"Where is the Sense of Decency? What Does It Profit a Great Nation to Conquer the World, Only to Lose Its Soul?" — The Legacy of John Lewis

This interview with Congressman John Lewis -- in front of a live audience in Kentucky in October 2013 -- was one of the most memorable and moving experiences of my professional life.

It feels just impossible to lose him at a time when we need him so much.https://t.co/QO2kEwLVvz

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) July 18, 2020

"You Served Your Tour with Valor": Honoring Veterans of the African-American Struggle for Justice and Dignity

Today is the U.S. Veterans' Day holiday, and as tributes to this or that family member who has been in the military pop up in my social media feed, I'm thinking of a tribute my friend Wendell Griffen posted on his blog a number of days back to an Arkansas civil rights attorney and state representative, John W. Walker. John Walker died 28 October, and Wendell eulogized him at his funeral in Little Rock on 1 November.

Jeff Chu on Meeting the Woman Who Fired Him Because He Was Gay: Valuable Twitter Thread for #RiseUpOct8

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments this week on whether LGBTQ people are protected by existing anti-discrimination law. I've been thinking about this topic. On Saturday at #EvolvingFaith19, I came face-to-face with a woman who fired me from a freelance gig because I'm gay.

— Jeff Chu (@jeffchu) October 7, 2019

The Twitter thread Jeff Chu shared yesterday, which begins with the tweet above, is very important to read today, as the Supreme Court hears more arguments about the "right" of people to appeal to religious belief as their basis for discriminating against LGBTQ citizens in the workplace, in schools, in public services, in housing, in the marketplace, etc.

Developing Meme re: Supremes' Masterpiece Cakeshop Decision: It's "Narrow" — A View from the Bible Belt

The developing meme about the Supremes' Masterpiece Cakeshop decision is that it's very "narrow" and won't militate against existing civil rights laws. What that meme totally ignores is that large swathes of the country have no civil rights laws protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination. None at all. Because "religious" people oppose those laws.

In the News: Wendy Vitter Refuses to Affirm Support for Brown v. Board in Federal Judgeship Hearing; Americans Display Appalling Ignorance of History of Evangelicals Vis-a-Vis Slavery

Two stories in today's news I'd like to share with you, both showing the effects of religious thinking and influence on the political and cultural life of the U.S. The first has to do with federal judge nominee Wendy Vitter of Louisiana, the second with recent findings about how little of the real history of American evangelicals and their relationship to slavery even well-educated and liberal Americans actually know.

"When Love Is the Way, There's Plenty Good Room, Plenty Good Room, for All of God's Children": Showcasing Black Church Gospel Preaching at Royal Wedding

Here's the text of the sermon Bishop Michael Curry gave at the royal wedding today. In his book Silence: A Christian History (NY: Penguin, 2013), Diarmaid MacCulloch cites Canon W. H. Vanstone, who says that the church is like “a swimming pool in which all the noise comes from the shallow end” (p. 224, citing J.A. Vickers, Wisdom and Wit: An Anthology from the Writings of Gordon Rupp [London, 1993], p. 90, which anthologizes a conversation between Rupp and Vanstone in Methodist Recorder [25 July 1968]).

"In Every Case, 'Wives Submit to Your Husbands' Appears in the Same Context As 'Slaves Obey Your Masters'": A Twitter Conversation for You

In every case, "wives submit to your husbands" appears in the same context as "slaves obey your masters." And yet I'm constantly told we need to consider context & culture with the latter but not the former...

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) May 9, 2018

I don't mean to shortchange this blog, but I sometimes find that, instead of making statements here, I'm using Twitter instead to engage in at-the-moment conversations about the kinds of issues that interest us at this site. 

Assessing Billy Graham's Legacy: "After the Bombing That Murdered the Four Girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church He Visited a White Congregation in the City and Made No Comment about the Attack"

I abide by the old dictum not to speak ill of the dead. I do not think it means, however, that we ought to lie about the dead and their legacy. That said, I'd like to point you to a valuable discussion taking place on Twitter now after Billy Graham has died:

No Cake for the Gays and the Libertarian + White Catholic + White Evangelical Erosion of Civil Rights for All Minorities: Truth-Telling about Having Your Cake and Eating It, Too

All these pieces fit together: 

Jeffrey S. Trachtman, "Preserving LGBTQ Equality In The Supreme Court: No Piece of Cake": 

CNN Asks, "Roy Moore, Jerusalem and LGBT Rights: Why Is Religion So Divisive?" My Response in Twitter Thread

Why is "religion" so divisive, Burke asks? And then he launches into a description of precisely who, in American culture, is using religion to attack targeted groups.

