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☆ The Social Gospel movement is changing our politics and reshaping our perspectives
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Fain’s sermonette underscores a trend that has largely gone unnoticed: The Social Gospel movement is making a comeback. Jemal Countess/Getty ImagesIt might sound like hyperbole to say that this resurgent form of the Social Gospel is changing our politics. He reached deep into the Social Gospel throughout the UAW strike, routinely deploying what one commentator called “strikingly Christian rhetoric.”Christopher H. Evans, author of “The Social Gospel in American Religion: A History,” said he heard the Social Gospel in Fain’s UAW speeches. “It (The Social Gospel) won’t have the institutional muscle it had before, but you could still have these voices and followers.”The climate in contemporary America seems ripe for the Social Gospel message. And the soaring optimism of old Social Gospel reformers may now seem as outdated as wobbly black-and-white silent films.

Persons: CNN —, Shawn Fain, Fain, ” Fain, Matthew, Jesus, ”, Moses, Paul, Stellantis, Fain’s sermonette, don’t, Frederic J . Brown, John D, Rockefeller, “, pulpits, didn’t, Charles Sheldon, Fain’s, that’s, Democratic Sen, Raphael Warnock, Cornel West, William Barber II, Liz Theoharis, Matthew Desmond, Martin Luther King, William Barber, Jemal Countess, ” Christopher H, Evans, Heath W, Carter, Luke, Sen, Warnock, Barber, Desmond, Amir Levy, it’s, ” It’s, you’re, ” Evans, Dom Helder Camara, Rebecca Cook, Reuters “ There’s, won’t, —, John Blake Organizations: CNN, Big Three, United Auto Workers, UAW, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Chrysler, Writers Guild of America, UPS Teamsters, UPS, Getty, Democratic, US, Big Tech, Boston University, ” Mining, Library, “, Princeton Theological Seminary, Yale Divinity School‘s Center, Public Theology, Ivy League, The New York Times, Social, Reuters, Teamsters, Screen Actors Guild Locations: Jerusalem, America, Los Angeles, AFP, Washington, Kingston , Pennsylvania, Chicago, ”, American City, American, Lower Manhattan, New York City, Brazilian, Detroit

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Republican Party’s once-crowded 2024 presidential primary field has suddenly shrunk to just a handful of viable candidates. Instead, the fight between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis for a distant second place appears to be intensifying. Political Cartoons View All 1244 Images“Now I’m hoping the field clears and it’s Nikki Haley one-on-one with the former president,” Druckenmillier told The Associated Press. Scott entered the 2024 campaign to much anticipation — especially in Iowa — as a close friend to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and a devoted evangelical Christian. And his modest share of support in late-summer Iowa polls shrunk by late fall as DeSantis and Haley appeared more viable.

Persons: Republican Party’s, Sen, Tim Scott of, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Iowa's Jan, Haley, Scott's, Stanley Druckenmillier, Scott, ” Druckenmillier, Andrew Romeo, Mike Pence, ”, DeSantis, Kim Reynolds, Tim Scott, ” Romeo, “, Nikki Haley’s, Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, Christie, Doug Burgum, Asa Hutchinson, they're, Pence, Privately, Ron DeSanctimonious, Nikki ‘ Birdbrain ’ Haley, ‘, Tim, ’, ’ ”, Iowa Sen, Joni Ernst, Republican bundler Eric Levine, ” Levine, “ It’s Nikki, Devin O’Malley, Pence’s, He’s, ” O’Malley, ___, Beaumont Organizations: COLUMBIA, Republican, GOP, United Nations, Associated Press, Iowa Gov, New, New Jersey Gov, Christie . North Dakota Gov, Arkansas Gov, Trump, South, Fox News, AP, Iowa GOP, ___ Peoples Locations: Tim Scott of South Carolina, Scott's South Carolina, Florida, Iowa, Alabama, New Jersey, Christie ., New Hampshire, South Carolina, New York, Des Moines , Iowa

☆ Kelly Johnson Embodies the Hard-Line Views She Shares With the Speaker
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Annie Karni | More About Annie Karni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Three weeks later, Mr. Johnson confessed his love. They were engaged after six months and exactly 364 days later, Ms. Lary became Mrs. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson, who turned 50 last month, is also an evangelical Christian and a licensed pastoral counselor, and has co-hosted Mr. Johnson’s podcast about religion and politics. In her professional capacity, she has opposed homosexuality and same-sex marriage, both of which she views as sins. In her work as an activist, as a leader in her church and in her counseling, she has proselytized her hard-line anti-abortion views.

