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Romney’s Speech, and Boehner’s Catholicism

By Sarah Posner

…, that argument goes, we wouldn’t need a government-provided social safety net. That claim lies at the heart of the most crucial economic argument of the election, the role of government in the economy, and it’s not going to be resolved through a theological discussion. It’s going to be resolved with facts and figures: that in spite of the kindness and generosity of millions of Americans, who, like Romney, have helped someone in need, millions of…

The Holocaust is Over: Avraham Burg’s Israel and Jews as Victims

By David Biale

…on misplaced historical analogies in formulating policy. If one casts the net wider than just those who use or abuse historical analogies, one finds a remarkable record of members of the Israeli elite who harbor or harbored iconoclastic positions. Martin Buber, the German Jewish philosopher who immigrated to Palestine in 1938, was a leader of the binationalist Ichud group that opposed a Jewish state in the 1940s. Later, Buber opposed the death pe…

Why Do Evangelicals And Dems Want Immigration Reform?

By Daniel Schultz

…ho knew? In any event, I don’t have much to say about the “evangelical cabinet” itself, other than that a number of them have advocated for the “broader social agenda” among evangelicals, about which more in a moment. As for why the Obama administration and more-or-less conservative evangelical leaders might find common ground on the immigration issue, it’s simple math. Demographics explain why Democrats want immigration reform: Hispanics will dri…

CPCs Hire Christians Only With Federal Funds? Thank Obama

By Sarah Posner

…the states. The program in Texas is outsourced to the Texas Pregnancy Care Network, a nonprofit formed in 2005 for the purpose of administering the contract. Vincent Friedewald III, a lawyer who joined TPCN as executive director in 2006, declined a request for an interview. However, he says on the TPCN website that he joined the group after conducting research that convinced him that “countless women were suffering through a decision they never re…

Prosperity Gospel Is Not the Only Problem with Joel Osteen’s Harvey Response

By Brie Loskota and Peter Gudaitis

…to address the great needs of his neighbors. Houston’s Joel Osteen has a net worth over $50m and a church that holds 16,800 but this is all he’s offering. pic.twitter.com/rmhdWK6ZAO — Mark Elliott (@markmobility) August 28, 2017 What I mean is, Joel Osteen is not selling the preferential option for the poor. Your best life is not being flooded out of your house — ProfB (@AntheaButler) August 28, 2017 Whatever one’s opinion about Osteen, the Twit…

The Economy is Sacred, Stupid

By Gary Laderman

…ir right mind would read a blog on the sociology of money at “filthy-lucre.net”?!!! Christians in particular understand the dangers and temptations of mammon. They have a long history of warning against worshipping this false god, a point of great emphasis in the New Testament and tied to concerns about wealth, debt, and greed. For many good Christian Americans, the boundaries between religious life and work life are clear, separate, distinct. For…

Battle of Antisemitism Definitions is Actually a Proxy War For Criticism of Israel

By Joshua Shanes

…ty subject to Israeli incursion and rules) to Kahanism, whether implied in Netanyahu or explicit in his “Religious Zionist” allies, none of whom are even condemned anymore by mainstream American Jewish organizations, as they were two years ago. The Israeli writer and public intellectual Yossi Klein Halevi made this clear to me in a recent interview, insisting that those like Naftali Bennett who advocate formal annexation without extending democrac…

The Ineffective “Francis Effect”

By Patricia Miller

…y than that of his grouchy predecessor Benedict, but not by much. Francis’ net favorability rating is only six points higher than Benedict’s, which attests not so much to Benedict’s popularity as to the fact that Catholics really don’t pay all that much attention to what the pope does or says. He’s more like a mascot than a leader. Francis is a cuddlier mascot but hasn’t propelled as much change as the ecstatic media coverage of his papacy sugge…