United States

Commentary surrounding the 20th anniversary of 9-11 coalesced into broad themes of sorrow and rage. Both emotions were appropriate to the day.

George Yancey and Ashlee Quosigk argue in “One Faith No Longer: The Transformation of Christianity in Red and Blue America” that the gulf between progressive and conservative Christianity is so great they are no longer the same faith.

In this week’s episode, the editors discuss 9/11.

Recently, some evangelical churches have apologized for the Doctrine of Discovery, a contested fifteenth-century Catholic Spanish theory that Christian explorers could claim and take land previously unknown to themselves if it was ruled by non-Christians, a theory the United States Supreme Court falsely claimed was a universal aspect of international law.

The Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month unveiled plans for a $740-billion defense-spending bill for fiscal year 2022. That’s nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars—in long form: $740,000,000,000. That looks like a lot of money. But looks can be deceiving.

Feminist-minded advocates have sought for decades to include women in a would-be draft in the name of progress and equity. Senate Democrats pushed and compliant Republicans acquiesced to an amendment in the defense bill that would require women to register with the Selective Service.

Across Turkey and the Turkish diaspora around the world, wariness of the Diyanet, Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, is growing.

In this week’s episode, the editors discuss Paulina Song’s article about the US travel ban on North Korea, a 1946 article explaining why the July 20 plotters tried to assassinate Hitler, and Mark Tooley’s book review focused on Henry Adams’ pessimistic view of America.

In The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? Michael Sandel eloquently argues a sobering idea: America can pursue meritocracy or the common good, but not both.