Persons: Mike Johnson, Kelly Lary, Hannah, Jack, Johnson, Lary Organizations: Kappa Delta Locations: United States

☆ Republican Sen. Tim Scott suspends presidential campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Aaron Pellish | Jeff Zeleny | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is suspending his presidential campaign, he announced in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. “Tim ran an optimistic, hopeful message — but that’s not where the Republican base is right now,” a Republican official who supported Scott told CNN. Scott said he has no intention of accepting a vice presidential nomination, reaffirming a position he repeated frequently on the campaign trail. The South Carolina senator entered the race with a major cash advantage after he converted his Senate campaign account into a presidential fund. He held the seat for more than a decade before his election to the South Carolina House in 2008.

Persons: CNN — Sen, Tim Scott of, “, ”, Scott, “ Tim, Trey Gowdy, …, it’s, ” Scott, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, they’d, Joe Biden, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Jim Crow, Lyndon, Republican caucusgoers, Haley, GOP Sen, Jim DeMint’s, Democratic Sen, Cory Booker of, Trump, –, Tim Scott, ‘, Tim, ’, Trey, ’ ” Scott Organizations: CNN, Fox News, GOP, Republican, Florida Gov, South, Mission PAC, South Carolina Gov, Black Republican, Society, Charleston County Council, South Carolina House, Congressional, US, Democratic, Trump, White Locations: Tim Scott of South Carolina, America, Iowa, ”, Miami, South Carolina, New Hampshire, California, Charleston County, South Carolina’s, Washington –, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Georgia , Pennsylvania, Nevada

☆ Republicans still don't know how to talk about abortion
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The 2023 elections show Republicans still don't know how to talk about abortion. (Never mind the fact that abortion rights advocates have now won seven times when abortion has explicitly been on the ballot.) "If pro-life Republicans want to actually save lives, they have to learn to LISTEN TO WOMEN and talk about abortion AND contraception." As Vance described, many Republicans abandoned their decades-long commitment to traditional exceptions to abortion bans in the cases of rape, incest, or the mother's health. "As much as I'm pro-life, I don't judge anyone for being pro-choice, and I don't want them to judge me for being pro-life," Haley said.

Persons: GOP hasn't, —, Glenn Youngkin's, Nancy Mace, Sen, J.D, Vance, Republican Sen, Rick Santorum, Joe Biden, Andy Beshear, you've, Ron DeSantis, You've, they've, DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Haley Organizations: GOP, Service, Virginia Gov, Republican, Republicans, Ohio Republicans, Kentucky Gov, Politico, UN, Senate, America Locations: Ohio, Ohio , Michigan , Kansas, Kentucky, Carolina, Idaho, Arizona and Missouri, Florida, Iowa

☆ Pastor Indicted With Trump in Georgia Asks Evangelical Supporters for Help
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Richard Fausset | More About Richard Fausset | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Stephen C. Lee is one of the lesser-known figures indicted with former President Donald J. Trump in Fulton County, Ga., on charges of unlawfully conspiring to keep Mr. Trump in power after the 2020 election. But on Thursday night at an evangelical church near Chicago, dozens of people held their arms aloft and prayed over Pastor Lee at a fund-raiser where he was portrayed as an American hero — and a victim of religious persecution. “We’re going to be talking about the weaponization of government against religion,” Gary S. Franchi, Jr., a host on a conservative online news channel, declared from the pulpit at Families of Faith Ministries in Channahon, Ill., at the start of the event. “We’re going to be supporting ‘America’s chaplain,’ and religious liberty, here tonight.”Pastor Lee, 71, is a former law enforcement officer who became a Lutheran minister and currently leads a small church in Orland Park, Ill. He says he has offered spiritual support to police officers and victims after some of the worst American tragedies of the last quarter-century, including the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado and the Sept. 11 attack in New York.

Persons: Stephen C, Lee, Donald J, Trump, Pastor Lee, —, “ We’re, Gary S, Franchi, Jr, ‘, ” Pastor Lee Organizations: Faith Ministries, Columbine High School Locations: Fulton County ,, Chicago, American, Channahon ,, Orland Park, Colorado, New York

NEW YORK (AP) — He was a giant of 20th-century art, but that doesn’t mean Pablo Picasso needed a big canvas. It was 1918 and Picasso, then in his mid-30s, had just married ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova. The exhibit, which opened Friday, is a collaboration with the Madrid foundation run by a grandson of Picasso’s, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso. It comes nearly 40 years after the gallery’s initial 1986 show of Picasso sketchbooks, called “Je Suis le Cahier (I am the Sketchbook)" after a notation Picasso made on one of his pads — which subsequently toured the globe. The Pace Gallery show runs until December 22..