Surprise: the folks he's talking about turn out to be white evangelicals, a term he uses only one time. 1) https://t.co/FBhYUnkcNV

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 10, 2017

 

For CNN today, Daniel Burke asks, "Roy Moore, Jerusalem and LGBT rights: Why is religion so divisive?" Here's my response to the question he asks, in a Twitter thread:

The Supremes and Cake Bakers' "Artistic Expression": Back to Piggie Park, But This Time with (White) Catholics on Board

The entire culture and our politics are now dominated by people who have weaponized bad faith and shamelessness.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) December 4, 2017

As Antonia Blumberg and Amanda Marcotte note, if the Supremes rule for business owners' right to discriminate against LGBTQ people and call that discrimination religious freedom, we're back to Piggie Park. We're back to South Carolina barbecue joint owner Maurice Bessinger in the 1960s, with Bessinger's claim that religious faith mandated he discriminate against African-American customers, and he should be permitted religious freedom to discriminate because his belief was sincere.

Roy Moore's Attack on LGBT People at Baptist Church Yesterday: "They Are the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender" Folks Spearheading Resistance to Him — The Narrative Line We Must Not Miss

There is a narrative line in these disparate textual pieces. A narrative line emerges when you put them together, and it's a narrative line essential to spot for anyone trying to understand why the revelations that Roy Moore has preyed sexually on female minors have resulted in more — not less — support for him among white evangelicals in Alabama. This is a narrative line that implicates the 60% of white Catholics who voted for the moral monstrosity now occupying the White House, and the U.S. Catholic bishops who are the pastoral and moral leaders of those Catholics — though neither the bishops nor white Catholics want to admit that they are in any way implicated in this narrative.

Christopher Douglas and Kurt Anderson on How America Lost Its Mind (or How the Christian Right Broke America)

Christian extremists took over @GOP and broke America with their #ChristianAltFacts.https://t.co/uD2dhuyI7K#YouDontKnowEvangelicals https://t.co/AUexPHAyEQ

— Christopher Stroop (@C_Stroop) June 6, 2017

Christopher Douglas responds to Kurt Anderson on how America lost its mind, with a statment entitled "How America Really Lost Its Mind: Hint, It Wasn't Entirely the Fault of Hippie New Agers and Postmodern Academics":

What I Learned Growing Up in the South During the Civil Rights Period That Absolutely Applies to Trump and His Voters

More from Frances Fitzgerald's The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America: Race and the Shift of White Evangelicals to Republican Party

And, as a complement to what I have just posted about Trump's analysis of the Civil War and Andrew Jackson and how both reflect white supremacist ideology, here aresome more excerpts from Frances FitzGerald, The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2017).  These are not in the least unrelated to Trump's remarks about the Civil War and Jackson:

"Why Was There the Civil War?" Mr. Trump Asks: Some Answers from Frances FitzGerald's The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America

Since the president of the United States asked this morning, "Why was there the Civil War?," I thought I might take a stab at offering Mr. Trump some educational resources in the hope of helping him understand "why there was the Civil War." Unfortunately, coming to that point of understanding will require him to begin understanding the mentality of the white evangelical Christians, concentrated in the former slaveholding states of the American South, who are his strongest base of support.

Resources on the "Identity Politics" Discussion: "When the Alt-Left Says 'Identity Politics,' What They Actually Mean Is 'Civil Rights'"

WATCH: Trump supporter calls women "Hillary Bitches" on flight to Allentown. Spoke to Emma Baum who shot video, @Delta did nothing. pic.twitter.com/2ZBjNCurNM

— Yashar (@yashar) November 25, 2016

As Dean Barker says in retweeting Yashar's tweet above, "Economic anxiety."

Trump and Dismantling of U.S. Democracy: "Movement of White Evangelical Southerners into Republican Ranks Was Fueled Initially by Civil Rights"

This should not escape our attention, though the mainstream media persistently and conveniently choose to play games about this matter: a noteworthy  percentage of our fellow citizens are perfectly willing — let's be honest: they're deliriously happy — to cast their votes for a man whose stated objective is to dismantle the American democratic system as it now exists. Which must mean that this is precisely what these citizens want . . . .

What About Trump Supporters If Hillary Clinton Wins? My Contribution to the Debate

Did you hear the startling comments of GOP strategist Mac Stipanovich on NPR a day or so ago? Stipanovich — and let me underscore: this man is a GOP strategist — tells Renee Montagne of NPR that Donald Trump's supporters have "absolutely lost touch with reality." Then he goes on to say, 

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: "Trump Leads Clinton by 13 Points Among White Catholics"

Catholic for Choice has just released the results of a new national poll (pdf file) conducted for that group by Beldon Russonello Strategists. Key findings: