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On July 30, 1956, President Eisenhower signed the bill that made “In God We Trust” the national motto. This was the first official national motto and replaced the unofficial one, which goes back to the Franklin-Jefferson-Adams era, “E Pluribus Unum”: “Out of many, one.” I wish the nation would revert to “Out of many, one.” […]
Overall, while there are many places where I fundamentally disagree with Mr. Barr, I do share a concern with him. The concern is not the decline of institutional Christianity, of a particular sort, but is this: Which institutions today are in a strong position to form moral communities and moral citizens that can develop the virtues necessary for a multicultural, shared-space democracy?
Christian progressives should resist the moniker “the Christian Left.” Given the powerful bond to right-left labeling in the culture, the phrase “Christian Left” might be inevitable. But the label is highly problematic. There are two fundamental problems. The first is because the label begs comparison, if not false equivalency, to the Christian Right. The second […]
If moderate and progressive religious congregations developed their members’ capacity to have difficult moral, ethical, political conversations, both the congregation and democracy in the U.S. could be improved.