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Smart people saying smart things (11.27.24)

Smart people saying smart things (11.27.24)

Last updated on: November 27, 2024 at 7:00 am by Fred Clark

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Smart people saying smart things (11.27.24) 2024-11-27T04:09:34-05:00 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.

James Baldwin, in Notes of a Native Son

It began to seem that one would have to hold in the mind forever two ideas which seemed to be in opposition. The first idea was acceptance, the acceptance, totally without rancor, of life as it is, and men as they are: in the light of this idea, it goes without saying that injustice is a commonplace. But this did not mean that one could be complacent, for the second idea was of equal power: that one must never, in one’s own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but must fight them with all one’s strength. This fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair.

Jamelle Bouie, from TikTok

I have nothing but contempt for the assumption that the game is over now. … If you were black in Mississippi in 1955, the entire system was against you. Your mayor was against you, your city council was against you, your state representative was against you, your state senator was against you, your House representative was against you, your senator was against you, your governor was against you. Every single level of the institutions of the state in which you lived were against you. And somehow they figured out how to do political opposition. No one in the United States is living in a situation analogous to a black person in Mississippi in 1955 where there was a goddam secret police harassing opponents of the regime. So if they can figure it out, so can we.

Isabel Soisson, “Republicans keep lying about ‘post-birth’ abortions and ‘abortion up until birth.’ Here’s the reality.”

Imagine being a mother to a newborn — so new that you just finished giving birth — and you learn upon delivering your baby that they are fatally ill and have no chance of survival.

Now imagine the horrifying choice that presents you with: would you ask doctors to do everything they could to try and extend your baby’s life by a few minutes, maybe a few hours, even if it meant performing invasive procedures, causing them pain, and ultimately failing to save them? Or would you choose the other option: palliative care and spending those final precious moments with your baby, in calm and peaceful surroundings?

This traumatizing experience is one that many families face each year, and even though some choose the latter, those sorts of decisions are the subject of a massive misinformation and conspiracy campaign led by Donald Trump and anti-abortion conservatives.

Isabela Dias, “How Trump’s ‘Mass Deportation’ Plan Would Ruin America”

The nation’s undocumented immigrants grow and harvest the food we eat, construct our homes, and care for our young and elderly. They pay billions in taxes, start businesses that employ Americans, and help rebuild in the wake of climate disasters.

Not only would Trump’s plan rip families and communities apart, but it also would have devastating effects for years to come, including on US citizens who perhaps have overlooked how integral undocumented immigrants are to their everyday life. Trump frames immigration as an existential threat to the United States. He has said immigrants are “taking our jobs,” are “not people,” and are “poisoning the blood of our country.” The reality is that if his plan were implemented, American life as we know it would be ruined—even for those cheering for mass deportation.

Elle Hardy, “The Global Rise of Narco-Pentecostalism”

Peixao is part of a growing band of “narco-evangelists” — organized criminals with a strong religious motive who have become a bug, if not a feature, of a strand of Christianity that is sweeping all before it. What began as a peculiarly Brazilian phenomenon has become a global trend of gangsters — and sometimes pastors — using evangelical Christian networks and beliefs to stamp their authority on illicit trades.

Emerging from the Americas and now appearing in Europe, the Philippines, Nigeria and South Africa, today’s narco-evangelists share an increasingly popular strand of Christianity: Pentecostalism. It’s the fastest-growing religion in the world, and already boasts around 650 million followers. A branch of evangelical Protestantism, in recent decades Pentecostalism has become the faith of the world’s poor. In large part, this is because of its particular focus on the Holy Spirit’s role in health and wealth, but there is also the significant lure of the faith’s deep authenticity, rooted in local cultures. Much of this is because there is little in the way of structured authority and pastoral oversight. Not only is there no Pentecostal pope, but all you really need to be a preacher is followers.

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