In August, journalist Mirandaa Jeyaretnam of TIME reported the Trump administration had expanded its definition of “good moral character” for citizenship applicants. The new policy directs U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to apply a “holistic” standard that screens not just…
The ‘crackers’ are cracking up over Cracker Barrel rebrand
The uber-sensitive MAGA universe thinks Cracker Barrel, the country food chain restaurant dotting America’s interstates, has gone woke. According to my MAGA sources, the problem lies with the corporate executives changing the Cracker Barrel logo. I used the disparaging word…
Deliberately inciting rebellion: The GOP’s latest power play
Earlier this summer I wrote a piece titled “We Are in Dangerous, Uncharted Waters.” It addressed the Los Angeles ICE raids and the military deployment in response to the ensuing protests. I cautioned that the language used by the Trump…
This is what we should be doing, now
If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to read Heather Cox Richardson’s Aug. 25 Substack. If you don’t already know it, what Richardson wrote about is that the United States has been taken over by a white supremacist…
Stephen Miller, we know what you’re doing
Recently, I read that in 1988, a decision was made in Russia to stop giving their more than 50 million school children history examinations because they did not wish to continue to spread the “lies” the history was spreading. When…
In conversation with Joash Thomas
Joash Thomas is a descendant of the St. Thomas tradition of Christianity on the Indian subcontinent, a former Southern conservative political consultant and a theologian always pushing the church to listen to the voices of the marginalized, whether immigrants, indigenous…
Get in the water
I dream of one day gliding through the clear waters of a pool, with its abundantly chlorinated surface reflecting light like a beacon of sanctification. Against all odds, I envision myself as Michael Phelps’ significantly shorter, less talented, but far…
The end of Civil Rights (1964–2025): An American obituary
Its killers were many: A GOP-led gravediggers campaign determined to “make America great again” by undoing decades of progress; a U.S. Supreme Court that dismantled affirmative action, voting protections and reproductive rights; and state lawmakers who slashed funding for HBCUs,…
Reading the heretics
As founder and author of Doubter’s Parish, I spend a good bit of time reading articles and books by “heretics.” Google defines a heretic as “a person who differs in opinion from established religious dogma.” That describes a lot of people,…
Environmentalist says the sun can save earth from disaster
Environmentalist Bill McKibben considers himself a big fan of “Brother Sun,” as his ecological spiritual ancestor, Saint Francis, termed earth’s star in his famous canticle. Often considered the godfather of the contemporary environmental movement, McKibben’s new book, Here Comes the…
The Age of Digital Punishment and the call for trauma-informed nonprofits
The work of justice always has been a struggle against forces that seek to label, condemn and exclude. But in our digital age, a new form of punishment has emerged that clings to people long after their official debt to…
Two great divides
I titled my last column “Divides” because as I said there: “Divides confront us daily. The digital divide, political divides, economic divides, class divides, educational divides.” The focus of that piece was the divide between the world of television commercials…