Persons: Pablo Picasso, “ Picasso, Picasso, Olga Khokhlova, Picasso’s, Bernard Ruiz, Marie, Thérèse Walter, ”, Marc Glimcher, Glimcher, Dora Maar, Ruiz, Paul Picasso, ” Ruiz, “ Organizations: Pace, “ Locations: “, balmy Biarritz, Madrid, —, New York, France, Juan, Mougins

☆ An Epic Pilgrimage Across Three Great Religions
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Aatish Taseer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +111 min

Before there was tourism, there was pilgrimage: a trip of endurance, hardship and ecstasy in celebration of one’s faith. On an epic pilgrimage of his own, one writer ventures into the heart of three great religions in Bolivia, Mongolia and Iraq. The Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala the day after Ashura. “They’re poor, but they come thousands of kilometers for the love of Imam Hussein.” PILGRIMAGE WAS A great equalizer. “Labaik ya Hussein,” came the solemn chorus of surrounding voices.

Persons: Eduardo Quintela Gonzáles, ” Quintela, JAN, “, ”, Quintela, Victor, Edith Turner, Chaucer, ferne, sondry londes, Vaishno Devi, Lyra Skinner, Lyra, Victoria Preston’s, —, Prophet Muhammad, Virgin Mary, Bath, Naipaul, Augustus, Ryan, garret, Virgin, Monica Machicao, Nicholas Casey, ” Monica, Casey, Evo Morales, sloughing, Columbus, Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Monica, glitzy cholets, Peru —, Viracocha, it’s, Pablo Quisbert, Leandro Chitarroni, Eichmann, Father Chitarroni, Father Chitarroni’s, Conquistadores ”, Fernando Cervantes, Bernabé Cobo, Quisbert, Edgar Quispe, Tatiana Huayhua, Francisco Tito Yupanqui, Mary, Yupanqui’s, su, Yupanqui, Chitarroni, she’s, Friar Abelino Yeguaori, Friar Yeguaori, Friar Yeguaori’s, Irene, Juana, hajji, Waka, Aracely Alcón, Santiago, Alcón, ‘, don’t, ” Alcón, Tito Yupanqui, Uma Marka, Pachamama, haggard, Amaru Fiorilo Barrios, he’d, ” Fiorilo, Fiorilo, who’d, Valeria Alcón, Laureano Jose Quisbert, Elena Ticona Flores, Eduardo Quintela’s, Ensamble, pang, padre, consolations, Sincrético, El, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Axel, amauta, strode, La, Aatish Taseer, Saint Helena —, Constantine I, La Paz, Orgilbaatar Tsolmon, Orgil, Genghis Khan, Edward Gibbon, ” Orgil, Araniko’s, Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan’s, Kubla Khan, Coleridge, Kublai, Stalin, sybarite, Khamar, Dalai Lama, Lama, Christopher Kaplonski, ger, I’d, banshtai tsai, Prim, Egi, Munkhdul, Gandantegchinlen, Haidav, herder, “ Um sain, boltugai, Danzanravjaa, Zanabazar’s, Erdene, Mandakhtsog Monkhbaatar, Monkhbaatar’s, Dalai Lamas, prostrated, He’d, Zuu, she’d, Santiago de, L.K, Advani, Emperor Babur, Ram, kar sevaks, Ayodhya, Narendra Modi, Munkhbaatar Batchuluun, Henry Wallace, Franklin D, Potemkin, Munkhbaatar, Gerelmaa, Giimaa, She’d, Eduardo Quintela, Aracely, Santiago’s, Joseph Brodsky’s, Muhammad’s, Hussein, William Keo, ” Khuder, pillion, Labaik, Hussein ”, O Hussein, hearkened, Prophet, Ali —, Ali, Yazid, Imam, crackling, chickpeas, Imam Ali, Imam Hussein, Saddam Hussein, Tusi, Qasim, Imam Hussein’s, Khuder, “ Will, Najaf, prestes, — I, Yasir Yaseen, Ashura, Ali Akbar, Abbas, Ali Asghar, “ We’re, Francisco Goya’s, Hussein’s, Groom, Joseph, ” Wissam, Turfi, Saddam —, Arbaeen, Saddam, “ Imam Hussein, WE, Muhammad, Barnaby Rogerson, Prophet Muhammad ”, ” Ali, Muhammad — Muhammad, formlessness, Muqtada al, Abrams, chiding, Abu Musab Al, Zarqawi, Al Qaeda, William, “ They’re, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, flagellants, ruddy, stylishly, Hussein — shahid —, Farman Ahsan, Syed Salman Raza —, Saddam’s, ” Raza, William “, Ali Zayn al, Abidin, Labaik ya Hussein, thrall —, Lloyd, Susanne Rudolph — Organizations: CITY LA, LA, LA PAZ, Virgin, Crusaders, Dolorosa, Sun, The New York Times, Bolivian, Spain, La, Cordillera, Universidad Mayor de, Catholic, Good, La Paz, Dominican, Pakistan, Caesars, Nissan, Coke, Communists, Communism, ardor, Communist, Hyundai, flails, sacra, Apache, Mahdi Army, Al, ISIS, Karachi —, Princeton Locations: Bolivia, Mongolia, Iraq, Aatish Taseer Bolivia Mongolia Iraq, CITY LA PAZ, BOLIVIA, NAJAF, IRAQ, ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA, LA PAZ, La Paz, Bolivian, Copacabana, Lake Titicaca, New York, Christian, British, sondry, India, Delhi, Varanasi, Europe, American, Mecca, Arabia, Long, Vino Tinto, Chile, Peru, Monica, Plurinational State, Bolivia —, Americas, Spain, Columbian, Aztec Mexico, Inca Peru, Calvary Hill, Virgen del Cerro, South America, Puerto Rico, Huatajata, ”, Argentine, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Mexican, revelry, Spanish, “, morena, La, “ India, multilayered, Potosí, Argentina, Warisata, Scotch, Santiago de Compostela, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Nations, El Alto, Buenos Aires, Bombay, Tibet, Bolivia’s, Yamuna Rivers, United States, Buddhist Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolian, Istanbul, Asia, Islam, China, Beijing, Dadu, Erdene Zuu, Soviet, Gobi, Los Angeles, gers, Qing China, Karnataka, Töv Province, Karakorum, Khamar, Erdene, Ukraine, Korea, Golden, Bayankhongor, Lhasa, Dalai, Inner Mongolia, Mongol, Nalaikh, Santiago, Santiago de Compostela and Canterbury, Bulgan Province, Somnath, Gujarat, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, ger, East German, Uvs Province, Pakistani, Indian, Tennessee, Najaf, Baghdad, Khuder, —, abayas, KARBALA, Kufa, Medina, Saudi Arabia, Karbala, Imam Ali, Bab, Kuwaiti, Bohras, South Asia, Tajikistan, Zaydis, Yemen, Alawites, Anatolia, Syria, Iran, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Sadr, U.S, Jordanian, Al Qaeda, Mesopotamia, Al, Multan, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan’s, Islamabad, Lahore, Kuwait, Karachi, Doha, Qatar

