On Monday, two days after the U.S. and Israel carried out a series of attacks on Iran—dubbed “Operation Epic Fury” by the U.S. and “Operation Roaring Lion” by Israel—reports began circulating of commanders telling U.S. troops that the war is…
Vietnam War tactics are back in Trump’s America
When I saw the cellphone videos of U.S. Border Patrol agents executing Alex Pretti on a snowy street in Minneapolis, the shameless brutality of the shooting reminded me of another execution 58 years earlier on a war-torn street in Saigon….
Evangelical leaders return to Oval Office to pray over Trump
In what has become an annual ritual, evangelical leaders gathered around President Donald Trump in the Oval Office March 5 and prayed over him and for U.S. success in the war against Iran. The photo-op prayer time was organized by…
No kindness, no democracy
Seventy-four years ago, on April 8, 1952, President Harry Truman went on national radio and television to announce he had issued Executive Order 10340, authorizing the United States government to seize the nation’s steel mills. Eighteen months earlier, China had…
Who will tell Trump’s he’s not God’s anointed?
When Thomas Dewey went to sleep on election night in 1948, he was the president-elect. The Chicago Tribune already had sealed the deal with the headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman.” But early in the morning as the election results were tabulated,…
The real reason for the Iranian strike? Padding political pocketbooks
The famed “cowboy philosopher” and social commentator Will Rogers once observed, “The short memory of the American voter is what keeps our politicians in office.” Lest we forget, however, that on Nov. 10, 2013, Donald Trump tweeted: “Remember that I…
Calling evil good
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu announced their joint missile strike on Iran with a laundry list of the sins of the ayatollah’s regime while ignoring the violence they themselves have inflicted upon their own citizens and the people of Gaza….
The end-times theology driving US intervention in Iran
President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a platform of peace, announced in the middle of the night March 1 that he had initiated “major combat operations” against Iran called Operation Epic Fury. By morning, Trump claimed that these strikes had…
National Prayer Breakfast or Christian Nationalism Breakfast?
On Feb. 5, the 74th annual National Prayer Breakfast was held in a ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel, with President Donald Trump as the keynote speaker. On Feb. 4, 2016, the 64th National Prayer Breakfast was held at the…
Wicked upon wicked leaves wicked
You may or may not know Billy Preston’s 1974 hit, “Nothin’ from Nothin’ Leaves Nothin’.” But never mind, the refrain is as much mathematical truth as it is moral wisdom. As I considered the world this past weekend, the moral…
The Iran bombing is a religion story for all but one person
When the United States and Israel bombed Iran Feb. 28, the motivations and repercussions were religious as well as political. We cannot think of Iran as a modern state unhinged from its religious moorings. And we cannot think of President…
What If Aliens Are Real? A Thought Experiment
This is how strange our times are: Last week, two United States presidents engaged the question of whether aliens are real, and it wasn’t even in the top 15 stories of the week. The debate was over not “aliens” as…