These resources examine the nature of secular liberalism, from its philosophical and historical origins to its implementation and impact on people. Jesus certainly supported a distinction between serving God and Caesar, and thus church and state/society, and thus a secular sphere. Christian faith makes possible a public square that can support human rights without theocracy. But secular liberalism itself is merely a procedural frame and not a moral frame. It tends to result in a cultural individualism without a larger relational vision.

The Impact of Jesus

A written message and slides on how Jesus brought about a radical change to human history. Christian faith brought about dramatic improvements in health care and hospitals, abolition, education and schools, science and technology, criminal justice reform, and beauty and the arts. A 15 - 20 minute read.

Why Question Atheism from a Political and Moral Perspective?

A presentation on how the Enlightenment tradition gave birth to racist liberal democracies on the one hand, and Marxist communism/state-capitalism on the other.  The Enlightenment tried to dethrone Christian faith from political theory and the Christian church from political power.  Thus, the ideology of the individual and the nation-state went to these two extremes, colored by the presumption of cultural, intellectual, and spiritual superiority that Europeans had about themselves.  Protestant heresies, fed by self-imposed Protestant ignorance about the church prior to Luther, and combined with a growing nationalism, accelerated the problem.  Race became the badge of membership in Empire or the token of citizenship in the Nation-State.  Authentic Christianity, therefore, must stress Pentecost (a principled cultural diversity) as the expression of Jesus' new humanity for all humanity.

Human Dignity: Does Every Individual Matter?

Science, philosophy, existentialism, other religions, and double-predestination based theologies mean that some human beings do not matter. Only a fully Trinitarian theology with a medical substitutionary atonement can provide an adequate foundation. A 30 - 40 minute read.

God as the Foundation of Human Rights

Text of a message on Genesis 1 - 11, which was aware of other Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean creation stories, and argued against them, as shown by the literary analysis of these literatures.  Topics of disagreement include:  the value of every human being; the relations of humans and God/gods; the reason for catastrophes like the Flood; the resolution or movement.  

Christian Faith, Not Secularism, as the Basis for Political Pluralism and Economic Progressivism

A brief outline explaining from both biblical texts and early church precedent why Christian faith leads to a political posture of human rights without theocracy. There is a vision for relational obligations, and principled respect for other religions. 

The Problem of the Body for the Liberal Theory of Personhood: Your Body is Not Just Your Own

A message from 1 Corinthians 6:18 - 20 highlighting how the individualistic view of human bodies does not account for relationality and relational obligations.

Slavery: How the Early Church Got It Right

Presentation given October 2, 2021 to the Reconstruction class. Explores early Christian emancipation and abolition. While Christians did not eliminate all forms of servitude, since servitude for civic penalties, indebtedness, war captivity, and self-indenture persisted, Christians eventually did eliminate what we know as chattel slavery. The presentation examines the Old Testament institution of the Hebrew ebed servant, and the New Testament approach to Greco-Roman modes of servitude. We glance at how colonialism and Trans-Atlantic slavery deformed traditional Christian teaching, mindful that more slavery exists today across the globe than every before, and that in the U.S., indebtedness and incarceration show that we have greatly exaggerated the claims that the U.S. has done better than the Bible on “slavery” and its constellation of challenges.

Slavery in Christianity, Part 1:  Slavery in the Bible, Slavery Today 

Research and slides which explores the Old Testament, then the New Testament. It looks at what the Hebrew "ebed" service meant in context, and then what Greek "duolos" meant and how the New Testament understood the various ways people could enter servitude. It uses a sociological approach, exploring different ways in to becoming an “ebed” or “duolos,” what rights and responsibilities those roles had, and how one could leave and/or escape.

Slavery in Christianity, Part 2:  Abolitionism from the First to Fifteenth Century

Research that demonstrates that, although “slavery” was a complex phenomenon and varied across cultural groups and time periods, Christians understood the Bible as being against chattel slavery, and most other forms as well, and that Christian faith began to abolish slavery immediately, eventually formally abolishing it in northwestern and northern Europe by the 1300’s, despite the political upheavals and rising and falling of various political regimes. I am aware of ups and downs, because kingdoms rose and fell, regimes changed, and governments were not always consistent. Nevertheless, these historical record challenges the narrative that Christianity is ambiguous at best on slavery. Rather, Christianity is the only belief system that has generated abolitionist and anti-trafficking movements. See also Slavery in Islam: From the Seventh to Twenty First Century, which raises serious questions for both Muslims and also secularists who might want to argue that all belief systems are the same, etc.

White American Evangelical Political Attitudes and Behavior: Explanation and Correctives

White American evangelical political attitudes can be characterized by the debate between John Winthrop and Roger Williams, and their respective attitudes towards Native Americans, slavery, fairness, and faith in the civic space.  This is a presentation also explores Scripture and church history to argue that Roger Williams was correct.  Given to the staff of Emmanuel Gospel Center, Apr 18, 2018, as a follow-up to how Christian restorative justice impacts ministry; audio file here.

A Long Repentance: Exploring Christian Mistakes about Race, Politics, and Justice in the United States

A series of blog posts where we explore how Christian (mostly Protestant) heresies started and continue to influence our modern political and racial challenges. This includes the very notion of race itself, and how our modern economics, housing, schooling, and policing systems have been shaped. Christians must take responsibility for these heresies in the framework of repentance.  We have designed a study guide to accompany the blog posts.  Please consider using it for personal reflection or discussion in your family, church, organization, etc.

