Religion Dispatches
…cal opponents of economic regulation and a government-funded social safety net is no surprise. The real shocker is not that Warren — an avowed theological and political conservative — would say this. The real issue here is that at one time President (then candidate) Obama praised Warren as a model of a Christian, a great leader working to eradicate poverty and HIV/AIDS. That was the Obama dreamily campaigning on a message of worshipping the same G…
Read More…available to everybody and becomes popular. We should always have a safety net. Health care should always be accessible, basic health care always. But it should be available as a safety net, not as a general lifestyle that almost discourages people from seeking real human flourishing. The budget deal won’t make these arguments go away. Paul Ryan Jesus-ing the deal through Congress won’t end discussion of his claims that his views are in line with…
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…ney to individuals for the development of a strong universal social safety net. The attacks on welfare over the past six decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, have identified welfare recipients as the problem in need of fixing, obscuring systems that produce their poverty. Couched in religious language, these narratives have used racism and sexism to demonize, isolate, and divide the poor—hiding the fact that the condition…
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…sted in the culture wars, and more interested in helping others and the planet. She argues that “where there was once the appearance of a monovocal evangelicalism there is now robust polyphony,” along with changes in activism that have “re-routed the flow of evangelical money, time, and energy, and are changing the demands on the US political system.” On that last point, at least, we have yet to see much, if any, concrete evidence. Take the recent…
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…to love the poor is to dismantle inefficient, big government social safety net programs like welfare that “undermine human dignity” and encourage “dependency” and devolve them to local programs and governments who will “reform” them to give the poor a dose of the tough love they need to get off their keisters and get a job. The Kochs must really, really love the poor, because among the ways that Freedom Partners has sought to help them out is by f…
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…rs join the fight for more robust labor laws and an expanded social safety net, their efforts to combat the cycle of tech-induced desire will fall short. Eyal is right to invoke zombie movies but, in defending the ethics of his work, he prematurely crowns everyday people victorious in their battle against technology. “We are like the heroes in a zombie film,” he wrote. “Threatened but ultimately more powerful.” The ongoing explosion of smartphone…
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…he anti-abortion advocates who claim to support widening the social safety net, even as their plans seem to lack some key details; Savannah Jacobson of Slate.com has criticized the New York Times for amplifying the voices and overstating the charitable efforts of anti-choice activists; and RD’s Mary E. Hunt has called out the Catholic bishops who, after a post-Dobbs victory lap, released a statement touting their work to support pregnant people. M…
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…s than most this year. He’s a player of flair, lithe and lethal around the net. Born in Africa, he took advantage of his athletic skill to move to wealthy Europe at age 14, where the best footballers are treated like gods and paid even better. He’s the highest paid player in Italian club football, but but when he was traded from Real Madrid to Barcelona he told the press corps, “I mean to run like a black man so I can live like a white one.” This…
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…go in there,” Senyonga screamed, “and grab as many as we can!” In Austin, networks of pastors pray for the city’s revival as well, and part of that prayer takes place at crisis pregnancy centers. Trey Kent, pastor of the Northwest Fellowship in Austin, is part of a network of 40 pastors who have formed the Unceasing Prayer Initiative to ensure that the city is prayed for around the clock. At the Texas Alliance for Life’s Rally for Life in January…
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…was so controversial that the far right news site that published it, World Net Daily quickly took it down (though it appears to have been quietly reposted at some point). In it, Lane expressed doubts about the ability of the Christian Right to establish theocratic governance via the tools of democracy alone and thus suggested that violence and elections are not mutually exclusive, and that horrific confrontations, including acts of Christian marty…
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