Politics & Society
Unrealized potential
It is time for men to embrace our capacity to care for people without applause.
Feeling our way through climate change
A yearlong conversation between scientists and clergy has helped me rethink the promise of MDiv education.
The Cities Church protest and Bonhoeffer’s “promising godlessness”
When a pastor is an ICE agent, faithfulness might be found in what looks like its exact opposite—the active disruption of Christian practice.
A harrowing account of Soviet imprisonment
Alexander Podrabinek’s memoir sheds light on the oppressive underbelly of Leonid Brezhnev’s premiership.
A great library of witnesses
Watching from Bethlehem, feeling helpless as the death toll rose in Gaza, I applied to go far away and do research.
Pastoring in a city under siege
As a Black man from the South Side of Chicago, I am used to showing up during a crisis.
Irrevocable harm and irrevocable good
A favorable immigration ruling in Chicago was overturned. The growth of our bond fund was not.
How can the Democrats catch up to Trump?
Joan Williams correctly diagnoses the party’s failures. I am less sure about her prescriptions.
Dangerous caricatures
Stereotyping and scapegoating people can unravel a democracy. So why do we do it?
Why ICE agents hide their faces
Genesis 3 and Emmanuel Levinas can help us make sense of masked violence.
A cloud of witnesses for the new year
When the world feels like too much, I look to those who bore even greater burdens in ages past.
Collective punishment
The scriptural concept of collective blessing challenges the pervasive logic that seems to be holding this country hostage.
All nativity scenes are political
The anti-ICE and “Christ in the rubble” nativity scenes are also theologically profound—and fully in keeping with the best Christmas traditions.
Playing to lose
I witnessed the sports betting empire ruin one man’s life. It’s coming for millions more.
A lethal article of faith
Veteran journalist William Kole sets out to understand White evangelical devotion to the Second Amendment.
The bad king
Nimrod is the biblical archetype of the corrupt leader obsessed with his own power.
The power of charismatic narrative
Why has the authority of American elites been swept aside? Historian Molly Worthen argues that it’s because they failed as storytellers.
This political moment demands theology
As Christians, we need to protest authoritarianism and support the people it targets. We also need to underscore the deep foundations of this work.
New York’s Muslim mayor
The spotlight on Zohran Mamdani’s campaign also illuminated a pervasive fear of the other in our political discourse.