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Goliath the Israel Slayer: Why Max Blumenthal’s New Book is a Painful Read

By Shaul Magid

…written as a legal brief for a country. Legal briefs, as we know, are not about truth, but about persuasion. They cannot be openly false but they needn’t be true either; that is, they can avoid components of the case that do not fit into the narrative of the client and they needn’t go into more detail than is absolutely necessary. Legal briefs are about persuasive narratives and not about history. A friend once told me a story of a dinner convers…

Between Butker, Candace Owens, and Nick Fuentes TradCaths are Having a Moment — A Moment With Something to Tell us About Christian Nationalism

By Lauren Horn Griffin

…homophobia. Almost all of the media attention has focused on his comments about women, particularly the “diabolical lies” told to them about having career success when they should be most excited about “marriage and the children you will bring into this world.” But most commentators have failed to contextualize his speech as a TradCath speaking to other TradCaths. Benedictine is a “Newman Guide” College, or a college approved by the Cardinal Newm…

From the cover of the Kindle edition of C. Peter Wagner's book.

It’s Not the Name It’s the Theocratic Vision — THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION’S PR PROBLEM

By Frederick Clarkson

…his new millennium.” These facts notwithstanding, the relentless quibbling about terms and denial about whether or not contemporary theocratic political movements are significant or even exist, (and if they do, what to call them) is by now to be expected. Nevertheless, we need to recognize that whatever their merits, these (sometimes-bad faith) discussions provide distracting smokescreens for the unambiguous theocratic goals, deep divisions, and s…

Turn on the News: Why Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Faith Doesn’t Matter (But Amy Coney Barrett’s Did)

By Daniel Schultz

…d in those hearings. It has something to tell us about how the media talks about religion and politics, and about how American society at large talks about them. Jackson’s confirmation was never in any serious doubt. No Democrats raised any objections to her nomination by Pres. Biden, and rumor had it that even a few Republican senators might vote for her. That left Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to figure out how to score the most politic…

Rethinking a Classic from the Conservative Contraception Canon

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…a group. In their early 20s, the Torodes believed they could predict this—about themselves, and about all the potential married couples who might read their book; including, presumably, couples facing mental or physical health problems, lack of support, or simple inability to reliably take body temperature at the same time every day. So, really, the question is not: “Are there NO couples out there who ever have a positive experience avoiding art…

“Own Your Heresy”: The Argument Over Who Gets to Do Public Theology Takes a Sharp Turn

By Kaya Oakes

…this propensity, Douthat echoes many church leaders. Cardinal Burke talks about “diabolical attack” while Dolan, Cordileone, Chaput and others fret about the church being under “threat.” When they retreat into the language of violence, some might wonder whether we really want to go back to religion being about a reign of terror in which people only belong to a church because they feel it’s being threatened. But when theologians imply that those w…

A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation

By Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné

…culture (religion, family, government, business, education, media and arts & entertainment) can be a “ministry” that may have nothing to do with traditional church roles. Regardless, each area has everything to do with actualizing the vision of removing demonic forces from the pinnacles of power and replacing them with Christians intent on bringing about the Kingdom of God. For more than two decades, the NAR has developed the 7 Mountain Mandate, a…

Argue-by-Number: A Suggestion for the Church

By Mark D. Jordan

…ves Christian—know themselves to be Christian—because they say angry words about homosexuality. Ritual speech about homosexuality, like so much ritual, reinforces identity. It sometimes seems to do so more powerfully than other Christian rituals—like baptism or eucharist. And so the third motive: fear of the loss of identity. To stop repeating these arguments would be to give up on one of the few rituals that still appears to work in a religiously…

Why We Should Ban Oppressive Speech Acts

By Natasha Lennard

…y notion that all speech is primarily in service of the exchange of ideas, about true facts about the real world, is simply a necessary first step. It will remain open for debate whether the perlocutionary effects produced by, or the permissibility facts enabled by, the public speech of a given bigoted speaker should or should not be tolerated. No doubt, these are ongoing discussions, and their outcomes should not be left in the hands of Silicon V…

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Heretic: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Jihadis?

By Haroon Moghul

…ion. Her apparent solution is part of the real problem. For those who care about keeping America safe, about improving conditions for Muslim communities, about helping European societies enfranchise and empower their immigrants, about better foreign policy choices, this is not your book. In the late 18th century, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab launched a theological revolt against Sunni and Shia orthodoxies. He won the backing of the nascent Saudi st…