thenation--2020-10-01--Sufjan Stevens’s Lullabies for the Apocalypse

Things are bad .
Everyone I know seems more than a little deranged , driven slowly out of their minds by the absolute and continuing failure of the government—not from a lack of resources but because the people in charge simply do not care .
It ’ s become harder and harder to bear the traditional inaction of liberal politics : If one political party doesn ’ t care about your well-being and the other refuses to fight on your behalf , what can you do ?
On The Ascension , the latest album from the mercurial folk singer Sufjan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little differently .
“ Is it all for nothing/Is it all part of the plan ?
” he asks in a voice that ’ s both plaintive and unmistakably acquiescent .
And then the answer : “ Tranquilize me and revise me / Ativan.
” It ’ s one thing to know exactly how terrible things are , and then it ’ s a totally separate thing to have to carry on every day as though nothing at all is wrong .
I still answer e-mails punctually , and have meetings to talk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the prevailing crises of our time .
It is more than a little maddening .
Stevens has diverted that thwarted energy into something productive , an album that ’ s as gorgeous as it is resigned .
More than anything , The Ascension is of its time .
It ’ s an expertly crafted exploration of frustration by a master of his art .
And by God , it ’ s beautiful .
I haven ’ t been able to listen to anything else .
The other day , Stevens gave a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at The Atlantic , in which he summarized the mood and mode of The Ascension : “ There ’ s a lot of criticism on those [ early ] records ; it ’ s all just hidden behind a facade of joyfulness , ” Stevens told Kornhaber .
“ But I ’ m inherently a pessimist… .
For the first time ever , on The Ascension , I ’ m being honest about what I feel about the world.
” That previous work , of course , is the genre-spanning stuff that made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s the dark whimsy of Illinois , the pop adjacent experimentalism of The Age of Adz , and the emotional devastation of Carrie and Lowell—and those are just a few of his better-known efforts .
Stevens is an auteur , and his work is best when he ’ s trying something new .
His discography is a little like the sedimentary layers of the ground beneath us : years and years of life and feeling compressed into an album ’ s worth of time .
The Ascension isn ’ t quite like anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his great pop instincts with a pervasive , gentle pessimism , and the mood this dissonance creates feels weirdly soothing—like giving one ’ s brain a bath .
Lines like “ My love , I ’ ve lost my faith in everything / Tell me you love me anyway , ” “ I wan na die happy , ” and “ Is it all for nothing / Is it all part of the plan ?
” smack you in the face , delivered as they are in Stevens ’ s high , pure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the instruments are digital , and the pop culture references are , generally speaking , on point .
That said , it feels hard to define just what kind of pop sandbox Stevens is playing in , even though it feels fully formed .
Electro-folk ?
Vaporwave synthpop ?
Digitized maximalism ?
I ’ m not even sure it matters , though it ’ s clear that Stevens has been listening to and learning from his contemporaries—I hear shades of Jamie XX and Will Wiesenfeld , among other fully digested influences .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other hand , are esoteric .
Even if Stevens ’ s cynicism is obvious , songs like “ Gilgamesh ” and “ Run Away With Me ” break up the flow with a healthy dose of yearning .
( Lyrics like “ And I say , love / Come run away with me / Sweet falling remedy ” make that pretty clear . )
I ’ m not exactly sure how he ’ s done it , but Stevens has made a record that feels like right now : The Ascension is by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and also a little hopeful .
As life has moved inside and has subsequently been stripped down to its essentials , what else is left to us ?
In other words : big mood .
The Ascension also finds Stevens playing with pop culture tropes .
“ Death Star ” uses the Star Wars boondoggle to make a point about how a certain class of people are killing everyone else on the planet .
“ Death star into space / What you call the human race / Expedite the judgment day / It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that plate , ” he sings at one point .
The nihilism is somehow relatable , even if the lyrics here feel a bit buried in the mix .
“ Goodbye to All That , ” on the other hand , spins Joan Didion ’ s seminal ( and original ! )
“ Leaving New York ” essay into “ A Joyful Tune About Leaving New York.
” And it gives us one of the best lines on the entire album , too : “ Now that it ’ s too late to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ m just glad that I ’ m still alive / For what hasn ’ t killed me will make me stronger , ” which I think is as good a motto as any to keep on being alive .
But “ Goodbye to All That ” also exemplifies my least favorite thing about The Ascension—its lyrics can be vague and allusive .
