Sterile Voting and the Politics of Acts 8:26-40
Emma Goldman once said “If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.” Goldman was speaking of the bourgeoisie democracy that upholds the status quo of US society. Her words have rung true for...
View ArticlePropaganda and Power in 1st Samuel 15:34-16:13
Ideological State Apparatuses, a phrase made famous by Louis Althusser, function in society to keep the bourgeoisie culture dominate. This is done through institutional establishments, such as the...
View ArticleThe Irony of Barack Obama, by R. Ward Holder and Peter Josephson
As Barack Obama left Ohio after a campaign appearance in July, 2012, a reporter asked a woman who had attended whether she intended to vote for the president. “Of course not,” she replied. When the...
View ArticleDisillusionment, Democracy, and the Fate of President Obama
My post, “Two American Dreams and One Economic Reality,” looked at the debate about American values initiated by President Obama’s now famous quote: “You didn’t build that.” I argued that the radical...
View ArticleObama’s Irony and the American Political World — R. Ward Holder and Peter...
In our last post, we noted that Barack Obama was the willing victim of a particularly delicious moment of irony. The very framework that has given sophistication and moral purpose to his governing – a...
View ArticleResurrection and Gun Control
A little over a month after the shooting at Newtown Elementary School which left twenty young children and six staff members dead, President Obama today offered bold Presidential leadership for a...
View ArticleA Just War ‘No’ to Bombing Syria
In his When War Is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking, theologian John Howard Yoder asks, “Can the criteria function in such a way that in a particular case a specified cause, or a specified...
View ArticleThe Politics of Rupture: Daniel 3:27-30
The story of the deliverance of Daniel's three friends from persecution for their faith takes an unpleasant turn as a new form of religious oppression is set up as its immediate effect. Apparent...
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