In the World
Steve Thorngate on public life and culture
Undermining the church? Or being it?
The problem with John Podesta's outraged critics isn't their tone. It's their narrow understanding of church—and organizing.
A cruel line that served no purpose except cruelty itself
Trump's point was about Russia and cybersecurity. Why did his (theoretical) hacker need to be fat?
When calls for "respect" are really demands for something deeper
Christians can and should respect many things. Our allegiance, however, is another matter.
"Leveraging" religious liberty vs. simply supporting it
Jeffrey MacDonald reports on an interesting development: left-of-center religious groups invoking religious liberty much as right-of-center groups have in recent years. A church wants to install solar panels despite the objections of a local historic district commission; elsewhere, groups serving the homeless are looking to faith-based partners to protect their ability to do so. The story provides a lens on the classic questions about what counts as religious exercise and who decides.
Yet it’s a little odd that MacDonald’s framing takes as given this very recent use of the term “religious liberty”—more strategy than principle, an argument to advance a cause.
Does welfare-to-work work? Depends what you're trying to accomplish.
Twenty years ago this week, President Clinton signed a bill that replaced the federal government’s traditional cash welfare program with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, aka welfare-to-work.
Has this been a success? That depends on your criteria, on what it is you want a welfare program to do.
Obama uses a women's magazine to talk to men
A friend notes, “now if we could get this type of article to be printed in men's magazines, too.” Indeed. Yet a male president’s byline on a Glamour exclusive makes a powerful statement before the main text even begins.
"The 'social gospel' of the Methodist tradition"
National Public Radio just ran a pair of features on the flavors of Christianity represented by the presidential and vice presidential nominees. An editor’s note affixed to both stories summarizes the theme: “Both major presidential candidates this year are Protestants… Beyond that, their faith profiles are very different.”
At the RNC, a benediction that wasn't
So what’s been the most shocking thing to come out of GOP-presidential-nomination-land in the last couple days?
Evil is the reason we need lots of things, not just police
The president’s speech in Dallas this week was an excellent performance of a difficult task. There was just one point where I thought he missed it.
Third group
The spiritual-and-maybe-religious Dylan
Bob Dylan is 75 today. He’s not the only one who’s still making records after 50+ years, but it’s hard to think of anyone else with as many good ones.
“Keep it religious,” the Century’s longtime editor liked to say. Many people find this hard to do when talking about Dylan.
Look away from the trending topics
Time was when we had a neutral commons where those of us who wanted to say something could say it, try to earn people’s attention, and choose whether to give them our own. I’m speaking of course of the internet—a long decade ago, before social media swallowed it whole.
The Boss and the baker
There are at least two important differences between a touring musician who skips a state to make a point and a service provider who doesn’t want to provide services on account of personal opposition to the larger thing being served.
Nominal evangelicals for Trump
It’s Super Tuesday, and the many conservatives who are just as appalled by Donald Trump as liberals are have fear in their hearts. Can anything stop him?...
The God in Franklin Graham's words
Franklin Graham wrote the other day that “Islam denies that God has a son.” Note the unqualified, singular, capitalized God in that statement.
Is the death penalty on the way out?
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that Florida’s death penalty sentencing violates the Sixth Amendment. Tomorrow, the court will consider whether to hear a death-row petition based on the Eighth. The first is comparatively narrow in scope: Florida has to stop sending people to its rather bustling death row unless that decision is made by a real live jury.
The second, however, could be quite sweeping.