☆ Ohio shows abortion is still haunting Republicans
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In Ohio, a mostly red state, voters explicitly wrote into their state constitution a right to an abortion up until the point of fetal viability. An exit poll of Ohio voters found that 6 in 10 voters were still angry about the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson. But in its absence, they have created an electoral albatross that abortion rights advocates have hung on GOP candidates up and down the ballot throughout the nation. The Virginia legislative races were defined by abortion rights, as Democrats seemingly rejected the GOP push to institute a 15-week abortion ban in the Commonwealth, which currently allows abortions through the second trimester — or approximately 26 weeks. Beshear, who supports abortion rights, sought to paint Cameron as out of the mainstream on the issue.

Persons: —, Roe, Wade, Glenn Youngkin's, Jackson, Republicans —, Joe Biden's, Ohioans, Glenn Youngkin, Alex Wong, Youngkin, Andy Beshear, Daniel Cameron, Michael Swensen, Andy Beshear —, Steve Beshear —, Hadley Duvall, Duvall, Cameron, Beshear Organizations: Democrats, Service, Democratic Party, Republican Gov, Republicans, GOP, Voters, Ohio, Democratic, Gov Locations: Ohio, Virginia, Dobbs v, Commonwealth, Richmond, Hampton, —, Northern Virginia, Kentucky, Kentucky . Kentucky, Frankfort

Before the endorsement, Mr. Trump repeatedly criticized Ms. Reynolds, who had joined Mr. DeSantis at campaign events around Iowa, for her perceived disloyalty. Mr. Trump, meanwhile, spent Monday testifying in a civil fraud trial that threatens his business empire in New York. In Iowa, Mr. DeSantis is in need of a jolt. “She’s the reason we’re red,” said Gloria Mazza, the chairwoman of the Republican Party of Polk County, which includes Des Moines. Leaders of Iowa’s evangelical community, an important voting bloc, suggested Ms. Reynolds’s endorsement was a major coup for the DeSantis campaign.

