Last week, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles was (and continues to be) disparaged by many for her choice to bow out of the games after developing a dangerous case of what gymnasts call “the twisties.” I’m thankful for her courage in modeling resistance to our culture of overwork and exploitation. As usual, she is proving to be a champion of champions– this time for resting rather than performing. I stand in awe of how Biles has chosen to love and... Read more
I don’t know about you, but in all the time I spent in school in my life, the history I learned was almost always about white people. That’s why I like to talk about “telling the truth about American history” when people start ranting and raving about “Critical Race Theory.” These rants are just bad-faith, coordinated political attacks meant to stop us from honestly looking at this nation’s past and present. Frankly, when we tell only the story of white... Read more
As I look at the struggles of this nation today, with so many families straining to meet their needs while a handful of billionaires hoard literally more wealth than ever, I look to the Gospel for a vision of a future where we can all thrive. After time alone on the Sea of Galilee after John the Baptist’s death, Jesus arrived on shore to a crowd of 5,000 gathered to see him perform miracles up close and personal. Yet... Read more
A couple weeks ago, I joined a group of religious leaders at the Capitol to lift up the voices of 15,000 faith leaders nationwide who are calling on the Senate to pass the Equality Act which would grant non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people. Two out of three LGBTQ people experience discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare and other important services and 29 states still have no anti-discrimination protections. In Georgia, Florida and North Carolina, Faith in Public Life has seen... Read more
Religious Freedom Day falls at a dangerous moment this year. As the nation reels in response to President Trump’s attempted January 6th coup, and the senate prepares to vote on whether to convict the outgoing president of inciting insurrection, we can’t miss the relevance of this critical First Amendment issue. Discrimination in the name of religion and attempts to overturn the results of legitimate elections are violations of our nation’s values cut from the same cloth by the same politicians... Read more
One month after the 2016 election, a gunman stormed into a pizza parlor three blocks from my house and fired three shots from an AR-15 before being disarmed and arrested. His attack was fueled by the baseless conspiracy theory that Democratic elites were running a child sex ring out of the restaurant’s basement. He thought he was rescuing trafficked children. As we approach the 2020 election, this same delusion is a hallmark of QAnon — a cult-like movement seeping... Read more
From day one of his political career, President Trump’s rhetoric and policies have harmed women. We know very well his greatest hits of misogyny. Granting a broad “religious exemption” from contraception coverage in employer-provided health insurance, gutting sexual assault prevention programs, and ripping toddlers away from their mothers at the border are just a few examples of his anti-women policies. And his pattern of degrading women who challenge him — from journalists to Congresswomen — attacks our dignity. In 2020,... Read more
The struggle over legal protections for young immigrants is a proxy conflict about our nation’s future. Our debate over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program pits the Statue of Liberty versus the wall, human dignity versus nativist anger. As demagogues have driven our nation’s immigration, asylum and refugee policies since day one of the Trump administration, young immigrants and allies have refused to back down. Homes and jobs, hopes and dreams, all hang in the balance. The long... Read more
Racist violence is swirling in the air this week, telling us to sit powerless in its presence. We must defy it. In Minneapolis, a white police officer pinned his knee to the neck of George Floyd, a black man who died pleading for breath. A day earlier in Central Park, a white woman threatened a bird-watching black man by whipping out her phone and saying “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” because he... Read more
Debates about church and state have never been for the faint of heart. Whether the issue is school-sponsored prayer, or conservative Christians asserting a right to discriminate against LGBTQ people, or the Trump administration’s Muslim ban, the stakes cut to the heart of our nation’s values. What happens when religious conscience and civil rights collide? Is it ever permissible for one person’s faith to proscribe another person’s rights? Are we pluralistic or theocratic? Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re on the... Read more
Faith in Public Life: Rev. Jen Butler