Christopher Lasch, The Agony of the American Left (book, 1970.

Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (book, May 1991.

Tales from the Hood, Confronting the Demons of Ethnocentrism (blog entry May 31, 2008.

The Unbroken Window, Markets "Force" the Poor to Sell Things (blog, Nov 20, 2009.  a good thought exercise about the limits of markets, and their effects

Su, Rounds, Armstrong, Men and Things, Women and People: A Meta-Analysis of Sex Differences in Interests. Psychology Bulletin, Nov 2009.

Chris Hedges, Death of the Liberal Class (book, Oct 2010.

Joerg Rieger and Kwok Pui-Lan, Occupy Religion: The Theology of the Multitudes. book, 2012.

Carson T. Clark, Debunking the Fourth: Top 10 Unsightly Facts About the American Revolution. Jul 3, 2013.

Nicholas A. Cummings, Sexual Reorientation Therapy Not Unethical. USA Today, Jul 30, 2013.  about the Southern Poverty Law Center's accusation of fraud

David J. Davis, Adam's Smith, Communitarian. The American Conservative, Dec 19, 2013. , a book review of Jack Russell Weinstein's book Adam Smith's Pluralism

Larry Siedentop, Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism (pdf book, 2014.

Nicholas Kristof, Modern Family Matters.  New York Times, Jan 22, 2014.

Timothy C. Morgan, Why We're Losing the War on Poverty. Christianity Today, Jan 8, 2014.  An interview with Gary Haugen about the rule of law

Neil Clark, Pete Seeger's Conservative Socialism. The American Conservative, Feb 6, 2014.

Jacquie Posey, Penn Economist Links "Assortive Mating" and Income Inequality. Penn Current, Feb 13, 2014.

Patrick J. Deneen, Tocqueville on the Individualist Roots of Progressivism. The Imaginative Conservative, Nov 2013.  On conservative vs. progressive theories of history

Kyle Harper, Robert Woodberry, Donald Miller, and Daniel Philpott, Christian Views on Dignity, Slavery, Proselytism, and Democracy. Berkley Center at Georgetown University, Jan 28, 2014.

Kyle Harper, Christianity and the Roots of Human Dignity, argues that public Christianity began after Constantine. Harper discusses slavery, sexual coercion, and poverty. On slavery, he argues that Gregory of Nyssa is significant because of his critique of slavery, though he favors literary, intellectual history and not the embodied, practiced history of the Christian community prior to that. On sexual coercion, Harper notes that bishops take the victim’s point of view and preach that human freedom is essential to the definition of sin, exonerating those who lack freedom. Emperors Theodosius then Justinian ban sexual coercion. On poverty, Christians argue that human beings have certain entitlements that demand a material response to poverty.

Robert Woodberry argues that many positive social outcomes attributed to the Enlightenment really are due to Christian missionaries. The major contributions are literacy, printing, and religious freedom. Freedom for conversion and religious liberty is a major factor for elites to give up power and wealth in the long term. East Asia had movable font metal type before Europe, but book publishing didn’t spread beyond Mahayana Buddhist circles; Jews and Catholics were present and printed works in Asia, but no one copied them because religious motivations made the difference. Woodberry focuses on colonial history and missions, studying concrete examples of missionaries’ legacy from a sociological perspective.

Donald Miller studies Pentecostals, and argues the Pentecostal movement increases religious vitality. They are not disproportionately poor, and just as politically progressive. It has a democratizing effect on churches focusing on the experience of the laity and appeal to youth.

Daniel Philpott argues that Christians from 1800 - 2000 favored liberal democracy; the stereotype that Christians were predominantly stragglers or reactionaries of liberal democracy must be revised.

Scott Wetzler, Government-Funded Relationship Education Programs Can Work. The Atlantic, Mar 14, 2014.

Jackson Lears, Teddy Roosevelt, Not-So-Great Reformer: What Washington-Focused Liberals Miss About Progressivism. The New Republic, Mar 14, 2014.

Nicholas Kristof, Where the G.O.P. Gets It Right. New York Times, Apr 9, 2014.

Ron Haskins, Marriage, Parenthood, and Family. National Affairs, Spring 2014.  See also Peter Wehner's review. Commentary, Apr 14, 2014.  about the breakdown of the family from 1960

Eric Posner, The U.S. Constitution is Impossible to Amend. Slate, May 5, 2014.

David Autor and Melanie Wasserman, Wayward Sons: The Emerging Gender Gap in Labor Markets and Education. Third Way, 2014.

Henry Giroux, Noam Chomsky and the Public Intellectual in Turbulent Times. May 12, 2014.

Stephen L. Carter, Smeared by Gay Rights Activists. Bloomberg View, Jun 5, 2014.

Anya Groner, The Heart You Save Won't Be Your Own: Working at an Outreach Center Puts a Young Idealist on the Road to Apathy. Guernica, Jun 5, 2014.

Mark Lilla, Why The Truth About Our Libertarian Age. New Republic, Jun 17, 2014.  "Why the dogma of democracy doesn't always make the world better"

William Deresiewicz, Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League. New Republic, Jul 21, 2014.