Persons: Trump, Reynolds, DeSantis, Nikki Haley, DeSantis’s, “, ”, Gloria Mazza, Mazza Organizations: Mr, Gov, Des Moines Register, NBC, Iowa Republicans, Republican Party Locations: Des Moines, Iowa, New York, South Carolina, Polk County

☆ Cross-Tabs: October 2023 Times/Siena Poll of the 2024 Battlegrounds
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

[READ LIST]Thinking about the investigations into Donald Trump, do you think that Donald Trump has or has not committed any serious federal crimes? (Split 2) Do you think Donald Trump has the mental sharpness to be an effective president? (Split 2) Do you think Donald Trump has the personality and temperament to be an effective president? (Split 2) Do you think Joe Biden has the personality and temperament to be an effective president? [READ LIST]Do you think Donald Trump is good for democracy, bad for democracy, or neither good nor bad for democracy?

Persons: †, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Donald Trump's, Tell, Donald Trump’s, Joe Biden’s, Trump, Biden, Fielding, ReconMR Organizations: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin Party, Siena College Research Institute, Republican, Trump, Democratic, Democrat, New York Times, The New York Times, statehouse, Research, University of North, Institute for Policy, Roanoke College, The Times, • Party, Times Locations: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Dominican, Puerto Rican, American, Ukraine, China, America, U.S, Mexico, United States, Siena, Arizona , Georgia, Nevada , Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona , Michigan, Pennsylvania, University of North Florida, State

☆ It's not just Mike Johnson: Porn-tracking software is actually pretty common on the religious right
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Speaker Johnson and his son use software that notifies one of them if the other watches porn. It's actually rather common in religious circles, and there are several different apps for it. There are several different apps — known as "accountability" software — that allow for this sort of monitoring, including Covenant Eyes, Accountable2You, and EverAccountable. Speaker Johnson uses Covenant Eyes, and says in the unearthed clip that he has an accountability partnership with his then-17-year-old son. According to WIRED, the accountability software industry has ballooned into a "multimillion-dollar ecosystem" and includes hundreds of thousands, if not millions of users around the country.

Persons: Johnson, It's, —, Mike Johnson, that's, Stone, Lamar Odom, — he's, it's, Jesus —, Christopher Johnson, who's, Christian, Johnson's, Michael Holm, Holm Organizations: Service, Twitter, Capitol, WIRED, NBA, Southern Baptist Church, Ohio State University, National Security Agency Locations: Louisiana, Washington, DC, Columbus

☆ White Christian evangelicals: What it would take for them to leave the bubble
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-05 | by ( Manav Tanneeru | John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —If you don’t realize how powerful White Christian evangelicals have become, consider this:A White Christian evangelical, who has been described as “the embodiment of White Christian nationalism in a tailored suit,” is now second in line to the presidency. White evangelical Protestants make up only about 14% of Americans, and that number has been steadily shrinking. The media tends to depict White evangelicals as foaming-at-the-mouth Christian insurrectionists like some of those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The new speaker of the house is a White Christian evangelical and is second in the line for the presidency. Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesYou seem leery of using the term ‘White Christian nationalism.’ Am I correct?

Persons: Mike Johnson, Roe, Wade, Trump, Jon Ward, Ward, George W, Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, “, ”, ” Ward, White, Ward’s, there’s, Johnson, Chip Somodevilla, ’, I’m, it’s, George Brich, You’ve, ‘, It’s, Joe Raedle, Nikki Haley, Haley, that’s, we’ve Organizations: CNN, Capitol, Yahoo, Air Force, Trump, ” CNN, White Christian, Jesus, South, Democrat, Republican Locations: White, America, Los Angeles, Miami , Florida, South Carolina, Trump, evangelicalism

☆ Opinion | ‘MAGA Mike Johnson’ and Our Broken Christian Politics
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-05 | by ( David French | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

There are two moments from Mike Johnson’s early days as speaker of the House that almost perfectly encapsulate the broken way that so many Republican evangelicals approach politics. But before she could finish, Johnson’s Republican colleagues started to shout her down. What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it.’ That’s my worldview.”That quote is less illuminating than many people think. Mike Johnson and I have such similar religious convictions that we once worked together at the same Christian law firm. Yet we’ve taken very different political paths.

