Democratic Socialists are on a roll with two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the mayor of the nation’s largest city and three June primary winners in New York and Colorado. The wins led President Donald Trump to criticize…
Lindsey Graham and the history of ‘widow’s succession’
When U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham died unexpectedly at the age of 71, the immediate political question was who might become his replacement. In more than two decades in the Senate, Graham became a powerful force — lionized as a “giant…
AI is being used to abuse children, and we can do something about it
Last May, congress passed the Take It Down Act, requiring websites to remove “nonconsensual intimate visual depictions” of identifiable individuals. This includes both real and AI-generated content. But this law only addresses content publication, not the various ways in which…
An American experiment: 250 years of trying
The American experiment continues. We keep on trying. Yet turmoil, division, distrust, confusion and misinformation batter us daily. Demagogues leverage social cleavage and manipulate nativistic fears. We feel increasingly undone. Our tendency is to somehow believe this is a new…
No political victory should be worth sacrificing moral integrity
Graham Platner’s campaign to dethrone Susan Collins as one of Maine’s two senators has come to an abrupt end following allegations of sexual assault. In an 11-minute-long video on X, the progressive firebrand launched a combative defense calling the allegations…
Theologizing with Larkin Poe, 10 years after Reskinned
Lately as an amateur guitarist/professional theologian, I’ve been getting into the music of Larkin Poe, a Grammy Award-winning blues rock band led by guitar-playing sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell from rural Northwest Georgia who named their band after their great-great-great-great…
Two parallels and an outlier: Graham Platner, Roy Moore and Donald Trump
The stories of Graham Platner and Roy Moore, although unfolding in different parties and different eras, trace the same institutional pattern: Modern political parties elevate outsiders when they are useful and abandon them when they become inconvenient. Platner and Moore…
How Christian nationalism shows up in patriotic worship services
“What a Sunday!” Houston First Baptist Church’s social media team celebrates on Facebook. “From worship to fellowship, Pocket Constitutions to patriotic tunes, we’re grateful for a church family that gathers with thankful hearts and points people to Jesus. Happy birthday,…
What in hell became of heaven?
When I was 25, I assured myself that, at the very least, I could expect to live for another 50 or 60 years. Death was an old people problem. But the can of death is getting harder to kick down…
Reading Ryan Stollar’s final message through the lens of trauma
Note: This article discusses suicide, child sexual abuse and domestic violence. It may be distressing for some readers. On June 30, child liberation theologian and abuse survivor advocate Ryan Stollar died by suicide, following a lengthy struggle with his…
My first experience of Ryan Stollar was his cruel suicide note
Note: This article includes an explicit discussion of suicide and mental health issues. In the last 20 years, the words we use to talk about suicide have changed. We are chastised for saying that someone “committed suicide,” because in…
Why transgender people threaten some and what that says about us all
Living in Texas as a transgender woman sometimes feels like walking through your own neighborhood with three heads. People stare. People whisper. People make decisions about who and what you are before you have said a single word — decisions…