The Catholic boys club that is the United States Supreme Court really outdid themselves in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn (April 4, 2011), a case in which Arizona citizens challenged a state law giving tax credits to those who donate to “school tuition organizations.” These organizations provide scholarships to private schools. Because nearly [...]
Tags:Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization·Arizona law·canard·Catholic·Catholic schools·Civil Religion·Dahlia Lithwick·Establishment Clause·Garrett Epps·judicial bias·judicial ethics·Justice Kagan·justices·legal fiction·parochial schools·religious schools·separation of church and state·sophistry·Supreme Court·tax break·tax credit·United States Supreme Court·Winn
Over at The Atlantic, Andrew Bacevich has penned an incisive piece on the American military-industrial complex and the metaphysic required to sustain it. As is true of the metaphysics that sustain most “world religions,” this one is grounded in fear:
This national-security state derived its raison d’être from — and vigorously promoted a belief in — [...]
Tags:amygdala·Andrew Bacevich·avoidance·C. Wright Mills·control·false consciousness·fear·habit·hegemony·invisible·Jean Comaroff·John Comaroff·metaphysics·military metaphysics·military-industrial complex·nationalism·Of Revelation and Revolution·phobia·The Power Elite·vertebrate evolution·world religions
Our friend Lexington is pleased and puzzled by a new book on American religiosity which argues that despite great diversity, religion is a unifying force in America:
[I]t is pleasing to report that two social scientists, Robert Putnam of Harvard University and David Campbell of the University of Notre Dame, have just written a book that [...]
Tags:American Grace·American religion·American religiosity·Aunt Susan effect·Christianity·David Campbell·denominations·faith tradition·Lexington·nationalism·religious diversity·Robert Putnam·The Economist
Many of us have heard it in church and elsewhere: the ubiquitous “kumbaya” song. Samuel Freedman has written a remonstratively nostalgic article that bemoans current usage of the word, which today is often used as a mild epithet indicating there will be no compromise or consensus. This usage is not limited to politics, though it [...]
Tags:black folk·Come By Here·compromise·consensus·essentialism·etymology·folklore·Glenn Hinson·kumbaya·nostalgia·racist·Samuel Freedman·song·white hands·word evolution
Poland is a country of wonderful contrasts. On the one hand, you can buy (for $24) a new board game — “Around the World with Pope John Paul II” — that celebrates the peripatetic Pope’s travels and homilies:
A roll of the dice takes [players] around the 130 countries where the pope traveled — among them [...]
Tags:Around the World with John Paul II·candidates·Catholic·elections·John Paul board game·Katarzyna Szczolek·Poland·Polish·Pope John Paul II·sex
As Samuel Freedman observes in this article on American politics, religious faith often blends with nationalistic faith to form a kind of civil religion:
“God’s words, the concept of godly government, are woven into the warp and woof of the fabric of our nation and this Constitution. It’s rightly called the Miracle in Philadelphia.”
Mr. Manship’s own [...]
Tags:bible·Civil Religion·Constitution·founding fathers·James Renwick Manship·literalism·nationalism·Samuel Freedman·Stanley Fish·Tea Party
In English and American law, “force majeure” clauses are standard in most contracts. These clauses simply recognize that the world can be a chaotic place and that when a contracting party cannot perform due to such chaos, the lack of performance will not constitute a breach of contract. Such clauses typically include a standard list [...]
Tags:acts of God·Africa·American law·angry God·Azande·Bangui·Bartolomé Goroth·Central African Republic·chance·chaos·contracts·covens·E.E. Evans-Pritchard·force majeure·Graeme Wood·Hex Appeal·jurisprudence·law·magic·Mbutu·Pygmies·spells·witchcraft·witches
Over at the Atlantic, my former classmate Garrett Epps reports on one of those “constitutional” and “patriotic” meetings that we typically, and wrongly, associate with militant white “minorities” living in the Idaho wilderness. This gathering takes place in the basement of a Lutheran Church in Virginia and those who attend are staid — having not [...]
Tags:American history·Anglo-Saxons·anti-semitism·British Israel theory·celts·Cleon Skousen·Constitution·constitutional·fear·Garrett Epps·Hengist·Horsa·Howard Rand·Idaho·Israelites·Lester Pearce·Lost Tribes of Israel·Moses·nationalism·Northern Tribes of Israel·paranoia·patriotic·racist·The Making of America·Thomas Jefferson·white supremacy·Yinglings
Watching Germany grapple with its rough beast is sort of like cultural voyeurism — outsiders are weirdly fascinated even as Germans seem unsure of how to proceed. Two recent articles in Spiegel offer powerful reminders that gawking, a paradoxical product of attraction and revulsion, can be unsettling.
The first, by Frank Hornig and Michael Sontheimer, discusses [...]
Tags:Berlin·Bethlehem·Civil Religion·eschatology·Frank Hornig·Fuhrer·German History Museum·Germany·Hitler·Ian Kershaw·Jews·Michael Sontheimer·Muslims·National Socialism·nationalism·Nazi·Ole Reissmann·racism·rough beast·salvation·schadenfreude·The Second Coming·uncivil religion·W.B. Yeats·weltanschauung·xenophobia
In a previous post, I outlined what the sociologist Robert Bellah calls “civil religion,” and its elaboration by Carolyn Martin and David Ingle in their classic article, “Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion.” Now, Lexington over at The Economist has posted on “The Perils of Constitution Worship.” Lexington notes that Americans in general [...]
Tags:Blood Sacrifice and the Nation·Carolyn Martin·Civil Religion·David Ingle·deification·founding fathers·Lexington·mythology·nationalism·original intent·Robert Bellah·sacred national texts·Tea Party·The Perils of Constitution Worship
