sects Appeal: Evangelicals v. Mormons”
New Republic, Nov. 20, 2006
Palmyra, New York, is a small town on the Erie Canal, 20 miles eastof Rochester. It’s not much different than the rest of the sleepy towns of western New York, save for one accident of history.