What In God's Name

Part 3 of 4: Existential despair means hopelessness about human life having meaning and purpose. How does this lead to danger in our common life?

The two ways our common life has become ethically incoherent, and what we can do to begin to make a good and just society

Our dysfunctional politics follow a hollowed-out metaphysics of meaning making.

You need to understand the underlying belief system that underwrites the moral world of the movement that goes by the name "Make America Great Again." Why? Because eventually this underlying belief system will bring down everything you cherish.

Progressivism is in retreat, not just in the United States but around the world. Catholic Social Teaching provides a wellspring to morally thirsty people. Can secular progressives come and drink?

The moral lens on our common life is a way to address our broken politics. Our politics is broken because we are an aimless people, unable to think and talk about meaning and purpose.

How a standard practice in reporting on federal judges increases cynicism and polarization.

On the necessity of hierarchies of virtue in a time of nihilism

Separating words from their meanings is a tactic in the battle to erode the authority of goodness to constrain powerful people from acting badly.

Using our government's recent security breach on Signal and Jeffrey Goldberg's reporting on it as a point of departure, we help you understand the friend/enemy binary in our society.

WIGN Short Form helps you understand the moral dimensions of our common life, and why they are important.

What In God's Name looks at the Zelenskyy-Trump meeting through the moral lens

Today: Religious literacy to the rescue? How are we to have more open and honest conversations about public questions? Brandon and his University of Virginia students have some answers.

We consider hope from a political and a theological perspective

Chris and Shayna bring the moral and theological lens to see more deeply into our moment.

The S1 Project presents at the "Frontiers of Democracy" conference at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. Here's a taste of the conversation we led.

We revisit the essential question from the 2024 HYPE Conference at the University of New Hampshire with Fin, NJ, Stella, and Taloosh

We talk about Christine Emba's article in The Atlantic

Higher Calling: A conversation about faith and politics between Senator Chris Coons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlpK4B1Zifo

Here is the link to Ben's writing and commentary: https://benapeterson.com/

Chris and Shayna consider Ralph Ellison's quote, from his speech upon receiving the National Book Award in 1953: "The way home we seek, is that condition of man's being at home in the world, which is called love, and which we term democracy."

The Ethics Forum Website: https://www.souheganethicsforum.org/

Here is Jean Bethke Elshtain: https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/democracy/articles/democratic-authority-at-centurys-end

Jean Bethke Elshtain on Democratic Authority: https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/democracy/articles/democratic-authority-at-centurys-end

Rabbi Sharon Brous: https://ikar.org/team/rabbi-sharon-brous/ "This Is The Moral Earthquake" sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PuLI2atWPs

Here is the Religion in Revolt website: https://www.religionrevolt.org/

Here is Liz's article: https://liztheoharis.org/mike-johnsons-reading-of-scripture-misses-what-it-really-means-to-be-a-christian-nation/ Here is the Kairos Center: https://kairoscenter.org/

https://www.amazon.com/Defending-Democracy-Its-Christian-Enemies/dp/0802882935

Your view of human nature will shape your understanding of how democracy should be ordered for longevity. Your view of human nature may mean that you don't think democracy is sustainable.

Shayna's Reflection: I am an American, gender-queer, Jew and I am…  …terrified right now for innocent civilians in both Israel and Palestine, and for Jews everywhere as anti-semites around the world view the Hamas slaughter as permission to hit the gas pedal on their own hatred.  I am…  …pissed as hell at Hamas for unleashing what promises to be a disproportionate response by Israel, and pissed even further into hell by the Israeli governments inability to resist being goaded into that response.  I am…  …breathless with fear as I await the outcome for hostages taken by Hamas - women, children, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and breathless with fear for the lives of Palestinian women, children, persons with disabilities and the elderly.  I am…  …watching in despair as Western media attempts to report on this disaster, all the while seemingly blind to the prism through which they view “facts on the ground.'  I am…  …sensitive to those who feel called to stand in solidarity with Israel in light of the Hamas massacre AND sensitive to those who stand with the Palestinian people, recognizing the consequences decades of occupation have inflicted.   I am…  …incredibly grateful for the one friend who reached out to me to see how I'm holding up in the midst of this human disaster, recognizing, without having to be told, how deeply distressing these events are for those of us who carry the identity “Jewish”or “Palestinian, or maybe simply “human.”  I am…  …praying for the peacemakers, for I was lead to believe they would be recognized as “the children of G-d,” even as I find myself wondering how much clout G-d has in a conflict too many have blamed on Them.  I am…  …awaiting the reign of the meek, who Jesus said would inherit the earth.  Where the hell are you guys?  I am…  …terrified, pissed, breathless with fear, watching in despair, sensitive, incredibly grateful, praying, awaiting.  How are you all holding up?