Steve Thorngate
Corporate retailers can't just close for Black Friday. But co-ops can.
It’s all over my Facebook newsfeed: some retail stores are bucking the trend and staying closed for Thanksgiving Day, and people—Christians and atheists, conservatives and liberals—are applauding them for it.
Did God send that grounder to punish Daniel Murphy?
The Mets second baseman's error is no one’s favorite moment of the World Series. Well, almost no one's.
Other people saying things
"The moment Hillary Clinton seemed to realize that her testimony Thursday before the House Select...
Wanting work-life balance doesn't make Paul Ryan a hypocrite
So Paul Ryan doesn’t want to be Speaker of the House, but he says he’d take the job if granted certain conditions. One of these conditions: that some of the job’s duties be reduced so he’s not away from his family so much.
Inequality isn't just about the 1 percent
The signature issue of Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign is economic inequality. He talks about it constantly....
Holy water glasses for holy people
At its worst, Protestantism has long been deeply suspicious of all holy things, of the very notion that a physical object can carry anything of the sacred. At its best, such a suspicion is aimed instead at the notion of holier things—of an elite, rarefied sacrality that sets a few things utterly apart.
So I’m not among those rolling my eyes at Rep. Bob Brady for seeing something holy in a glass of water.
When "religious freedom" means the opposite
Insisting that a government office answer to the law rather than to a given official’s religious beliefs isn’t de-prioritizing religious freedom in favor of something else. It is religious freedom.
Two responses to my death penalty/LWOP article
I was trying to write a provocative article for a readership that includes many people who a) oppose the death penalty for faith-based reasons, and b) take for granted that replacing it with LWOP is a fairly straightforward good. But I should have done more to anticipate how others might see a one-sided article where I saw a narrowly focused one.
Other people saying things
"In practical coalitional politics, the 'center' will tend to be shaped not by rational thinking but by money and power. If t...
Why is John Oliver's televangelism segment about the IRS?
It’s Monday, so it must be time for everyone to share last night’s main John Oliver segment and talk about how correct and funny and amazing he is. To be clear, I generally agree with this left-of-center consensus: Oliver’s longform takes on the old Daily Show template are informative, impassioned, and hilarious.
I had a mixed response, however, to last night’s segment.
Other people saying things
"When adequate shelter space does not exist, there is no meaningful distinction between the status of being homeless and the conduct o...
James Holmes didn't get off easy
My article in the current issue examines an ongoing challenge for death-penalty opponents: abolishing ...
My Century article on death-penalty abolition & life without parole
In May, a federal jury sentenced the surviving Boston Marathon bomber to death....
Death without killing: The inhumanity of life without parole
The death penalty is undergoing a welcome decline in the U.S. But the policy that's replacing it isn't much better.
You can't just decide that you and your rich friends are a social movement
The Koch brothers have grown wary of being perceived as a pro-rich people lobby, so they’re working on it. Matea Gold and James Hohmann report that “the theme of helping the lower class was echoed throughout the weekend conference.”
“The theme of helping the lower class”—that’s a well-worded summary, because whatever shifts in tone or even substance exist here, it’s important to recognize that the subject of the sentence remains: uncommonly rich, powerful people.
Are Christians called to be always countercultural?
The aftermath of the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision included some thoughtful responses from evangelicals who don’t support it. Mark Galli’s is pretty good. So is this piece by Carey Nieuwhof, a useful list of things for anti-SSM church leaders to keep in mind.
I do think Nieuwhof oversells his first point, “the church has always been countercultural.”
What kind of allegiance does a flag demand?
Take the question in isolation—given that we’re going to identify our church’s allegiances with these two flags, which one should be higher?—and I absolutely agree with Rit Varriale that it should be the Christian one.
But the question didn't arise in isolation, of course.
Other people saying things
"Whiteness—that form of life that is also a way of seeing life—emerged not as a fixed identity but a...
Donate to help rebuild black churches burned by arsonists
This week it's harder than usual to watch big-budget news media keeping things light. It's hard to watch them spend much time on anything other than the scourge of white supremacy that persists in this country. Since 9/11, white terrorists have been a deadlier threat here than the jihadist variety, even before the Charleston massacre. Last month, three black female clergy in South Carolina received death threats.
Oh, and black churches keep ending up on fire.
SCOTUS should restrain itself—but from what?
The Supreme Court has again ruled against those who seek to dismantle Obamacare. This morning I read Chief Justice Roberts's majority opinion and Justice Scalia's dissent. The latter was of course more entertaining; if you read SCOTUS opinions primarily for the entertainment value, stick with Scalia, Ginsburg, and maybe Kagan if you're a nerd.
Roberts's opinion, however, is forceful and right: "Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them."