During the opening days of his first term, President Donald Trump achieved something remarkable. According to The New York Times, “He said something untrue, in public, every day for the first 40 days of his presidency.” His spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway, coined…
Joy Reid and Robert P. Jones join forces against Christian nationalism
Two of the nation’s leading opponents of Christian nationalism are joining forces in a new video report designed to call out proponents of the ideology. “We are going to push back on the people who would deport Jesus, who would…
ICE and empty mangers
This week, The New York Times reported a Catholic parish on a busy street in a wealthy Boston suburb had caused a stir with its Nativity scene. All the familiar elements are there: the shepherds and angels, sheep and hay, the three wise men….
Trump’s immigration agenda is a minority view, research shows
New research shows most Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of immigration and specifically oppose how federal agents are arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants. Almost six in 10 Americans (58%) agree that “Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers should not…
The patriot’s glossary of MAGAtarian doublespeak, part 1
In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt concluded the ideal subjects of authoritarians are not necessarily their most convinced partisan followers, but “people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and…
Columbus Day: An ongoing threat to American democracy
Of the 12 federal holidays, Columbus Day is one of only three celebrating a person. Among that trinity, which includes the celebrations of the births of George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr., it remains peculiar. Unlike the first president…
How Trump’s dehumanizing language promotes white supremacy
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” President Donald Trump declared this week while surrounded by six members of his administration. “This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re…
Postcards from Occupied DC
“Lock the doors, kids.” When I was a kid, I remember my parents telling us to “lock the doors” when we drove into “the city.” This applied both to my hometown of Jackson and to bigger cities like Atlanta we…
A prayer for the broken-hearted people of the world
We left on vacation July 6, just two days after our national celebration of Independence Day. Typically, I’ve loved our little neighborhood’s quirky annual July Fourth parade, which includes appearances by groups like a Vespa troup, Taiko drumming corps, attachment…
‘Great white Christian freakout’ shifted America, Jones says
The U.S. was just beginning to come to terms with the effects of racial injustice when the “great white Christian freakout” ushered in the era of Donald Trump and empowered religious nationalism, said Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion…
Most books banned from Naval Academy are back on shelves
Nearly all the 381 books pulled from the U.S. Naval Academy Library in April are back on the shelves after the Pentagon instituted its own criteria for banning books. “I am thrilled to report that, as a result of the…
The Episcopal Church refuses to help Trump Make Apartheid Great Again
On Wednesday, May 21, President Donald Trump once again sullied the presidency and our nation’s reputation by ambushing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a made-for-social-media propaganda stunt that was peppered with lies and misleading video about an alleged white…