Back in July, I wrote a very popular open letter to President Trump in response to his speech in front of Mount Rushmore wherein he accused public schools of indoctrinating students to “hate America.” Well, I’m back for another round. This past week, the president doubled down by announcing that he will create a “Patriotic Education Commission” so that schools will be forced by “patriotic parents” to “stop teaching about what America has done wrong” and “start teaching about freedoms.”… Read more
September 24, 2020
Trump and his Far-Right Christian Base Don’t Know What Patriotism Means
September 24, 2020 By Shane Phipps
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September 2, 2020
Conservative Christianity Keeps Rhyming History
September 2, 2020 By Shane Phipps
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Trigger Warning: This article is not meant to be a condemnation of all who claim to be conservative Christians. It is simply an historic account of things done under the banner of conservative Christianity. These things cannot be denied; at least not by anyone with the slightest education about our national story. Draw your own conclusions. Mark Twain is credited (rightly or wrongly) as having once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” There is so much truth… Read more
August 27, 2020
Right Wing Christian, You’ve Told Me Why You Can’t Vote for a Democrat, Let Me Tell You Why I Can
August 27, 2020 By Shane Phipps
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I’m sick and tired of being guilted by conservative Christians for having empathy and compassion. I’m just over it. Every day, I’m confronted with political memes from right wing Christians implying that if I vote for a Democrat, I’m on the fast train to hell. Every damn day. This particular meme has been popping up a lot on my social media feed lately… It addresses the usual topics that right wing Christians hide behind as an excuse to show… Read more
August 21, 2020
President Trump, You Are Calling Out the Wrong People for “Hurting God”
August 21, 2020 By Shane Phipps
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The other day, President Trump stood in front of a bank of microphones and said that, if elected, Joe Biden would “hurt God”, “hurt the Bible” and basically implied that Liberals want to kill Christianity. As sophomoric and ridiculous as that claim sounded to most Americans, Trump knew what he was doing. He was sounding yet another in a never ending series of dog whistles to his most adamantly supportive base, the far-right evangelicals. Say what you will about the… Read more
August 7, 2020
Reprogramming our Minds to Pull Empathy from Hatred
August 7, 2020 By Shane Phipps
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Yesterday was our first day back to school in almost five months. As is normally the case, our school doesn’t jump right into our regular curriculum. We spend the first few days of the school year getting to know each other and trying to build a foundation for a positive school culture. Teachers are given “canned” lessons (produced by outside companies) to help get our students off to a good start. There is value in these lessons, but I normally… Read more
July 7, 2020
An Open Letter to President Trump on Behalf of Social Studies Teachers Everywhere
July 7, 2020 By Shane Phipps
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Mr. President, A few days ago, you stood on a stage in front of Mount Rushmore and made some comments that can only be described as a direct attack upon public schools. In that speech, you claimed that America’s public schools teach students to “hate America” and insinuated that the indoctrination modern students recieve in schools is at the root of much of the current movement to bring drastic changes in American society, such as the removal of monuments that… Read more
June 20, 2020
Hey, Let’s All Take a Deep Breath, Shut Up and Listen
June 20, 2020 By Shane Phipps
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The other day, I was blindsided by a thread on a Facebook post. The experience really illuminated in mind a very large problem we are facing in our nation. The post was shared on large Facebook group for teachers that I belong to. This group tends to focus a lot on social justice and progressive causes, which makes it right down my alley. But this particular post and the comment thread that followed, which I became entangled in, quickly escalated… Read more
June 1, 2020
2020: The Year That Brought Us Face to Face with Ourselves
June 1, 2020 By Shane Phipps
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I haven’t been able to bring myself to write much for weeks. Throughout much of this time of the Covid-19 quarantine, I’ve just been sitting around looking at the television–not watching really, just looking–or doing yard work, or walking the dog, etc., and ruminating on what’s happened to our nation. I haven’t been particularly angry, sad, agitated, or anything like that. Mostly, I’ve been numb. I guess that’s why I’ve found it difficult to write much. But I have been… Read more
April 20, 2020
The Christian Right is under siege by a pandemic of hypocrisy
April 20, 2020 By Shane Phipps
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As the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown drags into it’s second month, the country is getting restless. That’s pretty understandable, this is uncharted territory for all of us and patience does tend to wear thin. After a honeymoon period where most of us were pretty much resigned to the fact that we were going to be hunkered down for a good while, there is now a growing movement of folks pushing to end the lockdown in order to get the economy back… Read more
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TRENDING AT PATHEOS Politics Blue
The Truest Words Donald Trump Ever Spoke
Even a pathological liar, given enough opportunities to speak, will occasionally let the truth slip out. I haven’t seen a comprehensive tally since back in July, but at that time, through his first 1,200 days in office, President Trump had made more than 20,000 false statements. Ladies and Gentlemen, that is an AVERAGE of 17 verifiable lies each and every day he’s been president. Look, I’m far from perfect, don’t get me wrong. I have lied many times in my life,… Read more