Daniel McCarthy, Why Liberalism Means Empire. The American Conservative, Jul 16, 2014.  On classical and secular liberalism, one wing of the Enlightenment, which challenges traditions and cultures without providing a substantive spiritual frame of reference to replace it; shows how Enlightenment liberalism is a thin parody of Christian missionary activity

Osita Nwanevu, The Ivy League Is Not the Problem: The persistent, misguided belief that universities can transform students into better, less-entitled people. Slate, Jul 23, 2014.

Emma Green, It Turns Out Colleges Aren't Actually Atheist Factories. The Atlantic, Aug 14, 2014.

Scott Alexander, I Can Tolerate Anything Except the Outgroup. Slate Star Codex blog, Sep 30, 2014.  with Chesterton's Father Brown on measured forgiveness

Ruth Padawer, When Women Become Men at Wellesley. New York Times Magazine, Oct 15, 2014.

Clifford Staples, The Ethical Failure of Philosophical Skepticism. The Imaginative Conservative, Nov 28, 2014.

Kyra, How to Uphold White Supremacy by Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion. Model View Culture, Dec 10, 2014.  about political liberalism vs. material justice

Patrick Deneen, After Liberalism: Can We Imagine a Humane, Post-Liberal Future? ABC Religion and Ethics, Dec 11, 2014.

Scott McConnell, Abandoned by the Left. The American Conservative, Dec 17, 2014.

Amy R. Buckley, Why You Should Be a Christian Feminist. Relevant Magazine, Dec 31, 2014.

Rod Dreher, What Do We Do After Liberalism. The American Conservative, Jan 5, 2015.

Willie Osterweil, How White Liberals Used Civil Rights to Create More Prisons. The Nation, Jan 6, 2015.

Eve Tushnet, Sociology as Class War: Progressive Social Scientists Want to Help Poor People But Won't Learn From Them. The American Conservative, Jan 16, 2015.

Patrick Deneen, Classical Liberalism - Contemporary Voices. The American Conservative, Feb 5, 2015.

Justin P. McBrayer, Why Our Children Don’t Think There Are Moral Facts. New York Times, Mar 2, 2015.

Brandon Ambrosino, Jesus' Radical Politics. Boston Globe, Apr 1, 2015.

R.J. Stove, Two Cheers for Howard Zinn. The American Conservative, Apr 1, 2015.

Aristotelis Orginos, Social Justice Bullies: The Authoritarianism of Millenial Social Justice. blog, Apr 8, 2015.

Chris Berg, Secular World Has Christian Foundation. Sydney Morning Herald, Apr 15, 2015.

Alex Tribou and Keith Collins, This is How Fast America Changes Its Mind. Bloomberg, Apr 26, 2015.

John Blake, "Lord of the Flies" Comes to Baltimore. CNN, May 2, 2015.  mostly about boys needing older men

Sam Harris & Noam Chomsky Email Exchange. Young Turks video, May 14, 2015.  See 8:43 mark for Sam Harris' cultural imperialism

Paul Mason, How to Turn a Liberal Hipster Into a Capitalist Tyrant in One Evening. The Guardian, May 24, 2015.

Alexis Stephens, Life in Boston as a Liberal Gentrifier. Next City, May 26, 2015.  

Patrick Buchanan, Why American Allies Won't Fight. The American Conservative, May 29, 2015.  a paleoconservative perspective which takes religious concerns seriously

L.A. Kaufmann, The Theology of Consensus. Jacobin Magazine, May 2015.  reflecting on Occupy Wall Street, says consensus decision-making has dominated social movements for forty years, but we need to try something different

Joan Walsh, White Progressives’ Racial Myopia: Why Their Colorblindness Fails Minorities — and the Left. Salon, Jun 1, 2015.

Edward Schlosser, I'm a Liberal Professor and My Liberal Students Scare Me. Vox, Jun 3, 2015.  how protecting feelings became more important than challenging ideas

David Brooks, The Campus Crusaders. New York Times, Jun 2, 2015.

Elinor Burkett, What Makes a Woman?. New York Times, Jun 6, 2015.

Roland Martin, Women's Groups Silent on McKinney Police Misconduct. Black Time Travel, Jun 10, 2015.

Laura Meyers, Transgender MMA Fighter Destroys Female Opponent. Libertarian Republic, Jun 10, 2015.

Brynn Tannehill, Who Decides What Makes a Woman? . Huffington Post, Jun 11, 2015.

Eva Decesare, Couple Silenced, Forced to Pay $135K for Not Baking a Cake for a Lesbian Wedding. Free Thought Project, Jul 8, 2015.

David Weigel, Do White Liberals Have a Bernie Sanders Problem?  Washington Post, Jul 21, 2015.

Gerard Alexander, Jon Stewart: Patron Saint of Liberal Smugness. New York Times, Aug 7, 2015.

Larry Siedentop, Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism. pdf book, Oct 2014.

Michelle Tang, The Christian Left - Possibly the Most Interesting Group You've Never Heard Of. Huffington Post, Oct 13, 2015.

Bret Stephens, In Defense of Christendom. Wall Street Journal, Oct 19, 2015.

Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig, Why the Left Needs Religion. Dissent, Fall 2015.

Ross Douthat, The Dying of the Whites. New York Times, Nov 7, 2015.

Arthur Chu, Bring on the Outrage: Go Ahead and Hate on the "Coddled" College Kids - Just Admit That Anti-PC Backlash is Fueled by Outrage, Too. Salon, Nov 11, 2015.

Ross Douthat, A Crisis Our Universities Deserve. New York Times, Nov 14, 2015.

Ross Douthat, The Joy of ISIS. New York Times, Nov 23, 2015.

W. Bradford Wilcox, The Latest Social Science is Wrong.  Religion is Good for Families and Kids. Washington Post, Dec 15, 2015.

David Byrne, How Progressives Stole Christian History. Crisis magazine, Dec 16, 2015.

Yotam Marom, What Really Caused the Implosion of the Occupy Movement - An Insider's View. Alternet, Dec 23, 2015.

Jesse Singal, Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Science Have Come from Liberals. New York Magazine, Dec 30, 2015.

Courtney Martin, The Reductive Seduction of Other People's Problems. Medium, Jan 11, 2016.

Alexandra Rockey Fleming, This Mother Drank While Pregnant. Here's What Her Daughter's Like at 43.. Washington Post, Jan 18, 2016.  and note the difference in opinion about drinking alcohol while pregnant by right-leaning Forbes Tara Haelle, No Amount Of Alcohol In Pregnancy Is Safe, Ever, Pediatricians Group Says. Forbes, Oct 19, 2015.  and left-leaning Salon Nora Caplin-Bricker, Light Drinking While Pregnant Is Probably Safe. Salon, Oct 19, 2015.  on the same day

Robert Tracy McKenzie, Academic Freedom in a Christian Context. blog, Jan 18, 2016.

Damon Linker, Why Opposition to Assisted Suicide is Inextricably Tied to Religion. The Week, Jan 20, 2016.

Kai Cheng Thom, 7 Ways Social Justice Language Can Become Abusive in Intimate Relationships. Everyday Feminism, Feb 17, 2016.

Glynn Custred, Turning Anthropology from Science into Political Activism. John William Pope Center, Feb 17, 2016.

Michael Kinsley, How American P.C. Culture Conquered Britain, Too. Vanity Fair, Feb 2016.  retributive responses to speech violations

Stanford Review, The Western Civilization Witch-Hunt. Stanford Review, Winter 2016.

Elizabeth Khan Stellenberg, Social Work Needs Heterodoxy. Heterodox Academy, Mar 3, 2016.

David Brooks, The Shame Culture. New York Times, Mar 15, 2016.  about campus culture not being morally relativistic anymore

Walt Heyer, Freedom to Change Your Life: Why the Government Shouldn’t Ban “Reparative Therapy” Witherspoon Institute, Apr 5, 2016.

George Monbiot, Neoliberalism - The Ideology at the Root of All Our Problems. Guardian, Apr 15, 2016.  asks why the left doesn't have an alternative

Emmett Rensin, The Smug Style of American Liberalism. Vox, Apr 21, 2016.  empathy-raising, and a good lesson for the Christian left to always engage, because collaboration with the atheist left leads to intellectual disengagement with religion and traditional interests

Nancy Hill, Can We Have Martin Luther King's Dream Without His Faith? Veritas Forum, May 2, 2016.

Michelle Goldberg, When They Say No, People Won't Listen: How Anti-Trans Conservatives Turn Left-Wing Rhetoric to Their Advantage. Slate, May 13, 2016.

Nathan Heller, The Big Uneasy: What's Roiling the Liberal Arts Campus? The New Yorker, May 30, 2016.  features Oberlin especially

Rod Dreher, Trump as Tribal Leader. The American Conservative, Jun 1, 2016.  what happens when whites turn left-wing rhetoric to their own advantage

Eric Alterman, How False Equivalence Is Distorting the 2016 Election Coverage. The Nation, Jun 2, 2016.  mostly about the New York Times

Brendan O'Neill, Orlando Has Exposed the Poison of Identity Politics. Spiked Online, Jun 15, 2016.

Bruce Frohnen, Egalitarianism, American Style. The Imaginative Conservative, Jul 2016.  on whether classes are endemic

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, Christian Teacher Fired for Not Divorcing Husband Wins in British Court. Christianity Today, Jul 5, 2016.

David H. Freedman, The War on Stupid People: American Society Increasingly Mistakes Intelligence for Human Worth. The Atlantic, Jul/Aug 2016.

Joseph Pearce, Putting Putin in Perspective. The Imaginative Conservative, Aug 2016.  intriguing to bring up birth rate, population, and Solzhenitsyn as foot soldiers for nation-building

Nikki Johnson-Huston, The Culture of the Smug White Liberal. Huffington Post, Aug 17, 2016.

Artur Rosman, Don’t Look to Secularism if You Want to Bathe in a Kinder, Gentler World. Patheos, Aug 26, 2016.

David Azerrad, The Two Minds of Progressivism. First Things, Sep 14, 2016.

Jason De Parle, Why Do People Who Need Help From the Government Hate It So Much? New York Times, Sep 19, 2016.

Peter Wehner, The Political Magic of C.S. Lewis. New York Times, Sep 24, 2016.

