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Could a Prophet Be Confirmed to the US Department of Labor?
Two of the Obama administration’s picks to staff the Department of Labor are coming up for confirmation this week. M. Patricia Smith and Lorelei Boylan face opposition by right-wing business forces, who don’t appreciate the kind of advocacy they represent.
C Street Scandal, the Media, the Future of the Family: An Interview with Jeff Sharlet
It was a hot summer for the Family, the exclusive conservative Christian group with designs on DC power—three politicians with ties to their C Street headquarters were caught in sex scandals. Jeff Sharlet, author of the definitive book on the secretive group, talks with us about the flickering media spotlight, and the future of the Family.
“I Want My Country Back!”: The Demography of Discontent
It’s more than white republican conservative Christians who are losing confidence in Obama. A survey taken back in April reveals the roots of this season’s protests—the results are surprising.
Tea Partiers and Religious Right Court at Values Voter Summit
Judging by this past weekend’s marquee event on the conservative calendar, the center of gravity is moving from religious right to Tea Partiers, from homosexuality to taxes. A closer look, however, reveals the growing symbiosis between the two.
Huckabee in the Holy Land: A Christian Zionist Campaign
The religious right’s preferred presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee recently returned from a visit to Israel. What prompted Time to call it his first campaign stop in the 2012 race?
Fear of a Black President
The president reminds Glenn Beck, and those who identify with his neo-white nationalism, of the lie of their own professed superiority. The pride with which this segment of society has rallied the troops around its shared sense of whiteness reveals that their skin color is the one true object of pledged allegiance and determinant of professed patriotism.
New Poll Shows Religious Right and Left Look Very Different
Those on the religious right and left not only diverge wildly on everything from abortion to torture, but in their composition and distribution as well.
“God” is Just Another Word: A Report From a Panel on the Role of Religious Speech in Government
Can government use religious language while remaining neutral in matters of religion? This question, and others, were addressed at a lively panel discussion at Netroots last month. Bruce Ledewitz reports on the event, and sets the stage for further conversation.
Rebuilding the Wall of Separation: A Progressive Discussion on Church & State
Is it time for progressives, religious and nonreligious, to move toward a strategic acceptance of religious language in the public square? Or should efforts be focused on adding bricks to the wall of church/state separation?
A Whiter Shade of Faith: Saturday’s Tax Protests and the Religion of Whiteness
Dick Armey mobilized his protest troops at the Capitol this weekend, and prompted this meditation from our columnist on the dangerous nostalgia for white dominance—then and now—that this anti-Obama movement calls forth.
Presidential Pep Talks and the Religion of Fear: How did an Uncontroversial Speech Become a National Controversy?
The conservatives who were frightened by Obama’s speech to schoolchildren weren’t afraid he’d say something radical—quite the contrary—they were afraid that the president would sound moderate and human. The real question, why did they buy the fear? is impossible to answer without considering religion.
Mythmaking 101, or, Why We Believe in Death Panels
Forget what you learned about myth from Joseph Campbell—this death panel rumor is the real deal: values masquerading as truth, all in service of one heckuva group fantasy.
The Silence of Religious Voices in the Health Care Debates
The national conversation about health care has been about everything but care, or compassion, for those truly in need. Isn’t it simply wrong for religious leaders to sit this one out?
Sotomayor is Sworn in: Latina Wisdom Personified
The phrase “wise Latina” is a deep part of the experience of Hispanic culture, and connects Sotomayor with a tradition so connected to women’s wisdom that it is known as “abuelita” theology.
Conservative 'Cafeteria Catholics' Favor Opposition to Gay Marriage Over Health Care
As the debate over gay marriage is reignited in New Jersey, the local Roman Catholic bishops threw themselves in with a zeal they have yet to display in the fight for universal health care, despite theological requirements that they fight for it. Are they acting like “cafeteria Catholics,” picking and choosing which parts of the Church’s mandates to follow?
“[I] Pray For Barack Obama To Die And Go To Hell”: The Story The Media Missed
When an Arizona man brought guns to an Obama speech the story went unnoticed by a media prone to seeing such people as lone nuts. A look at the sermons of his virulently anti-gay pastor who’s been praying for Obama’s death, however, reveals similarities to a far right theology associated with militias, radical prolifers, and proponents of theocracy.
Mobilizing Religious Progressives on Health Care
The President is reaching out to faith leaders to help reframe the health care debates in moral terms, and religious progressives are heeding the call(s).
Senator Ted Kennedy: A Catholic We Could Canonize
Though he was never one to wear his religion on his sleeve, Sen. Kennedy’s liberal record of working for social justice falls squarely within the Catholic tradition.
When Words Kill: A Health Care Glossary
Euthanasia, end-of-life, death with dignity, assisted suicide: these mean entirely different things depending on whom you consult. The health care debates have enormously high stakes, and yet we don’t even agree on the terms.
Health Care Post-Mortem: Left is Right, Right is Left and Public is Loser
So long as the health care battle is focused on the model of market competition—the very notion that health care is best conceived as a for-profit industry—the whole debate is a non-starter. If a meaningful health care reform is to pass, Democrats and liberals will have to return to their social justice roots.