Steve Thorngate

What CC's associate editor recommends

The problem with John Podesta's outraged critics isn't their tone. It's their narrow understanding of church—and organizing.

Trump's point was about Russia and cybersecurity. Why did his (theoretical) hacker need to be fat?

Christians can and should respect many things. Our allegiance, however, is another matter.

Jeffrey MacDonald reports on an interesting development: left-of-center religious groups invoking religious liberty much as right-of-center groups have in recent years. A church wants to install solar panels despite the objections of a local historic district commission; elsewhere, groups serving the homeless are looking to faith-based partners to protect their ability to do so. The story provides a lens on the classic questions about what counts as religious exercise and who decides. Yet it’s a little odd that MacDonald’s framing takes as given this very recent use of the term “religious liberty”—more strategy than principle, an argument to advance a cause.

Twenty years ago this week, President Clinton signed a bill that replaced the federal government’s traditional cash welfare program with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, aka welfare-to-work. Has this been a success? That depends on your criteria, on what it is you want a welfare program to do.

A friend notes, “now if we could get this type of article to be printed in men's magazines, too.” Indeed. Yet a male president’s byline on a Glamour exclusive makes a powerful statement before the main text even begins.

National Public Radio just ran a pair of features on the flavors of Christianity represented by the presidential and vice presidential nominees. An editor’s note affixed to both stories summarizes the theme: “Both major presidential candidates this year are Protestants… Beyond that, their faith profiles are very different.”

Why and how I bless my children

So what’s been the most shocking thing to come out of GOP-presidential-nomination-land in the last couple days?

The president’s speech in Dallas this week was an excellent performance of a difficult task. There was just one point where I thought he missed it.

Bob Dylan is 75 today. He’s not the only one who’s still making records after 50+ years, but it’s hard to think of anyone else with as many good ones. “Keep it religious,” the Century’s longtime editor liked to say. Many people find this hard to do when talking about Dylan.

Time was when we had a neutral commons where those of us who wanted to say something could say it, try to earn people’s attention, and choose whether to give them our own. I’m speaking of course of the internet—a long decade ago, before social media swallowed it whole.

There are at least two important differences between a touring musician who skips a state to make a point and a service provider who doesn’t want to provide services on account of personal opposition to the larger thing being served.

It’s Super Tuesday, and the many conservatives who are just as appalled by Donald Trump as liberals are have fear in their hearts. Can anything stop him?

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Franklin Graham wrote the other day that “Islam denies that God has a son.” Note the unqualified, singular, capitalized God in that statement.

Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that Florida’s death penalty sentencing violates the Sixth Amendment. Tomorrow, the court will consider whether to hear a death-row petition based on the Eighth. The first is comparatively narrow in scope: Florida has to stop sending people to its rather bustling death row unless that decision is made by a real live jury. The second, however, could be quite sweeping.

This blog is on paternity leave. See you in the new year.

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As Rusty Foster would say, the takes are in. Everyone’s got something to say about global terrorism, ISIS, and refugees, and some of it is even worth reading. If you’re only going to read one longer piece, I recommend this one by Scott Atran and Nafees Hamid.