Joining Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s clueless press secretary, 55 percent of white evangelicals believe that God has sent Donald Trump to save the nation. Jerry Falwell, Jr., president of evangelical Liberty University, believes that King David is the model for…
The controversy over third term abortions
“There is zero place for politicians to be involved in these very complicated medical decisions.” — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Out of fear that the current Supreme Court may repeal Roe v. Wade and undermine women’s reproductive rights, legislators in Virginia and New…
Progress on animal rights across the world
“If a human four-year-old has what it takes for legal personhood, then a chimpanzee should be able to be a legal person, too.” —Harvard Lecturer Steven Wise Many cracks have appeared in the hard shell that has enveloped, for centuries, the claim…
The rise of the Religious Left in America
“Jesus, a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew, called us to preach good news to the poor, the broken, the bruised, and all those who are made to feel unaccepted.” —Rev. William Barber, Founder, The Moral Monday In October of 1983, I was…
Martin Luther King was a democratic socialist
“Economic justice would require a land where men will not take necessities to give luxuries to the few.” —Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many conservatives today, in contrast to 60 years ago, are proud to call Martin…
Suicides down 29 percent world-wide; up 30 percent in the U.S.
If America gave up its guns, suicides would crash. —The Economist(11/24/18) In 1972 I moved from Denmark, where I had had taught for one year, to Moscow to start my career at the University of Idaho. I fell into a…
Smaller lumps of coal in some Christmas stockings this year
Every mine safety law is written in a miner’s blood. —Phil Smith, United Mine Workers Initially, I could not find a connection between the 40-year decline in coal consumption and Christmas, and then suddenly it came to me: there will…
The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I
Their minds were numbed by the shock of peace. —Colonel Thomas Gowenlock, U.S. intelligence officer At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, the guns fell silent on the battlefields of Europe. Four million soldiers died, 6 million civilians were killed,…
Psychedelic Drugs and Mystical Experiences
Not a month goes by that I don’t run across yet another misuse of the word “mystical.” I just finished Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci, and I cringed when he described Mona Lisa’s smile as “mystical.” The right…
Controversial days of Thanksgiving and prayer in early America
When you pray, go into your room and shut the door. —Jesus, Matthew 6:6 When the church and state tucked into bed together, it was the church that ended up asking: “Will you respect me in the morning,” and the…