Were the Shutdown Republicans Prophetic (After a Fashion)?
Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin at shutdown rally: Prophets in their own minds? During the 16-day government shutdown, Tea Party Republicans rose above, or somewhere beyond, earthly politics. Their aim was to...
View ArticleGo Jonny Gomes: Political Gratitude in Play
Official Red Sox Photo If I were looking for a nearly perfect expression of social or even political gratitude, I’d have to look no further than Jonny Gomes and his remarks last night after the Red Sox...
View ArticleJFK Understood
During this past week of JFK commemorations, a number of commentators have pointed out that Kennedy’s thinking on civil rights “evolved” during his three years in office. That’s always a pretty safe...
View ArticleWhy Mandela Forgave the Butchers
Mandela with Archbishop Desmond Tutu Back in the early 1960s, black South African lawyer and activist Oliver Tambo was asked to describe a colleague who had just gone to prison for resisting white...
View ArticleMinimum Wage: Rare Case of Moral Consensus
Posted today at Tikkun Daily. Picture a world where politics is not so polarized. Imagine that the American people are flat out in favor of a plan that could lift more than a million of their neighbors...
View ArticlePope Francis and His Tribe
After a long hibernation, TheoPol is stirring and muttering something about a review in the current issue of America magazine. It’s an appraisal of the latest book about a pope who continues to...
View ArticleOf Martyrs and Murderers
Students at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minnesota, reenact the slaughter. Who is a martyr? The question comes to mind 25 years after what has become known as “the Jesuit massacre” in El...
View Article“Selma” On My Mind
Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel (with Dr. Ralph Bunche in between), marching from Selma to Montgomery After weeks of controversy over “Selma” and especially the scenes of head butting...
View ArticleSelma, the Sequel
Celebrated as a civil rights milestone, the three marches in Selma, 50 years ago, also ushered in a new style of social and political advocacy. In the March 18 issue of The Christian Century, I write...
View ArticleOf God and Cod
Word comes that June 18 is the unveiling date of Pope Francis’s widely anticipated encyclical letter on themes related to the environment. Media coverage will predictably dwell on the newness of such a...
View Article