Search for "evangelical left"

A Reforming Tradition Struggles With Change

By Brent Hege

…also important to remember that the ELCA is not a denomination on the far-left fringes of American Protestantism; it is a traditionally moderate, left-of-center body whose historic heartlands are the Mid-Atlantic and the Upper Midwest. If the this denomination is making moves toward full inclusion, other Protestant bodies can’t be far behind. Female Clergy Oblivious to Irony This is not the first time the ELCA has had these conversations. In fact…

After Westboro: The Trouble With “Tolerance”

By Cody J. Sanders

…often used. But aside from lamenting the decision or its results, what is left to do? How may we oppose hatred without sliding into a comfortable position of mere tolerance? How do we uphold the freedom of speech while recognizing that it does not always lead to greater freedom for the marginalized? If we are to oppose hatred and move beyond the mere toleration of difference and Otherness, we must develop an ethic of rupture and resistance. This…

UPDATED: The Coup That Never Ends: ‘Whitemanism’ and the Perils of a Flimsy Liberalism

By Peter Laarman

…n alarm that’s not so much about the Right’s ongoing potency but about the Left’s complementary lack of same. I mentioned that Rightists don’t think of themselves as dead-enders, so why should we think of them that way? How is it that once the immediate danger of a Trump putsch receded, nearly everyone on the opposition went to sleep? Even though the president whom Trump derided as “Sleepy Joe” has turned out to be far from ineffective, is it not…

“That Guy In Rome”: A Catholic Town in Idaho Where The Pope is a Heretic

By Jason Wilson

…oving here to be a part of a form of Catholic life that most of the Church left behind half a century ago. This is evident in imagery and forms of devotion—largely Marian—that the mainstream Church has given far less emphasis to in recent decades. On entering a traditionalist church like St. Joan of Arc, older Catholics might be instantly transported to the experiences of youth. For better or worse, Generation X and Y Catholics may—as I did—receiv…

A Secret Family History Shows “Regular” Life Under the Reich: Sarah Wildman on Paper Love

By Sarah Posner and Sarah Wildman

…Behind (Riverhead) chronicles her quest to find the woman her grandfather left behind in Vienna when he escaped the Nazis in 1938. It’s part memoir, part personal history, part World War II history, and part globetrotting detective story—and completely riveting. Wildman’s quest began after the deaths of her grandparents, when she opened a box labeled “Correspondence: Patients A-G.” Since her grandfather was a doctor, the box, at least from the ou…

Carrie Prejean, God’s Prophet or Porn Star?

By Paula M. Cooey

…earlier likeness, though a definite improvement over the face her husband left her with. Before the transplant (but 30 plastic surgeries after the assault), she had no palate, no sense of smell; she could take food only through a straw. Now blind in one eye, she, like Bristol, struggled for words: “If you see someone [ugly-looking], don’t judge ’em,” she pleaded, “because you never know what happened to ’em.” Of her husband’s upcoming release fro…

Pop-Eye: Meat The Wrestler

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…symbolic references to, say, Abraham and Isaac, Jesus, or others. So, I’m left wondering, did the reviewers blink their eyes, or reach down for another bite of popcorn, at the images of a tattooed Jesus Christ on Randy’s back? Or the “Job” (pronounced with long “o”) inked into the skin of his middle finger? Or the white fleece vest he wears on his entrance into his final fight? A couple of reviewers did pick up on Cassidy’s heated endorsement to…

Election Day: Hope, Heartbreak, Naiveté, and Studs Terkel

By The Editors

…e enemy of making the world a better place. It’s an idea with roots in the evangelical idea of original sin, encapsulated most bluntly by Sarah Palin’s favorite Baldwin brother, Stephen: “If you got all six billion people on the planet together and went to work on all that plagues this earth, all of us collectively still couldn’t do enough to fix it because this world and its problems are too big.” Why fight poverty, when there will always be some…

Palestinian Orthodox Christians, Desperate for Help, Have Caught the Attention of Russia

By Katherine Kelaidis

…leave little room for an actually persecuted group of Christians. This has left the community with little hope and thousands, particularly young people, have left the region in recent years, raising concern that this ancient community may not survive. This desperation, by the way, hasn’t gone unnoticed by Russia. As a result, the Russian Orthodox Church has courted the Patriarchate of Jerusalem in its ongoing struggle with the Ecumenical Patriarch…

Putting the “Protest” Back in Protestant: Reclaiming the Spirit of Resistance

By Peter Laarman

…lso to consider briefly the appeal made for there to be “no enemies on the Left” in the interest of a united front. The “no enemies on the Left” concept grew out of the fight against Fascism in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. But the situation we face in Washington DC today has little in common with 1933. It is precisely because we have an enlightened and benign individual leader presiding over an essentially unreformed system of governmen…