Which can be meaningful , depending on your mood— “ Tell me what I already know / Nothing is left of me , all of this is vertigo / @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” —or come off as a little too slick .
But even these temperamental shortcomings are all in the service of conjuring an ethereal mood , which Sufjan does with panache .
At its best , the songs here make me think of that sensation you have right when you wake up , when the dream world hasn ’ t yet dissolved , like sugar , into intangibility .
The last track on The Ascension is “ America , ” a twelve-and-a-half-minute song about the nation .
In it , Stevens addresses an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unclear whether he ’ s speaking to a lover or the people of the United States made flesh .
The chorus lends itself to more ambiguity : “ Don ’ t do to me what you did to America , ” Stevens sings .
But it ’ s charged .
And let ’ s be honest : It feels almost too current , even though the song was written six years ago .
According to Kornhaber ’ s interview , Stevens said the song is about his crisis of faith regarding his identity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s overtly a political protest song , specifically about America , ” he told his interviewer .
Who isn ’ t in the middle of a similar crisis ?
The Ascension eloquently voices the familiar feelings of confusion , anxiety , and outright terror .
But even while doing so , Stevens still manages to soothe : he ’ s the bard of this apocalypse .

Things are bad. Everyone I know seems more than a little deranged, driven slowly out of their minds by the absolute and continuing failure of the government—not from a lack of resources but because the people in charge simply do not care. It’s become harder and harder to bear the traditional inaction of liberal politics: If one political party doesn’t care about your well-being and the other refuses to fight on your behalf, what can you do?
On The Ascension, the latest album from the mercurial folk singer Sufjan Stevens, the question is formulated a little differently. “Is it all for nothing/Is it all part of the plan?” he asks in a voice that’s both plaintive and unmistakably acquiescent. And then the answer: “Tranquilize me and revise me / Ativan.” It’s one thing to know exactly how terrible things are, and then it’s a totally separate thing to have to carry on every day as though nothing at all is wrong. I still answer e-mails punctually, and have meetings to talk about things that aren’t related to the prevailing crises of our time. It is more than a little maddening. Stevens has diverted that thwarted energy into something productive, an album that’s as gorgeous as it is resigned. More than anything, The Ascension is of its time. It’s an expertly crafted exploration of frustration by a master of his art. And by God, it’s beautiful. I haven’t been able to listen to anything else.
The other day, Stevens gave a fairly revealing interview to Spencer Kornhaber over at The Atlantic, in which he summarized the mood and mode of The Ascension: “There’s a lot of criticism on those [early] records; it’s all just hidden behind a facade of joyfulness,” Stevens told Kornhaber. “But I’m inherently a pessimist…. For the first time ever, on The Ascension, I’m being honest about what I feel about the world.”
That previous work, of course, is the genre-spanning stuff that made Stevens’s name. There’s the dark whimsy of Illinois, the pop adjacent experimentalism of The Age of Adz, and the emotional devastation of Carrie and Lowell—and those are just a few of his better-known efforts. Stevens is an auteur, and his work is best when he’s trying something new. His discography is a little like the sedimentary layers of the ground beneath us: years and years of life and feeling compressed into an album’s worth of time.
The Ascension isn’t quite like anything Stevens has made before. It blends his great pop instincts with a pervasive, gentle pessimism, and the mood this dissonance creates feels weirdly soothing—like giving one’s brain a bath. Lines like “My love, I’ve lost my faith in everything / Tell me you love me anyway,” “I wanna die happy,” and “Is it all for nothing / Is it all part of the plan?” smack you in the face, delivered as they are in Stevens’s high, pure voice. The beats are intricate, the instruments are digital, and the pop culture references are, generally speaking, on point. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
That said, it feels hard to define just what kind of pop sandbox Stevens is playing in, even though it feels fully formed. Electro-folk? Vaporwave synthpop? Digitized maximalism? I’m not even sure it matters, though it’s clear that Stevens has been listening to and learning from his contemporaries—I hear shades of Jamie XX and Will Wiesenfeld, among other fully digested influences. Related Article Moses Sumney’s Songs of Freedom Stephen Kearse
The Ascension’s lyrics, on the other hand, are esoteric. Even if Stevens’s cynicism is obvious, songs like “Gilgamesh” and “Run Away With Me” break up the flow with a healthy dose of yearning. (Lyrics like “And I say, love / Come run away with me / Sweet falling remedy” make that pretty clear.) I’m not exactly sure how he’s done it, but Stevens has made a record that feels like right now: The Ascension is by turns depressing, fantastical, horny, and also a little hopeful. As life has moved inside and has subsequently been stripped down to its essentials, what else is left to us? In other words: big mood.
