"Probably Did More Than Any Organization to Expose the Society's Dark Side to the World"

"No smear campaign, this was an exposé. The covert program ginned up negative press and made the society toxic in the eyes of most Americans. The exposure neutered the ability of violent, conspiratorial, white-supremacist elements associated with the society to win elective office or dominate either the Democratic or the Republican party. And the ADL's campaign forced Birchers to spend time, energy, and resources fending off charges of extremism or bigotry. The incessant public conversation about Birchers as a hate-filled group generated the impression that the organization must be tainted and ought to be shunned."

Matthew Dallek at The Bulwark discusses how the Anti-Defamation League challenged the John Birth Society.

"Trump Has Met His Match in Pope Leo"

"It's surely no exaggeration to say that Trump embodies the very worst of us. He brims over with flaws–we used to call them sins–most people try to tame within themselves. Though the self-regard and vanity is beyond egregious, we've somehow grown used to it. This is the man who took a memorial to a young president gunned down in his prime, and slapped his own name on it: behold, the Trump-Kennedy Center. This is the man who plans to build a gold victory arch, an Arc de Trump, so gargantuan at 250ft tall that it will loom over Washington DC. This is the man who posted an image of himself as a Jesus-like figure"

At The Guardian, Jonathan Freedland writes that "the US president represents the polar opposite of Christianity."

"The Head of This Clerical Revolt"

"What the US urgently needs now, metaphorically speaking, is a national champion, a sort of modern-day Saint George to slay the dragon, save the people and ensure the triumph of good over evil. Who, in reality, might fill this role of moral saviour?"

Simon Tisdall at The Guardian says that Pope Leo can "confront Trump, to positive effect, on poverty, inequality, migrants, civil rights, Russia, Palestine and other pressing issues."

"But What Made His Art So Popular?"

"Kinkade's most famous subject was the humble cottage, lit from within by unsettling candlelight. Former Evangelicals may also recall the Bridge of Hope, which spans a creek and heads nowhere. A white dogwood tree stands nearby, a 'symbol of the purity of God’s grace,' according to the Kinkade company's website. Kinkade created a world that some people, maybe even millions of people, wanted to inhabit. Though he was a Christian and his work often contained religious imagery, his art did not proselytize so much as it advertised an alternative reality where proselytization was no longer necessary. In Kinkade-land, everything is serene. There is cohesion. Grandmothers love his pink skies and cobblestone paths. Even today I can close my eyes and imagine a Kinkade abode, squatting underneath some eldritch sunset. A Kinkade landscape is often lifeless. There are few human beings, and fewer complications. Sometimes Jesus appears; other times he is more of a suggestion. Sometimes the paintings light up, literally, as if the artist wanted to burn holes in our retinas."

Sarah Jones at Dissent discusses Art for Everybody, a documentary about Thomas Kinkade.

"An American Intimately Familiar with This Nation's Better Angels"

"'All of this points to a pope that understands global leadership through dialogue instead of isolation; who understands power through service, instead of domination,' he said. 'It is hard to imagine a sharper contrast with the current administration in the U.S.'"

Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman contrasts Pope Leo XIV and Donald Trump.

"The 'Man From the End of the World'"

"The papacy has for centuries brought with it a place on the world stage. Francis, who from the off gave the impression of being a man in a hurry, was determined to use that platform to push a bottom-up agenda for the world. He insisted that Catholicism would henceforth be 'a poor church for the poor', and returned time and again in his pronouncements to the need to close the economic gap between developed and developing nations."

Peter Standord at The Guardian writes an obituary for Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis.

"Ideas Themselves Have a Unique, Uncontested Power to Infiltrate and Corrupt Our Minds and Soul"

"This movement's profound fear of intellectual engagement reveals a deep insecurity about its own beliefs—after all, truly robust ideas don't require such elaborate protection—and, in fact, a profound respect for the power of ideas. You don't construct elaborate systems of thought prevention unless you believe, on some level, that exposure to new, better ideas really could transform society."