Philip S. Gorski, Why Do Evangelicals Vote for Trump? Imminent Frame blog, Oct 4, 2016.  shows that the alternative to religious conservatism is not secular individualism, but secular alternatives to community like fascism, racial purity, etc.

Ross Douthat, In Defense of the Religious Right.  New York Times, Oct 15, 2016.

Celebrity Types, What the H*** is Happening in Western Democracies? Haidt's Analysis. Celebrity Types, Oct 13, 2016.

Jonathan Haidt, Socialism and Human Nature. Cato Institute, Oct 31, 2016.  analysis of libertarians

The Economist, The Search Goes On. The Economist, Nov 5, 2016.  a review of Nick Spencer, The Evolution of the West: How Christianity Has Shaped Our Values. Amazon, Sep 15, 2016.

Bloomberg, The Voters Who Gave Trump the White House. Bloomberg, Nov 9, 2016.

Natalie Jackson, Why HuffPost’s Presidential Forecast Didn’t See A Donald Trump Win Coming. Huffington Post, Nov 10, 2016.

Joshua Green, Sasha Issenberg, Trump’s Data Team Saw a Different America—and They Were Right. Bloomberg, Nov 10, 2016.

Stephen Carter, Trump and the Fall of Liberalism. Bloomberg, Nov 11, 2016.

Kurt Eichenwald, The Myths Democrats Swallowed That Cost Them the Election. Newsweek, Nov 14, 2016.  extremely helpful; good analysis of Sanders; myth of DNC rigging

Todd VanderWerff, Progressive Fundamentalism: How Hollywood and the Media Fortify the Bubbles We All Live In. Vox, Nov 14, 2016.

Ryan Cooper, 2009: The Year the Democratic Party Died. The Week, Nov 15, 2016.  how they handled the banking and mortgage crisis

Eric Fehrnstrom, Democrats Know Why They Lost, But Won't Fix Their Problems. Boston Globe, Nov 16, 2016.  labor-oriented economics and abortion policy

Joel Mokyr, Progress Isn't Natural. The Atlantic, Nov 17, 2016.

David French, Progressives’ Anti-Christian Bigotry Helped Make Trump President. National Review, Nov 17, 2016.

Anonymous, Liberals Should Stop Ranting And Seek Out Silent Trump Voters Like Me. The Federalist, Nov 18, 2016.

Mark Lilla, The End of Identity Liberalism. New York Times, Nov 18, 2016.

Christian Parenti, Garbage In, Garbage Out: Turns Out Clinton's Ground Game Sucked. Jacobin Magazine, Nov 18, 2016.

Heather Raffin, How Mobilizing the Poor Might Have Changed the Election. With Love from the Rebel Alliance, Nov 22, 2016.

Charles Krauthammer, For Democrats, the Road Back. Washington Post, Nov 24, 2016.  on the contradictions of the Dems espousing identity politics at home, universalism abroad

Pinkaj Mishra, Welcome to the Age of Anger. The Guardian, Dec 8, 2016.  liberal democracies trending towards authoritarianism; liberal rationalism has difficulties explaining this

Jacob T. Levy, The Defense of Liberty Can't Do Without Identity Politics. Niskansen Center, Dec 13, 2016.  although outside of black-white racial politics, ethnicity and culture really have more traction and biblical warrant

Graham Lyse, How Democrats Can Bridge Identity Politics and Economic Populism. The New Republic, Dec 13, 2016.  “Some on the left are touting "the Bobby Kennedy coalition" as a model of multicultural working class politics.” “Unlike most politicians of his day, the senator concluded there could be no middle group standing up to bigotry in the form of segregation. “Kennedy finally understood that the only way to take on arch segregationists was to take them on directly, because you’re not going to compromise with them,” Tye said… Kennedy was willing to adopt ideas from across the political spectrum, like tax breaks for businesses investing in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant. He also made the case that white working class Americans shared struggles with poor inner-city blacks, and he delivered the same message to crowds of all colors. On some level, this is the kind of “Americans as Americans” appeal Lilla advocates, but Tye stressed that Kennedy was a principled progressive, not at all a third-way centrist like Bill Clinton.” This article may be underestimating RFK’s Catholic heritage and vision, however, along with whatever appeal he had to faith communities.

Rune Møller Stahl & Bue Rübner Hansen, The Fallacy of Post-Truth: Liberals’ Belief in Their Superior Ability to Govern Has Never Had the Facts on its Side. Jacobin Magazine, Dec 14, 2016.

Ray Dalio, Back to the Future. The World In, Dec 2016.  why the 1930's hold a clue to what lies ahead for the economy

Rob Urie, Liberalism as Class Warfare. Counterpunch, Jan 27, 2017.

Olga Khazan, The Simple Psychological Trick to Political Persuasion. The Atlantic, Feb 1, 2017.  reflects Jonathan Haidt's moral psychology

Ross Douthat, Who Are We? New York Times, Feb 4, 2017.  great reflections on the particular vs the universal, especially in the discourse of the liberal left

Jonathan M. Hansen, In W. E. B. Du Bois, Finding An Identity Politics We Can All Believe In. WBUR, Feb 16, 2017.

Noah Feldman, Free Speech in Europe Isn't What Americans Think. Bloomberg, Mar 19, 2017.

