Most of the time, when people say, “Just joking,” they’re not joking at all. Often, we use “just joking” as a cover when we’ve trotted out ideas we know will be controversial or hurtful but we want to say them…
Trump 2.0: 100 days of Orwellian Newspeak
Every presidential administration uses messaging to manipulate facts and explain inconvenient truths. But Trump 2.0 rivals the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s 1984 in its assaults on language, logic and memory. Winston Smith and the other dedicated messengers who…
Now Trump’s allies want to pardon Derek Chauvin
Conservative activists, led by Elon Musk and podcaster Ben Shapiro, are pushing to pardon former Minneapolis police officer and convicted murderer Derek Chauvin. Revising negative narratives — regardless of the truth — has become a runaway train in President Donald…
Now Ryan Walters wants Oklahoma students to study alleged fraud in 2020 election
Already the most ridiculed man in public education, Ryan Walters isn’t yet done making a spectacle of his far-right agenda. The Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction now wants to rewrite U.S. history lessons to accommodate Donald Trump’s lie that he…
The Emperor’s New Clothes: Speaking truth to power
In Hans Christian Andersen’s timeless tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” an emperor’s obsession with vanity blinds him to the obvious truth that he’s been deceived by two con men. When the emperor parades through his kingdom in his supposed “new…
Trump administration busy institutionalizing January 6 falsehoods
Donald Trump continues to falsely claim he won the 2020 election and his supporters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are “patriots.” Now he’s institutionalizing these falsehoods. Trump is busily rewriting history and using the power of the…
There is no Jesus in MAGA
A lot has been written and much more will be written about the times in which we live. This era will be studied with amazement, bewilderment and shaking heads. How could America have elected a twice-impeached convicted felon to another…
7 lies Trump is telling about Ukraine
In an unparalleled abandonment of decades of American foreign policy, President Donald Trump has sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine. Trump says, “Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into…
I am a witness: Russia started this war
The narrative that Ukraine started the war in 2022 or even 2014 is a fabrication of Russian propaganda. As someone who has spent more than half her actual life as a missionary in Eastern Europe, I would offer the following…
Evangelical supporters silent — again — as Trump rewrites Ukrainian history
Evangelical leaders did not jump to President Donald Trump’s defense when he declared Feb. 19 Ukraine provoked Russia’s invasion and ought to accede to Vladimir Putin. His most ardent evangelical supporters were mysteriously silent, and evangelical leaders who have called…
Presidents, pardons, prevarications and (women) preachers
On Jan. 20, the newly inaugurated 47th president of the United States of America issued a presidential pardon to about 1,600 individuals who, on January 6, 2021, illegally broke into the U.S. Capitol, mercilessly beat Capitol police, threatened Congress members…
Franklin Graham says Trump ‘stands with truth’
Donald Trump is a truth-teller and Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde is a liar, evangelist Franklin Graham told hosts of the Newsmax show “American Agenda” yesterday. “Trump stands with truth,” Graham declared. “As president, if Trump tells you something, he’s going…