The Ascension also finds Stevens playing with pop culture tropes. “Death Star” uses the Star Wars boondoggle to make a point about how a certain class of people are killing everyone else on the planet. “Death star into space / What you call the human race / Expedite the judgment day / It’s your own damn head on that plate,” he sings at one point. The nihilism is somehow relatable, even if the lyrics here feel a bit buried in the mix.
“Goodbye to All That,” on the other hand, spins Joan Didion’s seminal (and original!) “Leaving New York” essay into “A Joyful Tune About Leaving New York.” And it gives us one of the best lines on the entire album, too: “Now that it’s too late to have died a young man / Well I’m just glad that I’m still alive / For what hasn’t killed me will make me stronger,” which I think is as good a motto as any to keep on being alive.
But “Goodbye to All That” also exemplifies my least favorite thing about The Ascension—its lyrics can be vague and allusive. Which can be meaningful, depending on your mood—“Tell me what I already know / Nothing is left of me, all of this is vertigo / Turn around and show me your shadow”—or come off as a little too slick. But even these temperamental shortcomings are all in the service of conjuring an ethereal mood, which Sufjan does with panache. At its best, the songs here make me think of that sensation you have right when you wake up, when the dream world hasn’t yet dissolved, like sugar, into intangibility.
The last track on The Ascension is “America,” a twelve-and-a-half-minute song about the nation. In it, Stevens addresses an unknown listener, and it’s unclear whether he’s speaking to a lover or the people of the United States made flesh. The chorus lends itself to more ambiguity: “Don’t do to me what you did to America,” Stevens sings. But it’s charged. And let’s be honest: It feels almost too current, even though the song was written six years ago. According to Kornhaber’s interview, Stevens said the song is about his crisis of faith regarding his identity as an American. “It’s overtly a political protest song, specifically about America,” he told his interviewer.
Who isn’t in the middle of a similar crisis? The Ascension eloquently voices the familiar feelings of confusion, anxiety, and outright terror. But even while doing so, Stevens still manages to soothe: he’s the bard of this apocalypse.


Fire Donald Trump

This is the most important election in our lifetimes—and one of the most consequential in The Nation ’ s 155-year history .
Accepting his party ’ s nomination in 2016 , Donald Trump promised to “ lead our country back to safety , prosperity , and peace…to add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth.
” At his inauguration , he returned to that theme , vowing to rebuild “ our country , with American hands and American labor.
” All lies .
He also claimed to be worth billions–and to have paid “ millions ” in taxes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lie , too.1 We Still Aren ’ t Prepared for the Fact That Trump May Steal the Election Instead of leading us toward prosperity , Trump pushed through a tax bill that gave billions of dollars to his rich supporters ( and cabinet members ) and cut taxes on corporations by a whopping 40 percent while doling out crumbs to working families .
Instead of pursuing peace , Trump scuttled the Iran nuclear deal , reneged on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty ( negotiated by Ronald Reagan ) , and is withdrawing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Not to mention his abdication of the Paris climate accord—the predictable consequence of an administration with a contempt for science , an aversion to truth , and a blind faith in the infallible wisdom of markets and corporate elites .
Fiddling on Twitter while the West Coast burns , Trump has nothing to offer but four more years of incompetence and indifference .
The man who pledged to end “ American carnage ” has instead revealed himself as a cheerleader for white supremacy , religious bigotry , and nationalist hatred.2 And this is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus pitilessly exposed his terrifying inadequacy as a leader , his literally fatal inability to take advice or rise to an occasion .
As the pandemic continues to spread , with our country leading the world in death and suffering , Americans should ask ourselves , “ Do I feel safer than I did four years ago ?
” 3 Voting Trump out of office will not in itself heal the terrible wounds inflicted on our body politic over the past four years .
But it is the absolutely necessary first step .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting wherever possible or by absentee or in-person voting when necessary.4 We have no illusions about Biden , who—as we reported here last November—removed bankruptcy protections from student loans , helped write the bill that barred states from capping interest rates on interstate banking , and spent a career in the Senate carrying water for Delaware ’ s credit card industry .
