Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Smart people saying smart things (01.01.24)

Smart people saying smart things (01.01.24)

Last updated on: January 2, 2024 at 6:43 pm by Fred Clark

0 Comments

Smart people saying smart things (01.01.24) 2024-01-02T18:43:41-05:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Doug Muder, “MAGA and the Swifties”

American conservatives often praise capitalism as a system where anybody who has talent and works hard can rise to the top. So in theory, they should love people who make that climb. In fact, though, they hate those people, especially the ones who remember where they came from and try to help other people rise too.

… The point of the Horatio Alger myth is to keep the masses content: We may not have much now, but we could someday. We should admire the billionaires because maybe, just maybe, we’ll be one ourselves someday.

But that fantasy is never supposed to come true. Conservatism is all about keeping the rich on top, not opening their ranks to admit climbers.

Dahlia Lithwick, “Who Determines Kate Cox’s Health Care”

It’s 2023, and Ken Paxton is accusing the pregnant mother of two children, who desperately wants more children, of being untruthful with the courts, while he terrorizes her physician and the hospitals at which she has admitting privileges. What is “substantial impairment of a major bodily function” if not the impairment of future childbirth? The only way Kate Cox can persuade a bunch of elected judges and lawyers (who have never met her and don’t care about her health or her reproductive future) that she should be allowed to end an excruciating, doomed pregnancy is by either: 1) dying; or 2) having a physician certify that she will die without treatment. And this macabre pretzel is what we are advised is definitionally “pro-life.”

Kate Cox is a woman who has already been to the emergency room four times “for pregnancy symptoms including severe cramps, leaking fluid and elevated vital signs.” She is a woman who is simply asking to be viewed as an adult human capable of making a medical decision with her physician. And in response, the people in power are decidedly saying to her that there is essentially no medical authority that they trust more than themselves to make that decision—oh, and their decision is always no, and if an actual doctor dares to contradict them, that doctor could be facing a 99-year prison sentence.

Jessica Valenti, “Absolutely Not”

When Kaitlyn Joshua had a miscarriage in Louisiana, she was turned away from two different emergency rooms because of the state’s abortion ban. The first hospital refused to confirm her miscarriage or advise her on treatment options. Instead, a nurse told her, “we’re praying for you.” When Joshua went to another ER the following day, she was bleeding so much that her pants were soaked through. Still, she was denied medication to speed up the miscarriage—or a referral to another hospital that might be able to help her. They wouldn’t even give her discharge papers stating that she was having a miscarriage.

Robyn Pennacchia, “Nikki Haley’s ‘Honest’ Abortion Answer Is A Full-On Monet”

Now, this used to be a winning argument for the Right, because people heard “late-term abortions” and kind of just assumed that they were had by people who went through nine months of pregnancy and said, “EH, you know what? I’m gonna pass.” Or by those who were such lazy sluts that they just didn’t get around to it by then. It wasn’t a hard pill for people to swallow because this is a familiar archetype of “female evil” that goes back centuries.

As long as people thought that’s what it was, they were golden. As long as no one actually saw the reality of what “banning late term abortion” looked like, it worked —and often was a hard thing for us to counter. But we have seen it now. And now when people hear “banning late term abortion” they start thinking about women with miscarriages not being able to get care until they almost go into sepsis.

Adam Kotsko, “What if pro-lifers already are consistently ‘pro-life’?”

Even that seems tame compared to the contemporary American right’s political theology of life, however, which seeks the violent imposition of a hierarchy in the name of defending life. Again, being pro-“life” does not mean cherishing and affirming every human being, but drawing a line between the allies of life and the allies of death. It means stating clearly what kind of life — white life, American life, suburban life — is valid and what life — Black life, immigrant life, urban life — is sacrificeable. It means being able to reduce women to chattel in the service of boosting the white fertility rate, to avoid the horrific blasphemy of handing God’s chosen nature over to the allies of death. And it means being able to engage in ultra-violence to sustain the boundaries of “our way of life” — from impromptu police executions to vehicular homicide of protestors to the school shootings for which our children regularly practice their ritual responses.

Uncategorized

smart

Previous Post

December 29, 2023

LBCF, No. 7: The Babel Fish

Next Post

January 2, 2024 Happy Inbox Amnesty Month!

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"To clarify, when I say setting up opportunities for him to say it, I just ..."

Daniel McLellan

‘A hermeneutical Pandora’s box’

"That's one thing I always loved about the animated series. In the episode where Batgirl ..."

Daniel McLellan

‘A hermeneutical Pandora’s box’

"All the "good" interpretations of their relationship tend to lean on the idea that the ..."

Ross

‘A hermeneutical Pandora’s box’

"Mostly his pupils..."

Iain Lovejoy

The purpose-driven labor priest

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian group practices foot washing as an ordinance?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Baptists Methodists Catholics Anabaptists