J. Dylan Sandifer at The New Republic explains "Why the Christian Right Demonizes Discourse."

"A Better Ex-President Than President"

"Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world--Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation's highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s."

Bill Barrow of the Associated Press reports the death of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

Jos Joseph at The Hill writes that "Jimmy Carter was the Christian most politicians pretend to be."

Lindsay M. Chervinsky at The Bulwark adds that "Jimmy Carter redefined his legacy after his presidency."

But Jonathan Schlefer at The Nation contends that by "[t]urning sharply toward neoliberalism (before that term was commonplace) and weaponizing markets, [Carter] set the US economy on its path toward lousy working-class wages and steeper financial crises."

The Devil and Donald Trump

"Wallnau's ideas have taken off in particular among a group of Christians often referred to as neo-charismatics, evangelicals who speak in tongues and believe that the Holy Spirit has possessed them with supernatural gifts, including prophecy and healing; this religious cohort is also one of the fastest-growing segments of Christianity in the U.S. Now, four years after an election that many of these Christians continue to think was stolen, Wallnau and his faithful are on the campaign trail. 'People don't know. They're going to look back on it in the future,' Wallnau promised the crowd in Michigan, 'and they're going to say the populist civic awakening began when believers prayed in Trump to disrupt the status quo.'"

Molly Olmstead at Slate writes about those who believe that "under Trump's protection, American Christians will rise up, defeat their demonic enemies, and take their rightful place of power in the country."

And Matthew D. Taylor at The Bulwark describes these beliefs as "victorious eschatology."

"A Philosophical Brief in Defense of Liberalism"

"Living this liberal vision, for Obama, means accepting the diversity inherent to a large society made up of people with all sorts of beliefs and worldviews: recognizing that 'our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they'll extend to us.' It means understanding 'true freedom' as something that gives all of us the right 'to make decisions about our own life [and] requires us to recognize that other people have the right to make decisions that are different than ours.' And it means seeing democracy as more than 'just a bunch of abstract principles and a bunch of dusty laws in a book somewhere,' but rather 'the values we live by.'"

Zack Beauchamp at Vox reacts to Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention.

And Harold Meyerson at The American Prospect looks back to the Democrats' 1924 convention.

"The Real Intent Is to Privilege a Particular Expression of Christianity"

"'It's significant that the Louisiana law uses the same text created for "The Ten Commandments" movie promotions by the Fraternal Order of Eagles and Paramount Pictures because it reminds us that this text isn't one found in any Bible and isn't one used by any religious faith,' Kruse said via email. 'Instead, it's a text that was crafted by secular political actors in the 1950s for their own ends.'"

Holly Meyer and Peter Smith at the Associated Press discuss Louisiana's H.B. 71.

"It's Necessary to Stand Up for the Values of Secular Education, Academic Freedom and Rigor, and Intellectual Inquiry Whenever They Face a Threat—Whoever That Threat Comes From"

"I realize I sound like a crotchety old conservative here, but college classrooms should not be 'safe spaces.' They can't be safe spaces. They should be respectful spaces, and professors and students alike should treat each other with consideration, but 'cause no emotional harm' is not, in fact, a value to which academic institutions should aspire, or an ideal they can ever realistically reach—especially when 'this is harmful' has become an easy cudgel to use in order to get one's way."

Jill Filipovic at Slate reacts to the art-history controversy at Hamline University.

"To Be a Member of the Liberal Elite Today Is to Live a Life That Is as Regulated as an Orthodox Jew's and to Possess a Conscience That's as Tortured as a Calvinist's"

"Into this vacuum stepped the rationale that was always also operating underneath the higher ones, and that the ideology of neo-liberalism, which took hold in the 1980s, elevated to a philosophical principle: the commercial. Students went to college now for the exclusive purpose of maximizing their future earnings, and the public supported the enterprise for the exclusive purpose of supplying the needs of the labor market. This was secularism at its worst: materialistic, individualistic, transactional, devoid of moral or spiritual content, hostile to ideas and ideals. It left unaddressed the ineluctable hungers of youth: for purpose, for meaning, for belonging, for belief in something larger than the self. And so, into that vacuum, has lately stepped the ideology of 'social justice,' with all the certainties and all the furies of a new religion on the march. Not only students but their institutions, which had been equally in search of purpose, have been quick to take the hint. With stunning speed and unanimity, colleges and universities have rebranded themselves en masse as seminaries of social action, places where you go to learn to 'change the world.'"