Persons: Mike Johnson’s, Johnson, ABC’s Rachel Scott, Johnson’s, ”, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, “ MAGA Mike Johnson, Sean Hannity, “, ‘, Mike Johnson Organizations: Florida Republican, Fox News, Trump

☆ Opinion | Christian Nationalism ‘Is No Longer Operating Beneath the Surface’
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Thomas B. Edsall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mike Johnson is the first person to become speaker of the House who can be fairly described as a Christian nationalist, a major development in America history in and of itself. Equally important, however, his ascension reflects the strength of white evangelical voters in the House Republican caucus, voters who are determined to use the power of government to roll back the civil rights, women’s rights and sexual revolutions. “If anything, it shows us that white evangelicals still have a very strong hold on the modern Republican Party. In the 1970s, mainline Protestants dominated at 46 percent, compared with evangelical Protestants at 24 percent and Catholics at 19 percent. By the decade of the 2010s, evangelical Protestants were a commanding 38 percent of Republicans, mainline Protestants had fallen to 17 percent and Catholics had grown to 25 percent.

Persons: Mike Johnson, “ Johnson, ” Ryan Burge, ”, ” Burge Organizations: Republican, Eastern Illinois University, American Baptist Church, Republican Party Locations: America, United States

☆ Opinion | The Israel-Hamas War Will Reshape Western Politics
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

In that fairly distant past, the politics of Israel-Palestine broke down into alignments that were familiar and decades-old. On the pro-Israel side in the U.S. were three broad factions: Zionist Democrats, centrist and liberal; neoconservative hawks; and evangelical Christians. But 2023 may be remembered as the moment when Arab and Muslim discontent began to really matter inside Western countries as well. And the tacit alliance between this diaspora and a secular, feminist, gay-affirming Western progressivism — “Islamo-gauchisme” in the French phrase — raises big questions for both progressives and conservative Muslims about who is using whom, and how the Western left and Western Islam might ultimately co-evolve. This isn’t the George W. Bush-era version, with its world-bestriding confidence in American power and its hawkish grand strategy.

Persons: It’s, —, Pat Buchananite populists, Islamicization, Aris Roussinos, Emmanuel Macron’s, it’s, George W, Bush Organizations: Israel, Zionist Democrats, Democratic, Channel, Hamas, Likud Locations: Israel, Gaza, Palestine, U.S, Western Islam, Europe, British, Britain, progressivism

☆ Mike Johnson symbolizes a new turn for the religious right
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Ronald Brownstein | Analysis Ronald Brownstein | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

CNN —The arc of Rep. Mike Johnson’s career encapsulates the shifting priorities of the religious right in the era of Donald Trump. More than half of White evangelicals agreed with that statement as well – the only major religious denomination in which it found majority support. Yet both groups are much more influential inside the GOP coalition, with evangelicals representing nearly one-third of Republican voters and all White Christians about two-thirds. But in Congress, Johnson has also identified more with some of the party’s Trump-era priorities that revolve around demographic change. But each man appears equally committed to a vision of America that elevates the moral and political preferences of conservative White Christians over any other group.

Persons: Mike Johnson’s, Donald Trump, Barack Obama’s, Johnson, MAGA, Long, Trump’s, Trump, Robert P, Jones, Johnson “, ”, Mike Podhorzer, ” Podhorzer, Jimmy Carter, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, ” Jones, Dobson, CNN’s KFile, KFile, he’s, Ron DeSantis, Marjorie Taylor, it’s, ” Johnson, He’s, “, Biden, who’s, PRRI, there’s, Tresa Undem, Undem, White, George W, Bush, Obama, Pete Wehner, Wehner, David Barton, Barton, that’s, ” Wehner, ‘, ” Barton Organizations: CNN, Louisiana Republican, Republican, GOP, Yorker, Trump, Survey, Religion Research Institute, White, AFL, CIO, Republicans, Representatives, Alliance Defense Fund, Defending, Gov, Georgia Rep, Whites, Trinity Forum, ”, NBC News, Trump - Locations: Louisiana, America, White, “, Florida, Mexico

WASHINGTON (AP) — Before House Speaker Mike Johnson was elected to public office, he was the dean of a small Baptist law school that didn't exist. “The law school deal was really an anomaly. As dean of the proposed law school, Johnson embarked on a major fundraising campaign and described a big-dollar event in Houston with former Arkansas Gov. Bobby Jindal and Pressler, according to an account Johnson wrote in a 2011 alumni magazine. Meanwhile, the historic former federal courthouse in Shreveport that was selected as the law school’s campus required at least $20 million in renovations.

