Religion Dispatches
…families in concrete ways. He’s talking about a “more family-friendly tax code.” He wants the government to pay people to procreate. It’s a “big government” Republicans can get behind—a “baby government.” Though women of childbearing age are the people Douthat wants to get busy getting pregnant, he doesn’t talk about women very much—or the social, physical, and financial costs women still pay for having kids. Douthat blames women without talking…
Read More…pulpy example of a larger pattern of scriptural citation that obscures and promotes tensions between market forces and nationalism, dynamics I discuss in depth in my book, The Babylon Complex (Oxford University Press, 2014). A reboot of the older Jack Ryan series—based on Tom Clancy novels like Hunt for Red October—Shadow Recruit uses an all new screenplay by Adam Cozad and David Koepp. Still, the film is highly reminiscent of the earlier series’…
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…of the duties of the Muslim ruler and established furthermore an elaborate code of conduct for initiating war. And this is where we must look deeper. Privileging the legal literature above other kinds of literature—particularly the exegetical literature on the Qur’an and ethical treatises—in discussions of jihad almost inevitably leads to the conclusion that it is primarily a collective military obligation incumbent upon able-bodied Muslim men in…
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…hesitance to prescribe specific policy solutions to the current stalemate between “religious freedom” and LGBT rights. During a two-hour conversation with RD, Mero repeatedly sidestepped requests to clearly identify the dividing line between these two camps, suggesting that state and local governments should navigate these issues independently, ideally without the interference of faith-based groups. “I would call on my leaders to consider getting…
Read More…of injustice, often seek to hide behind self-righteous indignation—often a code word for revenge. That different segments of the population, of those whose votes the candidates want, choose to be for the death penalty, cannot be—is not—a valid reason for the candidates to oppose the decision of the Supreme Court against the death penalty. Please, politicians –elected and seeking to be elected—reconsider your position. I humbly make my own the word…
Read More…police officer could not have been entirely innocent, the thinking ran. As Free Republic commenter “9th Life” put it, “Boy scouts don’t run away from the cops.” Media outlets across the political spectrum soon highlighted the fact that Walter Scott owed approximately $18,000 in child support payments. The blameless victim of police brutality became a prevailing stereotype of African-American fathers: the deadbeat dad. While no one suggested that u…
Read More…nt congressional votes only by restricting abortion access: Democrats have betrayed poor and disenfranchised women. Jon O’Brien, the organization’s president, told me this morning that “the Democratic Party has absolutely failed dismally to uphold its own party platform that claims they are the party of choice and the party on the side of women.” Party leaders are too beholden to political strategists, says O’Brien, which he says “raises real ques…
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…ed objects, and by saying that “authority” is simply “love” and “love” is “freedom”—flies in the face of his critics’ descriptions of the impact of his authoritarian teachings on their lives. In interviews, former adherents to Gothard’s teachings, disillusioned former members of “ATI families,” and an evangelical critic told me that his unyielding theology, including “non-optional” compliance with seven “biblical” principles (the “basic” life prin…
Read MoreElizabeth Warren was on CNN the other day, and did a crackerjack job expressing how her faith and politics fit together. Meanwhile, South Bend Indiana mayor, first openly gay candidate running in a major party’s primary, and general whiz-kid Pete Buttigieg was on The View, doing…not so well. https://twitter.com/TheView/status/1109213160555184128 Let’s get a couple of quick points out of the way before we get down to the central issue. First, towa…
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…fties also drive liberals insane by saying that there’s no real difference between Democrats and Republicans. In my view, this is a very sheltered, cozy, white, privileged thing to say—but if your scale of significance is not support for communities of color or fairness in the tax code, but rather alignment with cosmic forces of enlightenment, it makes some sense. Post-millennial lefties tend to be really scary, or really wacky, or both. In pop cu…
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