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Biden’s New ‘Restore the Soul of a Nation’ Ad Aimed at Black Voters Wary of the Frontrunner’s Dodgy History

By Peter Laarman

Joe Biden’s lavishly produced new three-minute ad (tagged “Bones” because the voiceover begins with “We know in our bones…”) features a Chyroned line that may well become his campaign’s official or unofficial slogan: “restore the soul of a nation.” The ad opens with images of marching Klansmen, then quickly pivots to reassuring images of the former veep with Obama and to Uncle Joe’s good poll numbers. It’s predictable high-budget work, predictabl…

Democratic Candidates Don’t Need to Get More Religious, They Just Need to Get Known

By Daniel Schultz

…e, won those who never attend worship with 36%. But without context, these numbers might be misleading. For one thing, as Jack Jenkins points out in yet another piece, the black churches aren’t the unilateral power center they used to be in their communities. Black Americans are growing more secular, like whites, albeit at a slower pace. For another, it seems to have been a last minute—and pragmatically secular—endorsement by Rep. James Clyburn th…

The Most Important Religious Category of the Primaries, the Non-Religious, Doesn’t Break Down as Cleanly as You Think

By Daniel Schultz

…th the young voters who did show up, but the youth vote continues to be outnumbered by older voter turnout across the country. Even that might be somewhat generous. As USA Today notes, Sanders won a smaller share of the under-thirty demographic than he did in 2016 in several states. It’s worth noting this shift in a religion-and-politics column because young voters also tend to be less religious voters. By any measure, the younger an American adul…

Civil Religion v. Uncivil Religion; With Deadly Consequences

By Daniel Schultz

…s. Catholicism, much less Theravada vs. Zen Buddhism. But let’s talk for a minute about the consequences of two schools of thought. In this case, it’s not different sects of a fully developed theistic faith: it’s different ways of living the American civil religion. The concept is of course from Rousseau (we’ll come back to him), but in the American context, it’s been developed most thoroughly by Robert Bellah, who says “from the earliest years of…

Where’s the 2020 Democratic Faith Outreach Discussion… Or Has the Folly of Courting White Evangelicals Finally Hit Home?

By Chrissy Stroop

…to the power to enact their vision of a Christian America.” He added, “The numbers of Americans who embrace Christian nationalism are not declining since 2016, and Christian nationalism still pushes people to embrace Trump and stay in his camp,” which leaves Whitehead “confident we’ll see 80% of white evangelicals support Trump again, if not more.” Can the Quixotic dream of Democratic faith outreach to white evangelicals, then, finally be laid to…

Don’t Die For Me, Wisconsin

By Daniel Schultz

…n. Instead, they sued to block Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ desperate, last-minute attempts to avoid catastrophe. They were successful in their lawsuit, at the cost of creating considerable burden and risk for voters. Their overall mission was less successful, however. Daniel Kelly, the state Supreme Court justice Republican leaders were trying to reelect with a low-turnout election, went down to an ignominious double-digit loss. The same playbook…

Asceticism á la Carte: Fasting for Ramadan as a Muslim Atheist

By Saif Ansari

…to fast, and I should have discarded the practice with everything else the minute I became an atheist. Of course, I do have a reason to fast—it just has nothing to do with God. Fasting is—or, rather, can be—a means of self-control or mastery, especially for someone like me, who in recent years has explored meditation as a means of mindfulness in his everyday life. By repeatedly applying some of the same techniques over the course of my day, I beco…

Methodist Church’s ‘Dismantling Racism Initiative’ Excludes Some Black Lives

By Pamela R. Lightsey

…ed swiftly ahead. Others went on to count up the monetary cost for that 20-minute demonstration. Still others wrote extensive posts about how offended they were by such behavior. Nevertheless, it’s a matter of record that on that very day, not long after the shut-down, the delegates voted to delay any further “debate on homosexuality” instead asking the bishops of the denomination to lead the church in finding a way resolve, once and for all, the…

The Non-Mask of the Red Death: A Deadly Necropolitics Hits Home

By Peter Laarman

…lovingkindness, the God who desires mercy, not sacrifice? (And don’t for a minute try to map “Old Testament” and “New Testament” onto these competing conceptions of God. It just ain’t so.) In this fallen world people get to choose which of God’s faces they prefer. How God is imaged is famously contested territory for the “people of the Book,” and no one can seriously expect today’s champions and worshippers of a wrathful male sky god to grasp how…

The Absence of Public, Visible Mourning Has Weakened Our Ability to Fight COVID

By Joshua Ladon

…ted to family and a select group of friends. Visits were pre-scheduled, 25-minute slots for one or two family units at a time. Shiva is about showing up and being there, more than doing something. The interaction is scripted. One isn’t supposed to offer a greeting to either the mourner or fellow visitors, you should not speak to them until spoken to, just be there as a comforting presence. Upon departing, one bids farewell with a scripted line in…