The Looming Harm of “Do No Harm”
- January/February 2022
- January 1, 2022
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2021. Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right succinctly tells a story that has rarely, if ever, been told. In a small, readable account of some 88 pages, historian Randall Balmer takes on two important tasks. First, he shatters the myth that opposition to abortion was the engine
READ MOREBible-believing Christians understand their highest calling to be the Great Commission, Christ’s instruction to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19, 20, NIV).1 Unquestionably, inviting others
READ MOREIllustration by Mary Haasdyk It has been a little more than 28 years since President Bill Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law.1 An iconic photograph of the signing ceremony shows President Clinton surrounded by RFRA’s smiling supporters: then New York Democratic Representative and now Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer; California Democratic
READ MOREA surprisingly optimistic view of the complicated relationship between faith and democracy in the American republic. In his 2018 book The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America, America’s leading sociologist of religion Robert Wuthnow exposed the seams of anger in small-town America that helped fuel Donald Trump’s successful presidential bid. In his most
READ MOREWhere do you commune with God? For the San Carlos Apache and some other Western tribes, the answer is Oak Flat, currently part of Tonto National Forest in southeast Arizona. For centuries they have used Oak Flat for religious rituals, cultural ceremonies, burial grounds, and as a place to find medicinal plants, food, and water.
READ MOREIllustration by Robert Hunt For Black Americans, traditional narratives around religious freedom are complicated by both historical and present realities. Is there a path toward a shared understanding? Race. Just mentioning the word makes us uncomfortable. Race is the proverbial “elephant in the room” for many in their daily lives—that ever-present reality that most prefer
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