Many people appear baffled about the hard-right turn in U.S. conservative religion. It’s not just a turn to politics, or to hard-right politics, that is problematic. It is the apparent amorality, the cruelty, bigotry and snarling spirit that is so impossible to reconcile with the Spirit of Christ. It’s the nasty cast of characters who are […]
When Christianity Becomes Toxic ‘Christianism’
I was talking with someone very close to me recently who said something important I want to share: Our country has so many things going wrong, so many things really to feel ashamed about in a way, that it seems like on an average day I have two choices: either think about those things and then
We are witnessing an extraordinarily disturbing juxtaposition in U.S. politics right now. In Washington, the January 6 Committee, primarily using testimony from Republicans and former Trump administration officials, is once again shredding Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, meanwhile revealing the extent and damage of Trump’s desperate, likely criminal attempt
The French Dreyfus Affair and Trump’s Big Lie
Long after it seemed dead and buried with Mussolini and Hitler, the term “fascism” has been making a comeback — not as the self-description of authoritarian politicians and parties, but as an epithet applied by their enemies, or as an analytical category applied by scholars. It is not uncommon, for example, for leaders ranging from Vladimir
Is ‘Fascism’ the Right Name for the Trumpist Hard Right in America?
In 2015, highly esteemed Princeton political philosopher Michael Walzer published The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions. The title itself immediately arrested me, as it crystallized a current intuition of mine. I believe the United States and several other countries are currently experiencing religious counterrevolutions to the cultural and moral (often labeled “secular”) revolutions that
Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions
Ethicists without Borders is a Facebook group spearheaded by the distinguished Christian ethicist Tobias Winright of St. Louis University. This group has just released the statement below. I am a signatory. Note the following elements: This statement calls what is going on by its right name — not vague worries about “the conflict in Ukraine,”
Ethicists Without Borders Issues Statement on Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine
This is a column about crises and injustices in the health care system in America. I interpret these crises and injustices as an indictment on the character and the governance of this country. What follows is inspired by hard personal experience but relevant to all who have ears to hear. I make the following five claims:
Health Care Crises Reveal Our Nation’s Character Flaws
Friends, today is International Holocaust Memorial Day. The Holocaust must never be forgotten. This was not just an eruption of hatred against the Jews by the Nazi regime. It was a systematic government-sponsored genocide, and one that found willing collaborators all across (Christian) Europe — along with a heroic minority of resisters and rescuers. We
History Shows the View Is Best from the Margins
I am an old-school calendar guy. While I do use an Outlook calendar, my default calendar is a monthly planner. I use a color-coding system to write events on the calendar and tasks on the “Notes” column on the side. I am looking at my December 2021 calendar. It has been shot to hell by cancellations
New Year’s Resolutions When You Can’t Count on Anything Except COVID
Many readers of this column will know that in my religious practice I am by now something of a hybrid, attending both Catholic and Baptist churches every week when possible. This is time-consuming, for sure, but it does offer me access to developments in both these traditions. I want to tell you about something that I
A Conservative Resurgence in U.S. Catholicism?