Charlie Post, How the Donald Came to Rule: A Radical Middle-Class Insurgency Has Stormed the Republican Party. Jacobin Magazine, Mar 23, 2017.  a good grasp of voting stats, racial dynamics, money in politics, and political leadership

Ross Douthat, Break Up the Liberal City. New York Times, Mar 25, 2017.

Kristi Myllenbeck, Cupertino Schools: New Sex-Ed Curriculum Fails to Pass After Parent Uproar. San Jose Mercury News, Mar 29, 2017.  attempt to normalize anal sex

Daphne White, Berkeley Author George Lakoff Says "Don't Underestimate Trump". Berkeleyside, May 2, 2017.  on the progressive failure to learn from social science research about moral languages

Thomas B. Edsall, Has the Democratic Party Gotten Too Rich for Its Own Good? New York Times, Jun 1, 2017.

Michael Brendan Dougherty, Tim Farron’s Resignation and the End of Liberal Christianity. National Review, Jun 15, 2017.  secular crowding out pluralistic

Conor Friedersdorf, The Book That Predicted Trump’s Rise Offers the Left a Roadmap for Defeating Him. The Atlantic, Jul 6, 2017.

Naomi Schaefer Riley, The Christian Right Is Finally Taking Liberals’ Advice. National Review, Aug 2, 2017.  notes 42% drop in white evangelical belief that personal character is important

Annie Holmquist, Why Americans Are Such Suckers for Propaganda. Intellectual Takeout, Aug 3, 2017.  proposes a lack of education, specifically in moral philosophy, history, and critical thinking; holds up Christians Dorothy Sayers and C.S. Lewis

Rod Dreher, Why Identity Liberals Can't Fish. The American Conservative, Aug 9, 2017.

Ian Lovett, Seminaries Reflect Struggles of Mainline Churches. Wall Street Journal, Aug 10, 2017.  and the rising enrollment of SBC seminary Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY

Joan C. Williams, Liberal Elite, It's Time to Strike a Deal with the Working Class. The Guardian, Aug 23, 2017.

Joshua Rothman, The Case for Not Being Born. New Yorker Magazine, Nov 27, 2017.  one limit of the secular tendency to view consent as being sufficient for morality.  See also Geeta Pandey, The Indian Man to Sue Parents for Giving Birth to Him. BBC, Feb 7, 2019.

David Dayen, The Democrats’ Rural Voter Problem. and How to Fix It.  The New Republic, Mar 20, 2018.

Rod Dreher, Gender Ideology Ruined the Left. The American Conservative, Mar 24, 2018.

Rod Dreher, The Barely-Beating Heart Of Christendom. The American Conservative, Mar 26, 2018.  re: Western Europe

John Eligon, They Push. They Protest. And Many Activists, Privately, Suffer as a Result. New York Times, Mar 26, 2018.  re: the emotional and physical toll of activism on activists

Alison Gopnik, When Truth and Reason Are No Longer Enough. The Atlantic, Apr 2018.  In his new book, Steven Pinker is curiously blind to the power and benefits of small-town values; an example of the enthrallment of the "new left" with secular liberalism rather than Christian liberalism

Yoram Hazony, The Dark Side of the Enlightenment. Wall Street Journal, Apr 6, 2018.  Today’s advocates oversell the benefits of unfettered reason. They dismiss the contributions of tradition, religion and nationalism to human progress.

Eliane Glaser, We Went Too Far in Toppling Authority. Some Is Good For Us. The Guardian, Apr 9, 2018.

Michael Warren Davis, The Max Bootification of the American Right. The American Conservative, Apr 13, 2018.  "those who count freedom unstructured by order as their sole virtue will always yield calamity"

Patrick J. Buchanan, Why the Authoritarian Right Is On the Rise. The American Conservative, Apr 20, 2018.

Paul Gottfried, Stop Throwing Around the 'Socialist' Label. The American Conservative, May 24, 2018.  

Glenn Greenwald, The Democratic Party’s 2018 View of Identity Politics Is Confusing, and Thus Appears Cynical and Opportunistic. The American Conservative, Jun 12, 2018.  

Olga Khazan, Why Conservatives Find Life More Meaningful Than Liberals. The Atlantic, Jul 26, 2018.  

Briahna Gray, Beware the Race Reductionist. The Intercept, Aug 26, 2018.  points out how class politics overlaps considerably with racial justice concerns, and critiques some Democrats for not maintaining a proper balance between them, in the name of focusing on race  

Yoram Hazony, The Virtue of Nationalism. Amazon book, Sep 4, 2018.  praises the heretical appropriation of the Old Testament national freedom motif by the English, Dutch, and Americans, without acknowledging how those empires violated biblical ethics from Mosaic Israel (which included welcoming of foreigners, fairly egalitarian distribution of land, restorative justice, and empowerment of women.  from Jesus' mission (anti-territorialism, expansion of communal identity, principled multi-culturalism.  and ethics of repentance (restitution in both Moses and Jesus.  which would normally be applied to colonialist injustice.  See review by Friedrich Hansen, Reflections on the Renaissance of Nationalism. Geopolitica, Sep 4, 2018.  from a Russian-Eurasian geopolitical posture, which many Eastern Europeans support, and regular support for Hazony from The American Conservative.

