On Jan. 20, Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office on the day set aside to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. This convergence crystallizes the United States’ ongoing struggle between competing visions of faith and politics in…
Stubborn frugality vs. willful extravagance
On Saturday, Jan. 4, former President Jimmy Carter’s body made the final journey from his home in Plains, Ga., to the Carter Center in Atlanta, where he had been so many times since its establishment 42 years ago. The remains…
Resolutions are not always in our control. Let’s try aspirations instead.
This year, the first of an American autocracy, is not one to make typical resolutions. The incoming president’s first term showed him to be a wannabe autocrat, but there were some guardrails in place — even from some of the…
The (unforgivable?) sins of the white American church
The sins of the white American church began early on and have continued unabated ever since. For example, large numbers of American Christians enthusiastically supported the genocide of Native Americans, fiercely defended slavery, actively participated in Jim Crow segregation, and…
American Jews skeptical of Trump’s ability to combat antisemitism
Most American Jews do not believe President-elect Donald Trump will effectively address rising antisemitism or manage the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a new survey, but a larger portion have confidence in his nominee for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio.
The death of truth
Remember way back in 2017, when it felt sort of quaint for Kellyanne Conway, then special adviser to President Donald Trump, to introduce the term “alternative facts” as a euphemism for the lying that characterized Trump and those around him?…
Trump Bible gets special editions, and you’re invited to pay to pray
The God Bless the USA Bible now comes in three special editions, including one commemorating Donald Trump’s second inauguration as president of the United States. Another special edition of the leather-bound KJV Bible is sold as “The Day God Intervened”…
Trump’s false narrative on January 6 is gaining traction
Four years after the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol, the Republican narrative that what happened was peaceful and legitimate appears to be gaining some ground. Not only because Donald Trump — widely credited as the instigator of…
Amid New Orleans tragedy, Fox News and MAGA figures tell lies
When Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, plowed his truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve — killing at least 15 people — Fox News and leading MAGA politicians immediately unleashed a targeted lie: “An illegal…