The idea that Biden is some kind of sleeper agent for socialism is a cruel joke , as is the claim that he is a closet radical.5 Trump Threatens America : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ primaries did include some candidates and ideas that truly are radical .
Bernie Sanders—The Nation ’ s preferred candidate—articulated a vision of Medicare for All and an America where health and education and economic security are human rights .
Elizabeth Warren opposed Biden ’ s favors for the banks and ran on a platform of taking on the monopolist millionaires and robber baron billionaires who have rigged our economy .
Yet both of them are voting for Biden.6 So are Angela Davis , Noam Chomsky , and Jesse Jackson , whose pioneering campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ run to change the boundaries of the possible .
As Davis said , this election is about “ choosing a candidate who can be most effectively pressured into allowing more space for the evolving anti-racist movement.
” The Nation has always preferred to put our faith in movements rather than saviors .
If the current moment allows for hope—and we believe it does—it comes from those movements and from a government willing to listen rather than lash out.7 The recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underlines just how much is at stake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whether you like Biden or not , ” Chomsky argued .
“ Another four years of Trump may literally lead us to the stage where the survival of organized human society is deeply imperiled.
” Maybe you think that ’ s fearmongering .
Perhaps you live in a safe state .
( New Yorkers are fortunate enough to have the option of voting for Biden on the Working Families Party line—a vote against Trump and against the corporate-dominated Democratic Party . )
But Trump needs to be repudiated decisively in the popular vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Court already tipped in his favor , and for that , every vote will count.8 When he first endorsed Biden in April , Sanders complimented him : “ You want to bring people in , even people who disagree with you.
” Whatever its other merits , Biden ’ s choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate showed a willingness to reach out to one of his most effective critics .
It also indicated due respect for the voters of color—African American women in particular—whose role as the keystone of the Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far too long.9 With Help From Chris Wallace , Trump Attacked American Democracy After winning the nomination , Biden implicitly acknowledged that the times demanded bolder solutions than the restoration he promised during the primaries , convening a unity task force that included not just Sanders but also Congressional Black Caucus chair Karen Bass , Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal , Sunrise Movement cofounder Varshini Prakash , and Association of Flight Attendants president Sara Nelson .
The result is arguably the most progressive Democratic platform in decades , though Biden ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to embrace Medicare for All seems politically perverse as well as shortsighted.10 Yet as Sanders told the Democratic convention , “ If Donald Trump is reelected , all the progress we have made will be in jeopardy.
” Because despite Trump ’ s best efforts , we have made progress—in our attitudes toward climate change , reproductive rights , racial justice , economic inequality , police brutality , immigration reform , and universal health care.11 Getting rid of Trump allows the movements behind those changes to keep pushing forward , rather than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defensive crouch .
It also empowers the growing cadre of genuinely progressive elected officials , especially if Democrats succeed in flipping the Senate .
But there are no guarantees .
Power concedes nothing without a demand.12 This much is certain : Trump is a danger not just to our republic and our democratic institutions but also to our very lives .
Let ’ s vote him out .
On November 3 , let ’ s fire Donald Trump.13

This article appears in the October 19/26, 2020 issue.