Persons: Mike Johnson, Johnson, Kevin McCarthy, It's, “, ”, Gene Mills, Johnson's, ” J, Michael Johnson, Southern Baptist Convention luminary, Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell, “ I’m, Joe Aguillard, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Aguillard, “ Mike, Gilbert Little, ” Johnson, Perkins, Little, Barack, Kelly, Kelly Johnson, Louis “ Woody ” Jenkins, Jenkins, Democrat Mary Landrieu, Moon Griffin, Eugene Mills, Mills, ” Mills, Johnson’s, George W, Bush’s, it’s, Lamar White Jr, Lamar, Richard Lardner, Trenton Daniel Organizations: WASHINGTON, Paul Pressler School of Law, Louisiana College, Louisiana Christian University, Republican House, Southern Baptist Convention, Family Research, Southern Poverty Law, Liberty University, Daily, ”, Arkansas Gov, Louisiana Gov, Freedom Guard, Southern Baptist Conference, Shreveport Times, ABC News, Louisiana State University, Democrat, Louisiana Family, Alliance Defense Fund, Alliance Defending, ADF, CNN, Democratic, Civil, Associated Press Locations: Louisiana, Washington, Alexandria , Louisiana, Houston, Pressler, Africa, Shreveport, Shreveport , Louisiana, everyone’s, America, New Orleans, Texas, Orleans Parish, Trump’s, Baton Rouge, New York

Group members said Russian occupiers are snuffing out religious and other freedoms in areas of Ukraine under Russian control. “We are eyewitnesses of Russian atrocities going on in our country,” said Metropolitan Yevstratiy Zoria, a representative of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has declared its independence from Moscow and proclaimed its loyalty to Ukraine, but a government study commission contended that the UOC remains a structural unit of the Russian Orthodox Church. The other separate, but similarly-named church, Orthodox Church of Ukraine, was officially recognized as independent by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in 2019, but the Russian church has disputed the legitimacy of that recognition. Zoria decried statements by Moscow Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has strongly supported the war as part of a metaphysical battle against Western liberalism and has said the Russian war dead have their sins forgiven.

Persons: Ivan Rusyn, ”, Freedom, “, Bartholomew of Constantinople, you’re, Zoria, Kirill, ” Zoria, Yaakov Dov Bleich, ” Bleich, Vladimir Putin, Ukraine Akhmed Tamim Organizations: WASHINGTON, Ukrainian Evangelical Church, Ukrainian, of, U.S . Institute of Peace, Orthodox, of Ukraine, The U.S . Commission, ” UNESCO, U.S . State Department, Church, Orthodox Church of, Ecumenical, Metropolitan Zoria, Russian Orthodox Church, Administration, Lilly Endowment Inc, AP Locations: Ukrainian, United States, Ukraine, Russian, Rusyn, Christianity, The, ”, Houston, Moscow, Orthodox Church, Orthodox Church of Ukraine, of Ukraine, “, Kyiv, America, Yugoslavia

☆ Kelly Johnson, who is married to House Speaker Mike Johnson, practices an ancient form of Christian counseling that classifies people into 'choleric', 'phlegmatic,' and other personality types purport
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Kelly Johnson, the wife of House Speaker Mike Johnson, was a Christian therapist. It is not clear if Kelly Johnson will continue her practice. Not long after Rep. Mike Johnson became House speaker last week, Kelly Johnson's website became inaccessible. The couple is deeply religious; both Kelly and Mike Johnson previously worked with religious organizations and causes the religious right advocates for. Along with her counseling, Johnson is also listed as an advisor to the Louisiana Right for Life, an anti-abortion organization.