Robert Chao Romero, Critical Race Theory in Christianity Part I: The Christian-Ethnic Studies Borderlands. blog, Sep 7, 2018.  gives a very illuminating personal account of being a pastor, immigration lawyer, and professor teaching at UCLA in Ethnic Studies, as well as a good response to recent conservative evangelical denials that social justice is an organic and fundamental part of the Christian gospel message.

David Brooks, The Rich White Civil War. New York Times, Oct 15, 2018.  "the most active groups are on the extremes — Progressive Activists on the left (8 percent of Americans.  and Devoted Conservatives on the right (6 percent. ...the richest of all the groups... the whitest of the groups... the highest education levels... high levels of personal security"

Conor Friedersdorf, The Idioms of Non-Argument. The Atlantic, Oct 16, 2018.  points out that the most shrill voices on the political left become psychoanalysts of their opponents, and avoid the issues of substance

Patt Morrison, New Linguist George Lakoff on What Democrats Don’t Understand — and Republicans do — About How Voters Think. Los Angeles Times, Nov 28, 2018.  about the importance of storytelling in civic, political life; touches on how private enterprise depends on public development and funding. and how the left tends to fail at both.

E.J. Dionne, There Is Much to Fear About Nationalism. But Liberals Need to Address It the Right Way.. Washington Post, Dec 30, 2018.  summarizes John B. Judis, The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics. Amazon book, Oct 5, 2016.  and John B. Judis, The Nationalist Revival: Trade, Immigration, and the Revolt Against Globalization. Amazon book, Oct 9, 2018.  who distinguishes between globalism and internationalism, and argues against the former and advocates for the latter.

Walter G. Moss, Why Conservatives Are Right to Stress Moral Education. History News Network, Dec 30, 2018.  

Philip Klein, New York Times Whitewashes Anti-Semitism of Incoming House Democrat Ilhan Omar. Washington Examiner, Dec 31, 2018.

Nathan Heller, The Philosopher Redefining Equality. New Yorker Magazine, Jan 7, 2019.  "Our real concern should be equality not in material benefits, Elizabeth Anderson argues, but in social relations: democratic equality"

Scott McConnell, The Immigrants Challenging Europe’s Code of Silence on Islam. The American Conservative, Jan 11, 2019.  "They have been liberated by their ethnic backgrounds to speak more candidly than the vast majority of their countrymen"

David Brooks, The Cruelty of Call-Out Culture. New York Times, Jan 14, 2019.

Evan Mandery, Why There’s No Liberal Federalist Society. Politico, Jan 23, 2019.  "The legal left has a money problem, a history problem and—maybe worst of all—a big-idea problem"

Rod Dreher, The New York Times' Anti-Christian Crusade. The American Conservative, Jan 24, 2019.

Gavin Butler, Why An Indian Man Is Suing His Parents for Conceiving Him Without His Consent. Vice, Feb 11, 2019.  "The man's mother said that’s fine, but don’t expect me to go easy on you. I will destroy you in court" - a humorous take on the limits of consent as morality

Derek Thompson, Workism Is Making Americans Miserable. The Atlantic, Feb 24, 2019.  "For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity—promising identity, transcendence, and community, but failing to deliver"

Nazia Parveen, Birmingham School Stops LGBT Lessons After Parents Protest. The Guardian, Mar 4, 2019.  re: Muslim parents

William Echikson, What’s Behind Europe’s Surge in Anti-Semitism? Politico, Mar 4, 2019.  “Violent attacks against Jews are multiplying as fringe politics become the norm.”

Kelefa Sanneh, The Fight to Redefine Racism. The New Yorker, Aug 19, 2019.  “In “How to Be an Antiracist,” Ibram X. Kendi argues that we should think of “racist” not as a pejorative but as a simple, widely encompassing term of description.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Matt Stoller: Obama’s “Catastrophic Response” to Financial Crisis. Rising | The Hill, Nov 8, 2019.  interviews Matt Stoller, Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Amazon book, Oct 2019. , see also Matt Stoller, How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul. The Atlantic, Oct 24, 2016.  “In the 1970s, a new wave of post-Watergate liberals stopped fighting monopoly power. The result is an increasingly dangerous political system.” Concentrated wealth in America produces political swings between culturally elitist signalling on race without actual change for working class people, authoritarian populism in reaction, and economic populism. 

Joseph Stiglitz, The End of Neoliberalism and the Rebirth of History. Project Syndicate, Nov 4, 2019.  “For 40 years, elites in rich and poor countries alike promised that neoliberal policies would lead to faster economic growth, and that the benefits would trickle down so that everyone, including the poorest, would be better off. Now that the evidence is in, is it any wonder that trust in elites and confidence in democracy have plummeted?” But not only that, religious and cultural conservatives have resisted materialistic values of late capitalism, contra Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History thesis.

