Religion Dispatches
…tual was widely tolerated in the American colonies. After the birth of our republic, the practice persisted, surviving well into the 19th century. Dueling was even admired as the solemn responsibility of gentlemen: everyone knew what the phrase “meet me on the field of honor” meant. When running for president, Andrew Jackson—who had once killed a man in a duel—did not find that chapter of his biography a liability. At one time, most duels were fou…
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…lamist monarchy, i.e., Saudi Arabia, and a violent, authoritarian Islamist republic, Iran; if only, I often wish, there was some global agency with the moral clout to call for a time-out, and to see it through. To insulate the Muslim world from both these regimes. Their rhetoric infects the wider region; the cover of the New York Times suggests as much: now, whether they like it or not, all Sunni and Shia have to take sides. Or have sides taken fo…
Read More…he people get to vote on everything), but instead live in a representative republic (where we elect and appoint people to set laws and standards for us), this red herring is especially pernicious. As we have seen from the recent Republican presidential candidate debates, if we actually let the people vote on what rights and privileges other citizens would enjoy, the people might implement a mandatory death penalty (possibly even for lessler infrac…
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…e course of the year, nor did they waver as testimony after testimony from Republican officials (whose careers in the party are now effectively over) piled up, forming a mountain of damning evidence against the former President. With a Republican-led House looming over the January 6th committee, the panel has published an 845-page-long report, summing up their investigations. The report serves as the foundation for their criminal referral of Trump…
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…a fair number of African Americans, Hispanics, and Muslims who once voted Republican. They no longer do—not because they disagree with the Republican Party, but because they feel it has no room for them. It seems opposed to their presence in America. A good number in the Muslim-majority world feel the same way about the place of Islam in the world: there is no room for it. It isn’t that these Muslims don’t want democracy, or good relations. It is…
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…ry” lies with neoliberal capitalism are being heard as far as the People’s Republic of China. Not without reason, the 20th century’s question of why free markets has been replaced, especially in the developing world, with how to get there. But last year’s collapse is one more reminder that the market won’t be our brother’s or our sister’s keeper for us. The shock waves of harm spread through global markets in ways that “love thy neighbor” doesn’t…
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…that Hamilton waged alongside fellow patriots—both Gentile and Jew—the new republic confronted a momentous question: Would the radical promise of equality enshrined in the Declaration of Independence now translate into democratic realities? A number of politicians sought to withhold the prerogatives of citizenship from Jews, from the courthouse to the ballot box. Against these forces of antisemitism, Alexander Hamilton sought to build an America w…
Read More…ies asking us to pay for their abuse of each other and the earth.” The New Republic once again put out its superb daily report, showing that coalitions were indeed developing between nations around their carbon goals. GreenFaith did its daily broadcast, once again targeting the bad guy of Saudi Arabia and wondering how they had spent their Sunday. They did not appear to have a brunch invitation. I walked by a totally dark Chinese embassy, which, n…
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…without freedom to think and believe, you could not have the other two. A republic could not work if government and church officials (what Jefferson referred to as an alliance of “kings, nobles, and priests”) were trying to control what we think or prescribe what was the “best” religion or which people were the “best” citizens based upon their religious beliefs. If people were to make informed political choices themselves, they had to be free to…
Read More…han other nations. Note that “different” is the word that our politicians, Republican and Democrat, use to mean distinctly better than other peoples. And what an amazing level of self-deception that is, say the world’s other peoples, shaking their heads over white America’s delusional self-love. I believe that what most dismays international observers of today’s America—and I refer to people who want to admire our country more than they now do—is…
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