Persons: Kelly Johnson, Mike Johnson, Johnson, Hippocrates, —, Kelly Johnson's, Kelly, Richard, Phyllis Arno, Tim LaHaye, LaHaye, Jack Kemp's, George W, Mike Huckabee, LeHaye, Hodges Organizations: Service, National Christian Counselor's, National Christian Counselors Association, The New York Times, Arkansas Gov, APS, Education, Louisiana Tech, Centenary College, Cypress Baptist Church, Johnsons, Southern Baptist Convention, LGBT, CNN Locations: Louisiana, Benton, La

☆ Kelly Johnson, who is married to House Speaker Mike Johnson, practices a form of Christian counseling that classifies people into 'choleric', 'phlegmatic,' and other ancient personality types purporte
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

☆ The Devil’s Bargain Mike Pence Could Not Escape
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-29 | by ( Adam Nagourney | More About Adam Nagourney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Pence was the governor of Indiana, an evangelical Christian — he titled his memoir “So Help Me God” — who grew up in the rolling farmland of Indiana. He had endorsed one of Mr. Trump’s primary opponents, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. And he was, friends said, discomfited by the freewheeling ways of Mr. Trump, a Queens-born playboy entrepreneur and casino owner who had thrived in the Democratic world of New York. But Mr. Pence was facing a challenging re-election campaign against a Democrat he had only narrowly defeated in 2012. After a few days of consideration — and speaking to his wife, Karen, consulting political advisers and friends, and spending time in prayer, by his account — Mr. Pence accepted Mr. Trump’s offer.

Persons: Pence, Christian —, —, Trump’s, Ted Cruz, Trump, Hillary Clinton, Karen Organizations: Democratic, Democrat Locations: Indiana, Ted Cruz of Texas, Queens, New York, Las Vegas, Iowa

Afterward his visit, Trump Jr. told reporters that the list of legal cases facing the former president will ultimately boosts his political cause. Trump has said he expects to win Iowa big as he defies the typical strategy of lowering expectations. Ron DeSantis, who is campaigning aggressively in Iowa, has criticized Trump for skipping the series of Republican presidential debates and campaigning only before large audiences. “In a time of war, and great heartache and trial, criticizing the leadership of our strongest Middle Eastern ally?” Brown said. “This guy was in the middle of watching moms and dads weeping over their little babies who had just been killed.”

Persons: Trump's, Son Donald Trump Jr, Texas Sen, Ted Cruz, Trump, Ron DeSantis, “ Donald Trump's, ” DeSantis, Benjamin Netanyahu, Joseph Brown, ” Brown, ” Organizations: Orpheum, GOP, West Des Moines, Trump Jr, Iowa, Florida Gov, CNN, Hamas Locations: Sioux City, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, West Des, Texas, Israel, Iranian, Washington , Iowa

Pence, who was Indiana governor and a US congressman before becoming vice president, announced his campaign in early June. Pence’s role as vice president was ceremonial in overseeing the process, but Trump and his supporters still felt Pence could intervene. While stumping for president, Pence was sometimes thanked for his service in the administration, his devotion to his Christian faith or for his actions on January 6. But the admiration for the former vice president did not translate to support in the polls. He previously shot down the idea of being a vice presidential nominee again, saying that running twice for the position was enough.

Persons: Mike Pence, “, ”, ” Pence, Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan, Pence, Trump . Trump, Trump, – Organizations: CNN, Republican Jewish, Republican, Capitol, Republican Party, GOP, Trump ., Indiana, Trump, Social Security, Ukraine, Republican National Committee Locations: Las Vegas, Iowa, Indiana, Russia, Trump, United States

WASHINGTON (AP) — New House Speaker Mike Johnson inherits many of the same problems that bedeviled Republican leaders with far more experience. But can he unite House Republicans where others failed? Trump, who is running for a second White House term, enthusiastically backed Johnson and said he will be “a fantastic speaker." The House Republican Conference is deeply divided on those issues. The intractability of many House Republicans forced McCarthy to turn to Democrats for help in keeping the government running.

Persons: Mike Johnson, Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Johnson, “, ” Johnson, McCarthy, John Boehner, Christian, Donald Trump, Democrat Joe Biden, Johnson's, Trump, Biden, Matt Gaetz, Gaetz, Alejandro Mayorkas, Chip Roy, Roy, Veronica Escobar, George Santos, Santos, Jordan, ”, Don Bacon, Rep, Thomas Massie, stabby Organizations: WASHINGTON, Republican, House, Louisiana Republican, GOP, Caucus, Republicans, Committee, Democrat, Trump, lotto, Ukraine, Democratic, White, Fox, Homeland, Republican Conference, Texas Republican, Texas Democrat, New York Republicans, Nebraska Republican, Jordan, Kentucky Republican Locations: Louisiana, Ohio, California, Israel, Ukraine, Mexico, Texas, Kentucky

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