We complain about something like the health care debacle, but look at how much sheer force has to be arrayed against progressive causes. Maybe we've been looking at things all wrong...
Coakley v. Brown: Democrats Search (For) Their Souls
On the eve of the vote for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, we contemplate the gulf between the incoherent story offered by the president’s party, and the compelling narrative—about systems of oppression, and the perils of a deeply entrenched status quo—of prophetic religion.
The Advent Conspiracy movement preaches a message of economic sobriety in a season of excess.
Resisting the “New Normal” of Parasitic Capitalism in the Two Americas: The Religious Imperative
In a time when “food insecurity” is used as a euphemism for hunger, religious leaders cannot be silent—or turn a deaf ear.
Hamlet's Wager, or, The Ghost of Capitalism
Specters abound in the contemporary world, and they are every bit as terrifying as Hamlet's were. Think of the invisible, ghostly threat of "terror"; think of the terrifying specter of one's life's savings vanished in an instant.
O(pinn)ion: Cosmic Lessons: When the Ministry Pulls a Madoff
A minister’s son plays Bernie Madoff and swindles his father’s congregation out of millions. Is it helpful to see events like this in terms of God's plan?
Better Gay at Work Than Gay in Church
A new report on the state of the workplace for LGBT Americans shows that the Fortune 500 is way ahead of churches when it comes to equal rights. In some cases it’s easier to be gay at Chevron than in church on Sunday morning.
RDPulpit: Nature Worship: A Primer
We have failed, as a society—for millennia—to ascribe worth to the one sustaining gift of the universe that we touch and feel every day: the earth itself. Rex Weyler, co-founder of Greenpeace, has an Earth Day message about ecology, community, and spirit.
The New Values Voters: Progressive Women
A study shows that progressive women activists are motivated by values, but not the “values voter” kind. How about mutual responsibility, community, and concern for others?
RDPulpit: No Time for Lukewarm Economic Reform
New dimensions of criminality and injustice in the world of finance are revealed every day. So why are religious progressives—who know a thing or two about revelation—still posing, equivocating, and trimming around the edges while poor people suffer at the hands of a predator elite?
"They don't sound much like experts," the child said. And, as we watch the latest news about the banks and the government, we must sadly agree.
Buddha-Mind, American Style
The oldest living man in the US (just two years younger than the oldest living woman) reveals his secret for a good life: Yogurt? Aerobics? Goji berries? No, he says, “I believe we are here to help other people.”
Change, Not Charity: What Ails the New Left-Right Coalition Against Poverty
The Poverty Forum’s supposedly cross-the-spectrum plan to reduce poverty runs the gamut—from A to B. While it is perpetually depressing to see the Democrats drinking the Kool-Aid of “No Enemies Among The Privileged,” it actually turns the stomach a bit to see faith leaders who claim to care about the poor slurping up the same reality-free brew.
Liberation Theology is Alive and Well
It wasn’t on CNN, but last month hundreds of theologians, activists, and indigenous people came together in Brazil to envision a new world; the gathering stressed diversity and sustainability, migration, and climate change.
Markets and Morality: Faith-Based Investment Group Profiles Polluters
Religious investors have often served as an early warning system, alerting businesses to ethical or environmental issues that affect society and the planet—and eventually the bottom line. The latest issue? Climate risk.
But what about feeding the hungry or housing the homeless? Not on the agenda.
Restoring Dignity: The Employee Free Choice Act
The Employee Free Choice Act will go a long way toward expanding workplace democracy. Progressive religious leaders, whatever their disagreements might be, must come together to support the restoring of dignity to those who labor honestly.
Women Are Not “Pork”
The Democratic leadership caved in to conservative Republicans on family planning this week. The opposition for the religious right goes back to the historic rupture between sex and reproduction in the 20th century.
We Are All God’s Got
We no longer have the focus of the civil rights movement or of the great leaders of that time, but we are called, nonetheless, to change our world.
RD10Q: Wage Theft in America: Why Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid
A leading worker justice organizer writes a book on how and why employers are stealing from the workforce, to the tune of billions every year.
The Law-less Legacy of Global Capital
John Law was a murderer, a gambler, and an economic advisor to kings. What does his story, and the tale of the first great market panic, have to tell us about today's financial crisis?
Election Day: Hope, Heartbreak, Naiveté, and Studs Terkel
We may not have had a big map, or red and blue markers, or a flashing digital electoral vote count, but some of our favorite writers agreed to share a few words on this big day.
Why would the mere existence of gay and lesbian families contribute to the breakdown on Wall Street? Ask Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council.
In Markets We Trust
From traders rubbing the testicles of the New York Stock Exchange's Golden Bull to the pantheon of saints, soothsayers and heretics who haunt it, the Free Market has earned its status as a cult.
When rapacious quasi-capitalists start acting like there is no tomorrow, that’s when the economy hits the fan.