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Taking the Economy Back From the Elites: Blessed Are the Organized

By Nathan Schneider

…ho are weakly linked. Democratic power is an organizational, relational affair. If there is any hope of creating a balance of power in our society, one that can hold elites accountable to the rest of us, it will have to come from grassroots organizing. What about other definitions? The less shallow ones? The term “blessed” also has the deeper sense of being sacred, sanctified, or consecrated. This deeper sense can be glossed in theological or secu…

Puritan Narcissus: The Myth of American Exceptionalism

By Nick Street

…er for inexpensive consumer goods drives industrial expansion in India and China, for whom the United States is the largest export customer. Most of our politicians trade on the illusion that the globalization of American (and American-style) consumerism is synonymous with democratization and social stability. In fact, stabilizing the supply of energy to the transnational economic grid has meant our investing billions to support politically destab…

Ugandan Anti-Gay Fallout: New Laws, New Violence, New Underground Railroad

By Peter Montgomery

…y the regime to undergo gender reassignment to ‘fix’ their sexuality. The pair could have also been subjected to 50 lashes if they were caught – which may have proven fatal for Mosleh, who suffers from congenital brittle bones. A kickstarter campaign to raise funds to complete a documentary about two gay Iranian men awaiting asylum surpassed its $30,000 goal this week. The film, Golf Alpha Yankee, described by New York filmmaker Rick Flynn as an L…

In Hamline Case, the ‘Free Expression vs. Religious Sensibilities’ Frame Obscures a Stark Reality About Higher Education

By Junaid Jahangir

…ecializing in Islamic Studies and allied fields, both the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and even the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have issued statements of support. They’re rightfully concerned about the stifling of academic freedom in universities. But we should also be concerned because the university shouldn’t be a corporation, the student should not be treated as a customer, and faculty should not be treated as an input…

President Joe Biden at a podium with a microphone in hand.

Biden’s Embrace of ‘Victory Culture’ is a Victory for Toxic White Christianity

By Peter Laarman

…eaths. I’m not here to trash Biden but to probe the psychology of the vast numbers of White Americans whose peace of mind appears to rest on the consoling idea of American global dominance, who glory in the extravaganza that is our trillion-dollar military budget, and who are only too willing to think of this deeply troubled country as “the indispensable nation.” These are not people whose sleep is troubled by the deaths of faraway children. None…

Where Is American Christian Outrage on Russia’s Treatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses?

By Rebecca Moore

…teen recommendations for CPCs in 2018, which included countries like Iran, China, North Korea, and Pakistan. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo placed Russia and Uzbekistan on a “Special Watch List,” rather than identifying them as CPCs. Even without the CPC designation, Russian officials could face financial consequences under the Magnitsky Act. Passed by the U.S. Congress in 2012, the act calls for sanctioning Russian officials responsible for “…

Huntsman not a Factor in 2012?

By Joanna Brooks

…hat Jon Huntsman, Jr., former Utah governor, Obama-appointed Ambassador to China, and rumored 2012 presidential candidate has a secret liability that would put him out of the running right quick. It’s definitely something from his past, but I’m gathering that it’s not so salacious. Employing an undocumented worker, perhaps? The fact that he dropped out of high school to join a rock band? His unseemly affection for progressive rock? Is it that he o…

Trump’s ‘Sh*thole Countries’ is Just a Cruder Term for What’s Been Said in American Churches for Generations

By Kathryn Gin Lum

…shitholes—whether of the “Jungle,” “Desert,” “Poor/Hungry,” “Commie,” or “iPhone Factory” variety. The “Shithole World Map” is clearly meant to be funny, but that doesn’t mean it’s parody. The map reflects an American-centric view of the world that the 45th president stoked. Trump’s followers weren’t delighting in simply shocking and outraging “the libs”; they were reaching back to a longer tradition of how to see the world—one with deep roots in…

State of the Union Stuck in that Olde-Time Semi-Niebuhrianism

By Ira Chernus

…ic path. Though he should be thanked for wanting to wage the struggle with China in economic and not military terms, he ramped up that struggle in the SOTU, warning that the Chinese are outstripping us technologically and we must “win the future,” despite all the risk such belligerent talk entails. Perhaps a foreign policy Niebuhrian can be expected to do no less. On the other hand, if we reject Niebuhr’s premise of endless conflict in the domesti…

Religion is Not about Belief: Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God

By Brian McGrath Davis

…he one who is blessing America, the one healing Grandma, the one directing airplanes into buildings and suggesting wars, the one responsible for countless Grammies and Oscars, the moral one who endorses inequalities, and the one who, we are told, has a plan for us and stoically uses life’s unbearable pains for our good. This bipolar, schizophrenic Santa Claus deity is utterly unconvincing. So it is with warrant that Armstrong begins the book sayin…