America
America: a Polemic
I saw you at the Capitol on video, wild, gleeful in your unthinking symbolism and window-breaking.
Young Evangelicals Fighting for Climate Action
For students at this top evangelical college, loving God means protecting creation. That includes dealing with the human sources of climate change.
Am I a Survivor?
I was ambivalent about wearing the word survivor on my sleeve, until I put on my biking jersey for Smilow Cancer Hospital’s “Closer to Free” ride. I’m a stage-IV cancer patient, currently in treatment at Smilow—not the kind of survivor who’s cancer-free. I didn’t want to wear the label that tends to be on the…
A Conservative Who Was Right About Occupy
In the heady early days of Occupy Wall Street, there was a lot of talk about whether this thing was really a movement or something else, something presumably less worthy of attention. In an early Room for Debate discussion at The New York Times, for instance, the eminent social movement scholar Stephen Zunes stressed that…
Quotes from the Accident, or God is Good
It was right out of a movie I heard a screeching Some were dozing There was absolutely nothing suspicious happening You had to hold the chair so you didn’t fall out All of a sudden the woman in front of me was on my lap Then I saw the gravel coming at me, I…
Occupy, from the Grave
A few weeks ago, Atchu was announced dead. disturbing to even mention someone’s passing, so afraid we are of the Reaper. like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obama or any other who has crossed the river of death, i am dead as fuck. Mofos-who-don’t-get-metaphors-or-art:: alex is fine:: his chubby body lingers on. Atchu on the other hand, committed…
When Pessimism Tramples Truth
Roger Scruton’s New York Times column “When Hope Tramples Truth” extols the virtues of pessimism by decrying the mindlessness of those endorsing marriage equality. But it turns out that being a pessimist does not preclude one from being a bigot; Scruton’s column shows how to be both at once. Scruton sets out to convince us…
Creationism and Conspiracism
Katha Pollit has an interesting piece in The Nation about why it matters that so many Americans are creationists. It isn’t that 46 percent of respondents are creationists (“God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last ten thousand years or so”). Or that 32 percent believe in “theistic evolution”…
Beautiful Possibility: An Interview With Alison Pebworth
Got credit card debt? Schadenfreude? The shakes? Maybe it’s Americanitis.
Lake Comeagain
KtB’s devoted cryptozoologist and volunteer typesetter, David Lloyd Rabig, has been moonlighting as an archivist over at A Prairie Home Companion. The other day when we were waiting for our laundry, he was telling us how a certain Mr. Keillor wasn’t always the rhubarb and meatloaf man he is today. Here’s one of the lost…
Listen to This Man
An ongoing hobby of mine is to try and help keep my favorite theologian, William Stringfellow, in circulation. In the past, I’ve written about his ideas on biography, on the sexuality and the circus, on his partner Anthony Towne’s amazing obituary for God, and more. This time, in Commonweal, I had the opportunity to review…
An American Eden, Dead on the Fourth of July
Greetings, fellow Americans. I’d like to pay tribute to a little-known patriot who died on the fourth of July, 30 years ago. Although it’s not as exciting as being Born on the Fourth of July, I think Elvy Edison Callaway of Bristol, Florida, would be happy to be associated in any way possible with Independence…
Nerdjacking Old Glory
An irritable butch dyke with a fifth of Southern Comfort does her duty at a Boy Scout jamboree.
Goshen College’s Star-Spangled Problem
At first glance, Goshen College’s decision to scrap the national anthem at sporting events due to the anthem’s violent lyrics might appear to be yet another case of anti-American liberal godlessness. But actually, this time, what’s at work is the conservative Anabaptist theology undergirding this private Christian college affiliated with the historically pacifist Mennonite Church…