William Deresiewicz at Salmagundi discusses "the inadequacies of secularism."

"America Isn't the Church and the Church Isn't America"

"Winthrop got close to getting the analogy right because he called the Puritans to follow and reflect biblical teachings about charity and mercy as they followed Christ. His shortcoming, as seen by the Puritan breakdown over the next few decades, was thinking that a whole society could possibly do that well over the long term. Reagan's vision of America being a city on a hill wasn't terrible because he was simply building off of biblical imagery to make a point about the goodness and potential example of our country, but it still falls far short of what the saying really means."

At The Bulwark, Alan Cross writes that "America Cannot Be the Biblical City on a Hill."

"Fear of Islam Shaped His View of Native Americans"

"The answer lies in Columbus'—and Europe's—long history of crusading against Islam. The crucible of centuries of these religious wars, and the increasing encroachment of the Ottomans and other Muslims in the years after 1453, forged the notion of Islam as an enemy in the minds of Columbus, Cortés and the thousands of other Europeans who fought Muslims in the Old World and then American Indians in the New World."

Alan Mikhail in the Los Angeles Times discusses the "centrality of Islam" for Christopher Columbus.

"The Army's First Centralized School for Intelligence and Psychological Warfare"

"I was proud to be in the American army and we were able to do what we had to do.  I don't think we're heroes.  But the opportunity to help fight and win the war was a wonderful way.  I can look anybody straight in their eye and say I think I've earned the right to be an American.  And that's what–that's what it did for me."

Jon Wertheim at 60 Minutes interviews some of the last surviving Ritchie Boys from World War II.

"Celebrated as a Foundational Moment in Our History for Generations"

"White actors reenacted the baptism for decades: near the historic site itself, in the nearby city of San Clemente, in plays across Southern California and even on floats in everything from Veterans' Day marches to the 1957 Tournament of Roses Parade. These events served to replenish our self-conception of a California where the eternal good life was possible for anyone, if only they truly believed."

Gustavo Arrellano in the Los Angeles Times tells the story of La Cristianita.

"And That's the Tragedy in a Nutshell"

"The Palestinians have two basic strategies: relentless anti-colonial-style violence on the one hand and international diplomatic and economic pressure on Israel on the other. It has not yet dawned on Palestinians, nor on the foreign supporters eager to carry their banner, that the two strategies cancel each other out, that Hamas is constantly clarifying to Israelis the dire consequences of their acquiescence to international demands."

Haviv Rettig Gur at The Times of Israel reacts to the latest conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

"Religion Is Never Created nor Destroyed, in Any Society, Merely Transformed from One Form to Another"

"No, this isn't about sky fairies or who you personally profess as your lord and savior. Religion is fundamentally about dealing with reality via myth, ritual, and folklore, rather than data, empiricism, and skeptical inquiry. There's no less of it now than ever before. In fact, I'd go further and posit The Law of Conservation of Religion"

Antonio Garcia-Martinez at The Pull Request argues that "[t]he seculars don't understand their own religiosity because, frankly, they don't know enough about religion to recognize it."

"Everything Is Connected, Nothing Happens Without a Reason, and Nothing Is as It Appears"

"When you have trained yourself to believe that you are self-sufficient, that you are the source of your health… when a public health official comes around and says 'Actually, you may be an asymptomatic carrier of a disease that you're not aware of', that's really insulting,' says Mr Remski."

At BBC News, Joshua Cheetham asks, "Does yoga have a conspiracy theory problem?"

And at the CBC, Nahlah Ayed asks, "Are conspiracy theories really 'a new religion'?"