Sometimes a joke can capture a cultural sentiment as well as any other social commentary, so I’ll begin my review of Robert Talisse’s “Overdoing Democracy” with one that demonstrates his thesis: How do you know if an unmasked adult is vaccinated or not? Just ask who they think won the last presidential election.
On May 3rd, President Biden announced that he would raise the limit on refugees from 15,000 to 62,500. It was a rare moment of celebration for people across the political aisle.
Despite our Judeo-Christian roots, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to be a serious follower of Jesus in the West today.
There is no doubt that the inauguration of the Biden presidency on January 20, 2021, will mark a point of historic political transition in the United States.
It’s often our political partners who are the ones most likely to successfully pressure us to compromise our convictions in order to remain part of the group we identify with. This insight is the driving thesis behind Compassion & Conviction: The AND Campaign’s Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement, and I believe it merits serious consideration.
While division is not new, this year feels different. Both parties paint pictures of a dystopian future if the “enemy” wins. Historians like Kristen Kobes Du Mez and Jemar Tisby remind us that while the volume has been turned up, the beats are still the same. Othering, fear mongering, and name calling are not new ingredients in a presidential election.
Such responses to a great prophet and to our only Savior can give some perspective to pastors serving in a politically and theologically divisive time. We can feel anxious about how our congregation will receive our messages. We can wonder if they will view us as too political or as not political enough.
Donald Roth, in a 2-part article series, takes a look at the Supreme Court’s recent decisions.
Donald Roth, in a 2-part article series, takes a look at the Supreme Court’s recent decisions.
Du Mez identifies a patriarchal masculinity embedded in neo-evangelical popular cultures as a primary catalyst for the appeal of Donald Trump to many American evangelicals.
Coming up soon—from Thursday evening, October 24, through Saturday noon, October 26—the Andreas Center and Political Science Department of Dordt University will be hosting the Presidential Politics Conference of Iowa (PPCI). PPCI is a unique event involving scholars, students, candidates, reporters, and citizens. It will occur in the context of an academic conference, but will be more than that—it will …
Does politics have anything to do with faith?
Believe Me chronicles the story of evangelical political engagement in American history and seeks to come to grips with the stark paradox of evangelical support for a president whose character falls so short of their professed ideals.
Tisha M. Rajendra’s new book Migrants and Citizens offers an important intervention to recent attempts to articulate a just response to the global immigration crisis.
My democratic hope is that no immigrant in this country should feel that his or her efforts are futile and future predetermined because of legal status.
Honoring the image of God and the inherent dignity of all people requires honoring all families.
The increase in CO2 is having such a drastic effect on Earth, that Bill McKibben suggests that we should no longer call it Earth, but Eaarth—the additional “a” indicating a significant, though not fatal, change.
One could argue that America’s decline in religious participation has paved the way for replacement, that in the place of God, a new idol of politics has emerged.
I have my own opinion on patriotism in the church until a woman who lost a son in Iraq shares hers, and it becomes obvious that any conversation about the flag in the church isn’t really about the flag in the church.
In Scripture, the book of Esther is full of funny comedic mirrors, but it is not all fun and games. I believe that this tiny book in the canon of Scripture has something to teach us about the dangers of comedic mirroring.
It is easy for people to celebrate globalization when their own jobs are not subject to foreign workplace export or replacement by imported foreign workers.
Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless. -Isaiah 1:17 (The Message) More citizens than not, evangelicals included, are sick and tired of politics. They’ve had it. Exhausted by a much too long, outlandish, and often lewd race for the White House, which …
This is why Jemar Tisby’s lecture is important for me, for this institution, and for the church as a whole: it’s time to de-center our whiteness. It’s time to heed voices like Jemar’s that have been speaking to us all along, even when we weren’t listening.
I must confess, I haven’t really sorted through all of my feelings, but in these early days of the new administration, I would urge Christians in America to maintain a pragmatic optimism while taking great care to preserve a prophetic presence in the social order.
In the past decade or so, the march toward globalism and our settled faith in democracy have gone largely unchallenged; however, a variety of political chickens have come home to roost in this past year, exposing the messy reality of systemic corruption and manifesting in a surge of populism around the world.