Christians

By Liz Theoharis and Shailly Gupta Barnes ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Roman poet Juvenal coined the phrase “bread and circuses” nearly 2,000 years ago for the extravagant entertainment the Roman Empire used to distract attention from imperial policies that caused widespread discontent. Imagine the lavish banquets, gladiatorial bouts, use and abuse of young men and […]

Arms Sales

An Iron Curtain Has Descended on America

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Decline. It’s a word that hasn’t been much in the American vocabulary, though, as retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, historian, and TomDispatch regular William Astore suggests today, it certainly should have been. In fact, you could argue that we’re talking about 30-plus years of all-American decline, during much of which, after […]

Christianity

No, Mike Pompeo, God doesn’t Want the Palestinians to be Ethnically Cleansed and Shot down like Dogs

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a podcast interview in which he said that Israel has a “biblical right” to the Palestinian West Bank, to which he referred as “Judea and Samaria,” and is not “an occupying nation.” So reports Chris McGreal for The Guardian.. Pompeo defended the Trump […]

Christianity

A Pastor Comes to Terms with the Church’s Idols of Trump, Money and Power

Minnesota Reformer

By Rev. Angela Denker | – Book excerpt: A pastor comes to terms with the Church’s idols of Trump, money and power Red State Christians: A Journey into White Christian Nationalism and the Wreckage it leaves behind,” available everywhere books are sold. ( Minnesota Reformer ) – On Sunday, January 10, 2021, I woke up […]

Afghanistan

How the Bush “War on Terror” Fed US White Nationalism and brought the Terror Home

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Recently, an agent of the Department of Homeland Security called me and started asking questions about a childhood acquaintance being investigated for extremism. I put him off. My feelings about this were, to say the least, complex. As a military spouse of 10 years and someone who has long written about […]

Authoritarianism

The MAGA Golden Calf: The Christian Right’s dangerous Flirtation with Political Violence and Far-Right Extremism

Matthijs Kronemeijer

By Matthijs Kronemeijer | – Toronto (Special to Informed Comment) – The November edition of First Things, a magazine of the Christian Right, features a lengthy statement from a group of theologians called Evangelicals and Catholics Together. The church friend who spontaneously sent me a link indicated that the statement is about Christian citizenship and […]

Bill of Rights

From Veiling to Abortion, Iran’s Theocrats seek to Control Women’s Bodies, just as do U.S. Republican Theocrats

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, hard line Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi announced that his government would pull out the stops to crush the popular unrest sweeping the country that was sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa “Zhina” Amini, 22, a Kurdish young woman who was arrested by the morals police for […]

Christianity

Expanding the Occupation of Palestinians in the Name of Jesus

H. Scott Prosterman

Most people agree that imperialism has been a very bad thing for the world. American Indian leader Dennis Means addressed a capacity crowd at the Rackham Auditorium at the University of Michigan in 1981. When I asked him to compare the plight of American Indians with the Palestinians, Mr. Means said, “Palestinians are the Indians […]

Christians

How to Prevent an American Theocracy

OtherWords

By Mitchell Zimmerman | – ( Otherwords.org ) – Barely a month ago we lived in a world where all Americans had the right to decide for themselves whether to continue a pregnancy. For much of the country, that’s now history. Just weeks ago, states could implement at least some common-sense limits on carrying guns. […]