On January 27, America’s 45th signed an executive order that bans all visas from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days. Many people have expressed outrage against this order and have protested at the airports where people affected by this order were detained. Some have also criticized it as unconstitutional and unlawful. Although it was the […]
The roaring success of the Women’s March on Washington and the many related marches around the world signals a new spiritual vibrancy that supports action for social justice. As footsore marchers debrief, most people are singing the same song: huge numbers of diverse folks; overwhelming good will in sometimes crowded conditions; creative, constructive manifestations of […]
By Jordan Conley. Since at least 2014, women have been leaving their “I voted” stickers at the grave of Susan B. Anthony in Rochester, New York. After the state’s primary, photos of the headstone covered in stickers went viral. The Smithsonian, in an article about the tradition, called it “a small tribute to a big […]
Discussion of the diaconate for Catholic women is in vogue and in need of some new thinking. Whether it will be a permanent or transitional diaconate, whether there is historical precedent for it or not, what women deacons might actually do if given the opportunity, whether this is a power grabby would-be feminist clerics, etc. […]
In this Presidential election season, it is especially important to recognize how the rhetoric of the Bible still shapes our religious and political imagination and the American political discourse. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first woman to have secured the nomination as a major party presidential candidate in US history, is consistently characterized as untrustworthy by […]
Professors across the land are preparing to return to the classroom, beginning with the all-important discussion on first day: setting the ground rules. Sometimes I ask the class to generate guidelines, beginning with their top list of classroom dos and don’ts. And inevitably, after “listen to others,” “don’t dominate the conversation,” and “respect other views,” […]
By Rosemary Carbine. The Workgroup on Constructive Theology recently produced a video titled Fear Not!, which encourages Christians to respond in faith to the dangerous public discourse of the current U.S. political season, which has featured prominent public figures who endorse Islamophobia, racism, anti-immigration policies against refugees, and so forth on religious grounds. Inciting a […]
This morning, my husband and I decided to visit a popular exhibit called the “Topography of Terror” in Berlin, Germany. It’s located in what used to be the headquarters for the German gestapo and it “focuses on the central institutions of the SS and police during the ‘Third Reich’ and the crimes that they committed […]
By Darryl W. Stephens. This commentary calls churches of all denominations to improve ecclesial response to clergy sexual abuse by embracing recent secular developments in trauma-informed services. Is your church as safe as a college campus? April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. For many college campuses, this means increased scrutiny of their policies, procedures, and […]
I have been pondering how to respond to the events of sexual harassment, theft, and rape in several major cities in Germany on New Year’s Eve of 2015. Did the gangs of men, looking “North African” and “Arabic” to the mostly female German victim-survivors, indicate a failed integration policy in Germany or deeply ingrained patriarchal […]