Nick Gier

Easter was late this year, and the date changes every year according to an astronomical calculation. After much controversy in the early church, it was finally decided that Easter will be on the first Sunday after the first full moon…

Every year at this time I write a column about Buddhism. The Buddha’s birthday is celebrated on different days depending on the country. In Japan it is always on April 8, and due to variations in the lunar calendar, this…

“I believe in markets — markets that work. Markets that have a cop on the beat and have real rules, and everybody follows them.” —Sen. Elizabeth Warren  Just as the Constitution demands a “well-regulated militia” to prevent vigilantism, I believe…

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…

“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…

“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…

“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…

“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…

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…

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…