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Poverty babies
I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin in the 80s and 90s. I regularly encountered poor people and people with substance abuse issues in their families. I knew very few people of color.
But I was certainly familiar with the concept of a “crack baby.”
Monday digest
New today from the Century: Poverty babies, what scientists and theologians talk about, more.
Prominent American Jews embrace Mideast peace talks
More than 100 prominent Jewish Americans with varying religious and political viewpoints have thrown their support behind the Israeli government’s decisi...
Friday digest
New today from the Century: Jason Byassee on the "clergy killers" doc, Dan Schultz on Ryan Braun, more.
Other people saying things
"The term 'black on black' crime is a destructive, racialized colloquialism that perpetuates an idea th...
Ryan Braun's rational choice
Let me get this straight: Ryan Braun gets paid north of $20 million a year to be the aw-shucks kid turned Joe DiMaggio, the face of the Milwaukee Brewers, and the great white hope of a metro area that has never come to terms with its racial diversity. And we're supposed to be shocked and angry that he acts like a spoiled celebrity?
Victims in collars
Lloyd Rediger's "clergy killer" premise is, in some senses, indisputable. Yet put so baldly, the kvetch seems odd.
Samaritans at Heathrow: Encounters at an airport chapel
In the pristine white glare of the airport corridor, the linoleum became my prayer rug. But my solitude was short lived.
Trending left
According to a recent survey by the Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute, Americans remain deeply divided on economic values. But the most significant findings may be religious, not economic.
Same labels, different Protestants
The reevaluation of liberal Protestantism and its real but perhaps overstated decline—a topic that the Century has covered with this review, and related commentary by Martin Marty and by John Buchanan—was picked up by the New York Times this week.
The Times story does a decent job summarizing the debate, in which the overarching question is posed by historian David Hollinger (interviewed by the Century last year): Did liberal Protestants of midcentury win the culture war but lose the church?
Thursday digest
New today from the Century: Awet Andemicael on airport encounters with Good Samaritans, John Fea reviews Martin Duberman's biography of Howard Zinn, more.
Historian with a cause
Martin Duberman delivers the first biography of Howard Zinn since Zinn’s death in 2010. He treats Zinn with kid gloves but does not completely shy away from criticism.
Discriminating force: Just war and counterinsurgency
Drones expose the deficiencies of seeing war as a matter of annihilation. The rules of just war are more crucial than ever.
Court: Law designating ‘Israel’ as birthplace unconstitutional
c. 2013 Religion News Service...
Anti-Semitism down overall, but is occurring online and at colleges
The Anti-Defamation League’s annual study of anti-Semitism in the U.S....
Wednesday digest
New today from the Century: Just war and counterinsurgency, racial violence and presidential rhetoric, more.
Racial violence and presidential rhetoric
When Barack Obama addressed the “Trayvon Martin ruling” Friday, he did more than offer his “thought and prayers” to the family of Martin, applaud them for their “incredible grace and dignity,” and narrate a history of racial surveillance that often leaves African Americans frustrated and even afraid. The president did more than acknowledge that the democratic judicial system had done its work, urge demonstrations to be peaceful, and call for close evaluations of “stand your ground” laws.
Obama took a moment where the nation was viciously debating its most cherished values through the death of a child and cast a vision for a better future through other children.