Politics & Society
American hell
In the last year of his life, Martin Luther King Jr.’s confidence in the politics of progressivism dimmed. Judgment became his refrain.
Ten Commandments, zero context
Many lawmakers want to see the commandments displayed in public schools. Are they also interested in the Hebrew Bible’s ethical demands?
A mother-son road trip across the divide
Jedidiah Jenkins recounts a long drive with his conservative mother—and his attempt to navigate their complicated relationship.
Consent, outrage, and the abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk
The philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Fred Rogers are helping me make sense of the shameful footage.
The mysticism of Thea Bowman
As I studied Christian mystics, I kept wondering where the Black women were. Then I discovered Sister Thea.
False gods of war
In Trump’s Situation Room, as on the fields of Ilium, those who wage war seem unable to experience the violence they inflict as real violence.
The certainty summit
In 1978, a who’s who of conservative evangelical leaders met in Chicago to draft a statement on biblical inerrancy. It would change the course of church and state.
The substance of small things I’ve seen
Hope and change mean something different to me now than they did in 2009.
The D.C. church that beat the Proud Boys in court now owns their name
“There was no disagreement as to whether we should engage,” says Metropolitan AME pastor Bill Lamar, “but there was definitely a risk calculation.”
Trump the savior-king
The president, just as the Christian Reconstructionists intended, sits at the top of a violent system as the mouthpiece of a silent, abusive God.
God cares about people, not what you call the West Bank
A US House committee will now use the biblical names Judea and Samaria. The point is to frame a political conflict as a religious war.
Criticize J. D. Vance’s ordo amoris comments all you want—but please, leave Jews out of it
Christian responses that appeal to the gospels have misrepresented both the biblical texts and Jewish ethnocentrism.
An ungovernable faith
By refusing to swear oaths, 16th-century Anabaptists took away the state’s primary tool for control.
March 5, Ash Wednesday C (Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)
Isaiah and Matthew invite us into deeper solidarity. None is well until all are well.