Saagar Enjeti, Corbynism is a Dire Warning for the American Left. Rising | The Hill, Dec 13, 2019.  social-cultural conservatism is an important factor in voting; immigration is a cultural issue and not just an economic one

Alejandra Gomes and Tomas Robles Jr., How to Turn Anger and Fear Into Political Power. New York Times, Dec 21, 2019.  the Latino community and Latino activists will impact both the left and the right; probably pulling the left to be less secular on cultural and religious issues

David Doel, Bernie Sanders Calls Out The Failure Of Both Parties & Media. Rational National, Jan 21, 2020.  points out how Bernie Sanders replied to the New York Times editors on how Trump played a classic game of demagoguery to scapegoat a minority for the economic anxieties Americans experience; Sanders compared 1930’s Germany to the rise of Trumpism; Sanders critiques the establishment Democratic Party for becoming too centrist on economic issues, which actually empowers and emboldens the far right

Rod Dreher, Class War As Culture War. The American Conservative, Jan 22, 2020.  identifies the shift in American politics from economics to culture, and takes the religious and cultural arguments seriously, explaining that working class people are willing to sacrifice their economic interests for cultural ones.

Chauncey DeVega, Radical Historian Harvey J. Kaye: Only a Progressive President Can Save America. Salon, Jan 23, 2020.  “Truman was not able to avoid the 1946 congressional defeat by the Republicans. That enabled the Republicans to pass the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. That law targeted working people and African-Americans, and in fact was specifically a way of preventing labor from organizing in the South. This meant that the possibilities to mobilize for civil rights were also stymied for many years.” LBJ failed to break the filibuster on labor law reform, and Carter turned away from labor.

Ed West, Why the Rich Are Revolting. UnHerd, Jun 10, 2020.  interesting history about the disjuncture between revolts led by middle/upper class people and those led by poor people; religion should be an another thread historically but does not feature here

Rod Dreher, Bostock & SOGI: A Christian Waterloo. The American Conservative, Jun 19, 2020.  although, all this for tax exemptions?

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Krystal and Saagar Blast Cancel Culture Meltdown Over Chomsky, Rowling Letter Defending Free Speech. Rising | The Hill, Jul 8, 2020.

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Eddie Glaude Calls Out Neoliberals for Trying to Pin All Racism on Republicans. Rising | The Hill, Jul 9, 2020.  about James Baldwin’s later views confronting this historic moment

Tom Holland, How Christianity Gained Dominion | A Secular Historian Loses His Faith in Liberalism. Speak Life, Oct 11, 2020.  a 70 minute video interview where Holland contrasts Athenian democracy with modern democracy, paganism’s vision of the human and the biblical vision of the human, fatalistic circular narratives and the linear narrative of change, etc. See his book, Tom Holland, Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind.  Amazon book, Sep 2019. .

Ruy Teixiera, The Five Deadly Sins of the Left. American Compass, Oct 13, 2020.  “Identity Politics. Retro-Socialism. Catastrophism. Growthphobia. Technopessimism.” Although social programs like the ACA are not necessarily “retro,” and green/renewable energy is not rejected by progressives.

Krystal Ball, Groundbreaking Study Proves Culture Wars Kill Class Politics. Breaking Points, Jun 7, 2021.  highlights a very important study by Thomas Picketty et al. about Portugal and Ireland taking an economically leftist, working-class oriented, progressive turn from the 2008-09 crisis, and thereby avoiding the rightward, antidemocratic fascist currents of other countries. This has major implications for the corporate Democrats abandoning the working class.

Richard Wolff, Economic Update: The Center Cannot Hold. Democracy at Work, Jun 14, 2021.  a short summary of the political monopoly operated by establishment, corporatists in the GOP and Dems. Wolff’s analysis of coalitions could be adjusted to: old industry (oil, gas, etc..  vs. new (high tech, etc.. . Wolff points out how the coalitions fray.

Heather Cox Richardson, History Chat. Facebook, Sep 9, 2021.  in this video, traces early US history which undermines the myth of the rational individual: the formation of political parties within a decade of the signing of the Constitution; the formation of the “winner take all” strategy of the Electoral College; the admission of new States in the West; the use of lead paint to color food like lollipops; regulatory laws responding to industrialism.

C.J. Pascoe, Nice Is Not Enough: Inequality and the Limits of Kindness. University of California Press | Amazon page, Sep 2023. From two years of research, Pascoe “shares striking dispatches from one high school's "regime of kindness" to underline how the culture operates as a Band-Aid on persistent inequalities. Through incisive storytelling and thoughtful engagement with students, this brilliant study by C.J. Pascoe exposes uncomfortable truths about American politics and our reliance on individual solutions instead of profound systemic change. Nice Is Not Enough brings readers into American High, a middle- and working-class high school characterized by acceptance, connection, and kindness—a place where, a prominent sign states, "there is no room for hate." Here, inequality is narrowly understood as a problem of individual merit, meanness, effort, or emotion rather than a structural issue requiring deeper intervention. Surface-level sensitivity allows American High to avoid "political" topics related to social inequality based on race, sex, gender, or class. Being nice to each other, Pascoe reveals, does not serve these students or solve the broader issues we face; however, a true politics of care just might.”

Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland, Why Union Workers Abandoned The Democratic Party | Lainey Newman. The Majority Report, Feb 12, 2024. Released Feb 18, 2024. Lainey Newman, research assistant at Harvard Law School, discusses her recent book Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party, co-authored with Theda Skocpol.

Rory Sutherland, Are We Too Impatient to Be Intelligent? Behavioral Scientist, Sep 17, 2024.