Judge Thomas Wingate, circuit judge for the 48th judicial district in Franklin County, Ky., has dismissed a lawsuit filed by writer and Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry and his wife, Tanya. Their suit sought to stop the University of Kentucky from removing a…
Here comes a progressive response to demagogic and authoritarian politics
As the 2024 election looms over us like a dark cloud, many Americans are fearful of the outcome. Will Donald Trump win a second term? Even asking the question has driven me to my Bible and my bourbon (Pappy Van…
The evangelical campaign against abortion faces three big pushbacks this year
Abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans have hotly contested emotional arguments. When it comes to the 2024 election, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds women of reproductive age (18 to 49), Black women and women who live…
Marjorie Taylor Greene and the toxic trope of the rapist-murderer-racial other
The murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the campus of the University of Georgia Feb. 22 has drawn national media interest and political activity. Right-wing movers and shakers have especially been galvanized by this one murder. I think I…
Why did the Tennessee Congressman shout, “Goodbye to Palestine”?
What possessed Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann to shout he would support Israel forever and “Goodbye to Palestine”? In a video shared widely on social media, Rep. Fleischmann is shown shouting, “Goodbye to Palestine,” amid an array of stridently pro-Israel declarations….
Three cheers for Baylor honoring Brittney Griner, but the game is not yet won
Brittney Griner’s story continues to transcend women’s basketball. It is a morality play for our times. The good news is that on Sunday, Feb. 18, Baylor University retired Griner’s No. 42 jersey. She was present for the ceremony in Waco,…
ERLC’s guide to political engagement will be too nice for conservatives and too mean for progressives
What should Christians do about political engagement? It’s a question Andrew T. Walker takes seriously in his extended pamphlet, “The Nations Belong to God: A Christian Guide to Political Engagement,” published by the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty…
Trump’s Groundhog Day, the insurrection that refuses to stop
I planned to write this essay about January 6 as an anniversary piece. Because I am a public speech teacher, it has felt particularly cruel for conservatives to deny what happened on that dark day. When Donald Trump Jr. sarcastically…
Sen. Tuberville and the ‘cleaners’ of American racism
The 1984 film Pulp Fiction features Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe, a fixer and cleaner. A fixer is a person who disposes of bodies; one who “cleans up” physical evidence of crime is also more specifically called a cleaner. America has a…
Can Pope Francis help rescue us from Christian nationalism?
Conservative Catholics and their political evangelical allies in the United States have a “Pope Francis problem.” Outbursts of severe criticism of Pope Francis increase regularly from Catholics and evangelicals alike, such as Joseph Edward Strickland, a recently fired bishop in…
Is it true: Will Chick-fil-A be forced to open on Sunday?
A bill proposed before the New York Legislature would require Chick-fil-A to open on Sundays in their restaurants located along I-90. Or so the story goes. Nothing creates outrage among evangelicals like rumors of persecution. The idea that Chick-fil-A —…
Are young voters switching to Trump over Israel’s war?
Young voters supporting Donald Trump over Joe Biden makes me catch my breath. How is it possible that an indicted insurrectionist who lies routinely has such support among young people? Have our young people lost their collective minds? But yet…