American civil religion is dead, to paraphrase Nietzsche. We have killed it.
2016 presidential election
So what’s been the most shocking thing to come out of GOP-presidential-nomination-land in the last couple days?
Populism is a predictable recurring feature of any society that is unwilling or unable to be as democratic as it claims to be.
Both Cruz and Trump say the U.S. needs special surveillance of Muslims. This is precisely the wrong conclusion to draw from terrorism in Europe.
Trump does well among those who identify as evangelical—but lack deep formation in faith. Formation fixes people’s eyes on higher things.
Something subtle and remarkable has happened in American politics—and, it seems, in democracies across the developed world. The big arguments over what the state owes the people, in terms of services and public welfare, have been somewhat eclipsed. Now the focus is on who counts as people in the first place.
Any attempt to counter Donald Trump's appeal needs to address the fundamental economic realities behind that appeal.
Americans tend to have a romanticized, inflated sense of the White House and its power. In domestic affairs, most of the power is elsewhere.
The state of U.S. politics makes it tempting to throw energy behind a messianic bid for the presidency. It also makes this a dubious strategy.
It is intriguing that the Republican presidential candidate who's leading the polls and the Democratic candidate who's close to tying the front-runner are both outliers.
At a moment when the spotlight shines on those who say the most outrageous things, it's worth noting Bernie Sanders's approach at Liberty.
As the battle for the Republican and Democratic nominations for president begins to heat up, most candidates, especially GOP ones, are discussing their faith. Four likely contenders for the Republican nomination are Catholic—Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Bobby Jindal. Several other GOP hopefuls are evangelicals—Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, and Ben Carson. Hillary Clinton, the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination, has declared that the Methodist commitment to social justice directs her approach to politics. Should prospective voters care about candidates’ religious convictions?