Gavin Grimm is a 17-year-old trans student from Virginia who’s finishing his last year of high school and getting ready to appear before the Supreme Court of the United States. After parents and members of the public complained that Gavin’s school wasn’t requiring him to use separate facilities from other students, the school board held […]
We’ve been here before
I grew up hearing about the civil rights era lunch counter sit-ins. It took me a while to understand that they were about much more than food. In Greensboro, NC, in 1960, four Black students sat down at a Whites-only counter in a Woolworths store and refused to move until served. They sat down at […]
Backstory on the right to discriminate
Why are White evangelical Protestants in the United States so likely to justify discrimination based on religious or moral conviction? Because they’ve done it before. Christians using our religion to shield ourselves from the consequences of our social prejudice isn’t new. It’s also not a personal attack, though that’s little assurance for Muslims, LGBTQ people, […]
Timely research: Who are our neighbors?
Learning to share the public space with those with whom we disagree; learning to overcome humanity’s abysmal record of religious wars, religious ethnic cleansing, and genocide-fueled religious bigotry—these have become some of the most urgent challenges of our time.” —Ganoune Diop, October 2016 Our friends at PRRI, the Public Religion Research Institute, have published a research […]
Reader Review #7
Discover Magazine: Grandma’s Experiences Leave Epigenetic Mark on Your Genes (Dan Hurley) Before the 1970s, genes were the fixed limits of life. With DNA as boss and RNA the secretary, combinations of genes produced a certain physiological outcome and it wasn’t clear what made one gene express and another not. But over the last 40 years, through […]
From the Kansas State Constitution
Sec. 1 – Equal rights All men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Sec. 2 – Political power; privileges All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and are instituted for their equal protection […]