Our Puritan Heritage : Democracy Journal When the Iron Curtain collapsed 25 years ago, leaving what seemed a world without walls, many Very Serious People heralded neoliberal capitalist democracy’s triumph on earth. “One thing the Cold War did accomplish,” wrote the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, “was to vindicate democracy and capitalism.” Thomas Friedman gazed at multinational corporate logos on buildings and baseball caps in Bangalore and announced that The World Is Flat, reflecting a belief that cosmopolitanism and liberal democracy would inevitably follow open markets. But even as many societies embraced variants of a neoliberal economy, their ruling elites had to reconcile its benefits with its social disruptions, which often aroused not liberal-democratic enthusiasms but religious and tribal resentments—Jihad vs. Can those of us who have felt helpless before such reactions do better? Four Gifts of the Puritans The Puritans were America’s first Very Serious People. Why We Don’t Like Them What We Owe Them R.H.
Did Confederate symbols gain prominence in the civil rights era? A major catalyst in the run up to the deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Va., was the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. As the nation reeled from the violence, some political analysts sought to place Confederate symbolism in a broader historical context to help explain the turmoil around the Aug. 11-12 weekend. "The idea of putting up (Confederate) monuments actually didn’t happen right after the Civil War. Reid went on to say that Confederate symbols were political statements aimed at African-Americans. American history features two periods when Confederate symbolism spiked: around the turn of the 20th century and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s. Early 20th century: Confederate monuments multiply A sharp uptick in the construction of Confederate monuments took place from the late 1890s up to about 1920. Several cross-currents explain the explosion of Confederate symbolism in this period. Civil rights era: Confederate flag gains prominence
Resources For Educators To Use In The Wake Of Charlottesville : NPR Ed Four-year-old Leo Griffin leaves a Chicago protest against the alt-right movement held to mourn the victims of Charlottesville, Va. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Scott Olson/Getty Images Four-year-old Leo Griffin leaves a Chicago protest against the alt-right movement held to mourn the victims of Charlottesville, Va. How should educators confront bigotry, racism and white supremacy? One teacher wondering aloud about his role is Derek Weimer. Weimer says he taught Fields in three classes at Cooper High School in Union, Ky. Weimer says Fields was intelligent and didn't cause trouble. For 40 years, the nonprofit Facing History and Ourselves has been training teachers to confront racism and bigotry. Studies show that the curriculum produces academic, social and emotional gains in students. "There's a whole lot teachers can slow down and unpack with their students rather than get completely caught up in the emotion of the moment." Just starting out Historical background
The Most Bible-Minded Cities in America | American Bible Society Chattanooga, Tenn., is the most Bible-minded city in the U.S., according to American Bible Society’s fourth annual America’s Top Bible-Minded Cities study. The recognition marks the second time in three years Chattanooga has taken home the top spot. Birmingham, Ala., ranked first in 2014. Driven to equip 100 million people in the U.S. to actively engage with God’s Word, American Bible Society regularly conducts research to learn more about Bible behavior and perceptions. By executing the Top Bible-Minded Cities study, American Bible Society better understands which cities have a Bible-reading culture and how many people in these cities regularly read Scripture. Rankings Locations in the South, particularly those in the Bible Belt, continue to lead U.S. cities in Bible-mindedness, according to the 2016 report. Springfield, Mo., also performed well in the 2016 report, jumping five spots from 11 to six. Methodology Looking to help your community or congregation engage with the Bible?
These Wall Street millionaires literally plotted to overthrow the president President Franklin Roosevelt made an enemy of the richest Americans with remarkable haste. By his first term, his heavily progressive New Deal taxes and the suspension of the gold standard inspired vocal opponents within the highest echelons of industry. Among them was an irate William Randolph Hearst, who filmed a message decrying the “impudent” and “despotic” new tax code. Yet of all of Roosevelt’s powerful enemies, perhaps none were more formidable, or incensed, than those who considered throwing him out of office by way of a fascist military coup. It is impossible to say exactly how close the Business Plot — also called the White House Coup and Wall Street Putsch — came to overthrowing the president. At the time, Butler was enjoying the boost of a positive public profile, as a result of his enthusiastic advocacy for veterans. In a second meeting, MacGuire, a $150-a-week bond salesman for the financier Grayson M. Those implicated agreed.
Why do we think poor people are poor because of their own bad choices? | US news Cecilia Mo thought she knew all about growing up poor when she began teaching at Thomas Jefferson senior high school in south Los Angeles. As a child, she remembered standing in line, holding a free lunch ticket. But it turned out that Mo could still be shocked by poverty and violence – especially after a 13-year-old student called her in obvious panic. He had just seen his cousin get shot in his front yard. For Mo, hard work and a good education took her to Harvard and Stanford. Now, as an assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University, Mo studies how to get upper-class Americans to recognize the advantages they have. It all starts with the psychology concept known as the “fundamental attribution error”. For example, if an unexpected medical emergency bankrupts you, you view yourself as a victim of bad fortune – while seeing other bankruptcy court clients as spendthrifts who carelessly had too many lattes.
PRRI The American Religious Landscape in 2020 Seven in ten Americans (70%) identify as Christian, including more than four in ten who identify as white Christian and more than one-quarter who identify as Christian of color. Nearly one in four Americans (23%) are religiously unaffiliated, and 5% identify with non-Christian religions.[1] The most substantial cultural and political divides are between white Christians and Christians of color. The Decline of White Christian America Slows Over the last few decades, the proportion of the U.S. population that is white Christian has declined by nearly one-third. The slight increase in white Christians between 2018 and 2020 was driven primarily by an uptick in the proportion of white mainline (non-evangelical) Protestants and a stabilization in the proportion of white Catholics. Since 2006, white evangelical Protestants have experienced the most precipitous drop in affiliation, shrinking from 23% of Americans in 2006 to 14% in 2020. Republicans vs.
It’s Not a Women’s White House It’s Not a Women’s White [...] Suffragists picketing in front of the White House, 1917 (Library of Congress) Everyone is aware that the White House doesn’t have its first female occupant. The pay gap between male and female White House staffers has more than tripled in the first year of the Trump administration, according to an analysis by economist Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.The median female White House employee is drawing a salary of $72,650 in 2017, compared to the median male salary of $115,000. But that’s not all. Indeed, Patrice Onwuka writes for the Washington Examiner that it might be time for the office to go: Signals that the Trump administration may disband the White House Council on Women and Girls have set off a new round of attacks against President Trump. Can we say that these are symptoms of a wider disease?