History warns us that when large religious groups start imagining themselves to be oppressed by a pernicious and cunning minority, bad things can happen. So it was with a growing sourness in my stomach that I watched the luminaries of the Christian right take the stage at a Tennessee “megachurch” Sunday evening for “Justice Sunday […]
Rob Garver
Rob Garver is a freelance journalist living in Springfield, Virginia, and is currently studying at Georgetown Public Policy Institute.
Posted inEducation in America
A Liberal’s Education
Dear Senator Santorum, Until I picked up your bookIt Takes A Family, I had never really recognized what it means to be a liberal. It turns out I’ve been going about things all wrong. I hadn’t realized that I was supposed to be opposed to everything good, right, or true in America. I also hadn’t […]
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Leftward Christian Soldiers
Deep in the heart of the reddest county in a red state, a new grass-roots movement is taking shape that means to break the religious right’s hold on the rhetoric of Christianity by developing a network of activists on the “Christian left” that can be mobilized to support progressive causes. Founded by Jacksonville, Florida, businessman […]
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Darfur in Darkness
When President George W. Bush appeared at the White House on Monday, flanked by the presidents of five African nations, Brian McLaren — the pastor of an evangelical Christian church in suburban Maryland — expected to hear at least one reference to the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. He was disappointed, though […]
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Allen Wretch
In late April, The Hotline, a widely read daily briefing paper for Capitol Hill insiders, polled 175 members of Congress and political strategists; they named Senator George Allen of Virginia as the most likely Republican candidate for the presidency in 2008. A former governor who happens to be the son and namesake of the legendary […]
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Frist Plays It Cool
If it’s true, as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, that the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function, the Christian right assembled a veritable brain trust on the altar of a Kentucky “megachurch” last night. In […]
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Justice Sunday
The fight over the Senate confirmation of President George W. Bush’s most conservative judicial nominees is about to take an ugly turn, as the administration’s supporters in the religious right prepare an organized campaign to accuse Democrats of being biased against Christians. For several years now, in the right’s rhetoric against Democrats who have threatened […]
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The Celibate Life
My parents go to a moderate-sized Catholic Church in New Jersey. Not long ago, some parishioners noticed that the pastor, who had come to the church several years before, seemed tired. In a conversation, he admitted that he had not had a vacation of any significant length for more than a decade. Like many priests […]
Posted inArticle
The Celibate Life
My parents go to a moderate-sized Catholic Church in New Jersey. Not long ago, some parishioners noticed that the pastor, who had come to the church several years before, seemed tired. In a conversation, he admitted that he had not had a vacation of any significant length for more than a decade. Like many priests […]
Posted inArticle
Raising Kaine
Meet Tim Kaine. His views on abortion are roughly in line with those of George W. Bush. He thinks John Kerry spent too much time on the campaign trail talking about windsurfing and not enough time talking about God. And the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is spending an unprecedented $5 million to help him get […]
