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America, Religious Values, and the Death Penalty; Or, If it Was Good Enough for Jesus and Socrates…

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…mmitment to the death penalty? There are three main ones. Far and away the most common argument offered in favor if the death penalty is the argument for deterrence. The threat of execution, it is held, deters violent crime. The problems with this argument are two-fold: first and foremo*]}*st, there is no statistical evidence to suggest that it is true. States that had a death penalty, got rid of it, then brought it back again, display no shift whatso…

The Rise and Fall of an American Gang: Religion as Camouflage?

By Spencer Dew

…mirable about moments in Stone’s history, certainly: the red-bereted men demonstrating silent solidarity by parading through Fred Hampton’s funeral, the charismatic young leader who spoke of ancient Egypt and the grand history of black civilization in which men were princes—these aspects, ultimately, are of more interest to the authors than all the drug distribution and conspiracy to commit acts of terror. Because the authors (as shown in the elev…

Sanctuary and the Second Amendment: Do Guns Deserve Special Protection?

By Rosalind C. Hughes

…access as “sanctuaries” is a callous appropriation of the term given that statistically speaking, more guns means more gun violence and more loss of innocent life.” Indeed, the tradition of sacred spaces as gun-free (weapon-free, violence-free, force-free) zones makes the use of sanctuary language in recent “Second Amendment Sanctuary” legislation curious. The turn from the use of “sanctuary” from its origins in restricting vengeance, violent enf…

Proof-Texting at the Sugar Bowl: Tebow’s Big Finale

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…he time, by his decision to begin changing the verse each week. Throughout most of the 2008 season, the verse was always the same: Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” If this seems a bit theologically brazen, then so be it. Tebow changed the verse, to the more familiar John 3:16, for the 2008 title game and since then he has selected a new verse for each contest. These verses began receiving attention from commentato…

Rick Warren’s Biblical Blowback

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…heir policing and judicial functions. But that is not at all what Warren’s most astonishing claim (in bold above) actually calls to mind. Rather, it is utterly and thoroughly of the Old Testament; and it reads those scriptures completely backward. Let me explain why. One of the great mysteries for any careful reader of the Bible is the book of Joshua, with its staggering depiction of what appears to be a God-ordained genocide of Canaanites, includ…

Newt’s Obama-Bashing Trinity

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ed Boston Tea Party involved the destruction of private property as a protest against taxation without representation. Is Newt Gingrich inciting Americans to riot, or revolt? Is he suggesting that we do not have proper representation in the legislature, or simply that it is too Democratic? Is he simply whining about paying taxes in time of war? It is a perplexing symbolic protest that seems designed to weaken the current administration and its cit…

Yale Clings to Racist Legacy… And Cash. Lots of Cash.

By Peter Laarman

…take in that Sen. Calhoun was no ordinary racist but was, in fact, the foremo*]}*st and most ferocious advocate of racial subjugation during the antebellum period. Calhoun’s famous “slavery a positive good” speech needs to be read through to get a feel for this man’s snaky brilliance (Calhoun was Yale’s valedictorian in 1804). But it was brilliance put to an evil end. Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson undoubtedly did much harm to African Americans by bringin…

Anti-Gay Tour Organizer Comes Out for Gay Marriage, Renounces Hate

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…eople whom I made a profession out of opposing became real people for me almo*]}*st instantly. For the first time I had empathy for them and remember asking myself what I was doing. Marinelli’s story of conversion is eye-opening, and shows just how even those most virulently opposed to marriage equality can have their minds changed when gay and lesbian people come out and simply show themselves to be the real human beings that they are. The counter-pr…

The VP Debate: Sassy Meets the Statesman

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…uld be made to look ridiculous once again on a national stage. And yet: in most of the ways that matter, she did. She was too folksy, too colloquial, and ultimately simply unbelievable. While there were substantive matters of disagreement between the two vice presidential candidates, it is relevant to note that what this debate was really about was providing the two a forum in which to provide us a glimpse of their “authentic” selves. On that poin…

Greed, Socialism and the Free Market

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…on. (We have learned to be wary of declarations of victory like this, I trust.) Among intellectuals, one of the bases for the claim of capitalism’s superiority was that it was more realistic about human nature. Human beings are competitive creatures, and capitalism hinges on such competition. Capitalism as a system actually harnesses competition, and uses it. Communism and socialism, by contrast, were simply too optimistic about human beings’ coop…