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The Senate Deal: Still Stroking the Rich [UPDATED]

By Peter Laarman

…The already-very-comfortable people getting this big wet kiss from working-class hero Joe Biden are those whom Lewis Lapham taught me to refer to as achievatrons: many of them doing well in the so-called “knowledge” professions, which (let’s admit it) often amounts to knowing the right people and having the right connections. Here is the most pernicious feature of the deal on marginal rates, a feature that Sen. Tom Harkin, who voted “no,” rightly…

“Taking a Stand for Jesus” in the Public Schools

By Lauri Lebo

…ard, which ruled that the teaching of creationism in public school science class violated the Establishment Clause, was a test case of Louisiana’s Balanced Treatment Act.) The article includes this stunningly familiar quote from a board member: David Tate, the School Board member who brought up the matter at the board’s last meeting, said he would rather not see litigation, but added that the board gets sued on other matters. “We don’t want litiga…

Coming Out on a Christian Campus, Then and Now

By Ed Madden

…ure. Another essay, entitled appropriately “Toxic Teachings,” interrogates class notes from a course on Christian Home, notes that repeat outdated psychological theories about distant fathers and cross-gender identifications and that offer tips on how to bring your kids up straight. (I recall my own Christian Home class. I still have the textbook with its litany of gender stereotypes. I remember the professor split up the boys and girls one week t…

High Schooler says Barbara Ehrenreich’s Book Violates his Civil Rights

By Sarah Posner

…g whether the sections on Jesus’s teachings were specifically discussed in class. As a whole, though, the book isn’t about Christianity or Jesus’s political philosophy but about the economic inequities and daily struggles faced by working Americans. Could there be a more pointed aggregation of right-wing grievances about public education, religion, and the economy? I think not. For one thing, the claim that public school curricula “insult” conserv…

A Victory for Conservatives in Revised AP History Curriculum

By Peter Laarman

…ite American story should certainly be taught. In my youth I taught an AP class in American literature in relation to 19th century American history. Were I teaching that same class today, I would have no difficulty inviting my students to think of the constitutional system as a remarkable achievement. Likewise for the recurrent reform impulse in American life. I would want my students to be aware of the repeated ways in which 19th century Ame…

The Gutting of ‘Roe’ isn’t About Religion, it’s a Product of White Terror

By Sikivu Hutchinson

…ts. Pro-death, anti-abortion public policy and protest are a form of race, class and gender warfare disguised as religious morality crusades to “protect” innocent “babies.” Challenging the abortion-as-“Black genocide” billboard campaign mounted by right wing foundations in 2011, founding reproductive justice activist Loretta Ross said: “We decided to have abortions. We invited Margaret Sanger to place clinics in Black neighborhoods. We are part of…

Religious Freedom Is No Carte Blanche: Highlights from Mississippi HB 1523 Court Ruling

By Stephanie Russell-Kraft

…ns in both the private and governmental spheres” to symbolize their second-class status. Just because a law doesn’t spell out L-G-B-T doesn’t mean it isn’t discriminatory: It is also inconceivable that a discriminatory law can stand merely because creative legislative drafting limited the number of times it mentioned the targeted group. The Court cannot imagine upholding a statute that favored men simply because the statute did not mention women…

Maybe Millennials Are Just Realizing That ‘God is Dead’

By Hollis Phelps

…where my students are coming from makes me a more effective teacher. In a class of thirty, I was able to get about three-fourths to respond. With the exception of one, each expressed a negative view of “religion.” I don’t teach in some secular bastion of higher education, where such responses to “religion” might be par for the course. I teach at a small, church-affiliated school located deep in the eastern quadrant of the Bible Belt, in rural Nor…

Will Dems Find Moxie to Resist Immoral GOP Tax Plan?

By Peter Laarman

…s on this one. Unlike Roosevelt, they will decline to be traitors to their class. Yes, for immediate political advantage they will point to the extent to which Trump himself will benefit if the “reform” package goes through. But they won’t touch the larger premise, which is that you can meet the needs of the poor and the working class by doing huge favors to the rich. They won’t let themselves be troubled by another of FDR’s prophetic utterances:…

Osama and Orientalism: Where Islamophobes Meet Al-Qaeda

By Hussein Rashid

…s not a Reformation we need, but a Renaissance, a rebirth of the scholarly class as arbiters of interpretation. Just as Abd al-Wahhab was condemned by his family (a family of scholars) for being outside the pale of Islam, so too is bin Laden. However, those calling for “Reform,” give no credit to the scholars, and thereby marginalize the best bulwark against the spread of his extremism. Clearly neo-Orientalism has a negative impact not only on the…