Blog

BACKGROUND BRIEFING: RACE IN AMERICA
Race powerfully shapes the American experience. Race will shape our lives and our sense of self whet...
Read More
CAN A WOMAN BEAT TRUMP? THE CULTURAL STRUCTURE OF #SEXISTRIDICULE
The survival of American democracy may depend upon defeating Donald Trump in 2020. Many highly quali...
Read More
THE CALLS OF CONSCIENCE: NORTHAM AND POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY
Ralph Northam's failure to resign offers yet further proof that he should do so: he doesn't get it. ...
Read More
THE SAVED, THE DAMNED, AND THE WALL: A BACKGROUND BRIEFING FOR PROGRESSIVES
Despite white-Christian support for Donald Trump's wall, authentic Christian tradition remains an in...
Read More
ON PRAYING FOR ENEMIES
Christians are supposed to pray for our enemies, so I've been praying for Donald Trump. I have not b...
Read More
A SANE AND HONORABLE RESISTANCE: TWO MORAL PRINCIPLES
As the midterm elections loom, I've had repeated flashbacks to the moment when, in a grim little roa...
Read More
WOMEN, DECEIT, AND DISORDER: GENDER AND THE SPIRITUAL GRAMMAR OF THE WEST
In the Ford-Kavanaugh hearings, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee barged straight into every wo...
Read More
WHY REASONABLE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY: ON EVIL, OPTIMISM, AND HOPE
Watching politics has come to feel something like watching the projected track of a mid-Atlantic hur...
Read More
ON FINDING MY VOICE AGAIN: LESSONS FROM A YEAR OF SILENCE
I finally had lunch with Bill last week. It took us a while to get together because his calendar i...
Read More
MAKE NO MISTAKE: HEALTH POLICY IS A MORAL ISSUE. KRISTI L. KIRSCHNER MD
As a physician and bioethicist, I have spent the last 30 years caring for people during their most v...
Read More
THE SAVED, THE DAMNED, AND HEALTHCARE POLICY
The astounding cruelty of Trumpcare has elicited appropriate outrage: it's a tax cut for millionaire...
Read More
WHAT "LIBERAL BIAS" MEANS—AND WHY WE NEED IT
Conservatives complain incessantly about "liberal bias" in the mainstream media. This conflict has e...
Read More
MORAL OPPOSITION TO TRUMP'S FUNDAMENTALISM: STRATEGIES FROM THE CHRISTIAN LEFT
The Religious Right paved the way for Donald Trump: for generations now they have draped false pie...
Read More
FOUR REASONS WHY THE RESISTANCE NEEDS THE CHRISTIAN LEFT
As the Trump administration flounders, the progressive Left has an unprecedented opportunity to rec...
Read More
CONFRONTING POLITICAL ABSOLUTISM: HOW TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY
[Note: in ordinary times, this would have been my next book. But the times are too urgent to wait fo...
Read More
GIVING UP OUTRAGE FOR LENT
Like most of my friends, I've been fending off depression ever since the election. For my own menta...
Read More
How to Get Through to Republican Officials and Trump Supporters
Opposition to Mr. Trump risks fragmentation because there's simply too much to oppose, all of it hap...
Read More
Scapegoats Are a Diversionary Tactic
Donald Trump has been blowing a deliberate smokescreen with his ill-considered and unconstitutional ...
Read MoreCan Christians Question?
Evangelical pastor Timothy Keller told New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that he's probably ...
Read More
The Moral Status of "Protest Votes": Three Theories
Theory #1: Consumer Choice. Here's the claim: how I vote reflects and expresses my identity. I sele...
Read More
Gay Marriage and Anglican Anxieties
Major regional bishops ("Primates") of the Anglican Communion have lobbed a bomb in the American cul...
Read More
The Refugee Crisis and the Moral Imagination of Democracy: How to Confront Xenophobic Fundamentalists
I want to whack certain people with a Bible verse. When ostentatiously "Christian" politicians malig...
Read More
Ross Douthat's Three Mistakes
The predictable online conflagration has followed from Ross Douthat's broadsides against academic th...
Read More
Tell the Catholic Hardliners: Safe Sex Is Moral
The upcoming report from the Vatican Synod on the Family will be scrutinized six ways from Sunday fo...
Read More
Catholics follow ancient Christian tradition in supporting gay marriage—despite what bishops say.
According to a recent study by the Pew Forum (April 4, 2015), sixty percent of American Catholics ...
Read More
CONFRONTING FUNDAMENTALISM, RECLAIMING "HUMANISM"
We need a name for ourselves. We need a label for the common ground shared by reasonable people if...
Read More
HOUSE REPUBLICAN SHOULD REDEFINE RINO: REASONABLE INTELLIGENT NORMAL OUTFIT.
With Kevin McCarthy's departure from the race for House Majority Leader, we face the very real possi...
Read More
URBAN ANONYMITY: WE CAN'T NAME THE TASTE OF WHAT'S MISSING.
I have tasted the salt on another man's bread. The professor made much of the image, which was Dante...
Read More