This is the most important election in our lifetimes—and one of the most consequential in The Nation’s 155-year history. Accepting his party’s nomination in 2016, Donald Trump promised to “lead our country back to safety, prosperity, and peace…to add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth.” At his inauguration, he returned to that theme, vowing to rebuild “our country, with American hands and American labor.” All lies. He also claimed to be worth billions–and to have paid “millions” in taxes. That turned out to be a lie, too.1 Related Article We Still Aren’t Prepared for the Fact That Trump May Steal the Election Elie Mystal
Instead of leading us toward prosperity, Trump pushed through a tax bill that gave billions of dollars to his rich supporters (and cabinet members) and cut taxes on corporations by a whopping 40 percent while doling out crumbs to working families. Instead of pursuing peace, Trump scuttled the Iran nuclear deal, reneged on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (negotiated by Ronald Reagan), and is withdrawing the country from the Open Skies agreement. Not to mention his abdication of the Paris climate accord—the predictable consequence of an administration with a contempt for science, an aversion to truth, and a blind faith in the infallible wisdom of markets and corporate elites. Fiddling on Twitter while the West Coast burns, Trump has nothing to offer but four more years of incompetence and indifference. The man who pledged to end “American carnage” has instead revealed himself as a cheerleader for white supremacy, religious bigotry, and nationalist hatred.2
And this is without even reckoning with the way the coronavirus pitilessly exposed his terrifying inadequacy as a leader, his literally fatal inability to take advice or rise to an occasion. As the pandemic continues to spread, with our country leading the world in death and suffering, Americans should ask ourselves, “Do I feel safer than I did four years ago?”3
Voting Trump out of office will not in itself heal the terrible wounds inflicted on our body politic over the past four years. But it is the absolutely necessary first step. That means voting for Joe Biden—through early voting wherever possible or by absentee or in-person voting when necessary.4 Related Article Trump Threatens America: Reelect Me, or Else Sasha Abramsky
We have no illusions about Biden, who—as we reported here last November—removed bankruptcy protections from student loans, helped write the bill that barred states from capping interest rates on interstate banking, and spent a career in the Senate carrying water for Delaware’s credit card industry. The idea that Biden is some kind of sleeper agent for socialism is a cruel joke, as is the claim that he is a closet radical.5 Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
The Democratic primaries did include some candidates and ideas that truly are radical. Bernie Sanders—The Nation’s preferred candidate—articulated a vision of Medicare for All and an America where health and education and economic security are human rights. Elizabeth Warren opposed Biden’s favors for the banks and ran on a platform of taking on the monopolist millionaires and robber baron billionaires who have rigged our economy. Yet both of them are voting for Biden.6
So are Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, and Jesse Jackson, whose pioneering campaign first demonstrated the potential of a presidential run to change the boundaries of the possible. As Davis said, this election is about “choosing a candidate who can be most effectively pressured into allowing more space for the evolving anti-racist movement.” The Nation has always preferred to put our faith in movements rather than saviors. If the current moment allows for hope—and we believe it does—it comes from those movements and from a government willing to listen rather than lash out.7
The recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underlines just how much is at stake. “It doesn’t matter whether you like Biden or not,” Chomsky argued. “Another four years of Trump may literally lead us to the stage where the survival of organized human society is deeply imperiled.” Maybe you think that’s fearmongering. Perhaps you live in a safe state. (New Yorkers are fortunate enough to have the option of voting for Biden on the Working Families Party line—a vote against Trump and against the corporate-dominated Democratic Party.) But Trump needs to be repudiated decisively in the popular vote to undercut any appeal to a Supreme Court already tipped in his favor, and for that, every vote will count.8 Current Issue View our current issue
When he first endorsed Biden in April, Sanders complimented him: “You want to bring people in, even people who disagree with you.” Whatever its other merits, Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate showed a willingness to reach out to one of his most effective critics. It also indicated due respect for the voters of color—African American women in particular—whose role as the keystone of the Democratic coalition had been taken for granted for far too long.9
After winning the nomination, Biden implicitly acknowledged that the times demanded bolder solutions than the restoration he promised during the primaries, convening a unity task force that included not just Sanders but also Congressional Black Caucus chair Karen Bass, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal, Sunrise Movement cofounder Varshini Prakash, and Association of Flight Attendants president Sara Nelson. The result is arguably the most progressive Democratic platform in decades, though Biden’s stubborn refusal, despite the raging pandemic, to embrace Medicare for All seems politically perverse as well as shortsighted.10 Related Article With Help From Chris Wallace, Trump Attacked American Democracy Jeet Heer
Yet as Sanders told the Democratic convention, “If Donald Trump is reelected, all the progress we have made will be in jeopardy.” Because despite Trump’s best efforts, we have made progress—in our attitudes toward climate change, reproductive rights, racial justice, economic inequality, police brutality, immigration reform, and universal health care.11
Getting rid of Trump allows the movements behind those changes to keep pushing forward, rather than spend the next four years in a defensive crouch. It also empowers the growing cadre of genuinely progressive elected officials, especially if Democrats succeed in flipping the Senate. But there are no guarantees. Power concedes nothing without a demand.12
This much is certain: Trump is a danger not just to our republic and our democratic institutions but also to our very lives. Let’s vote him out. On November 3, let’s fire Donald Trump.13


thenation--2020-10-01--Covid Threatens to Worsen Disparities in Maternal and Reproductive Care

Even under normal circumstances , Black motherhood in the United States can be heavy , moving between feelings of hope and pride and feelings of fear .
As Black Lives Matter cofounder Patrice Khan-Cullors put it , being a Black mother means being someone “ who has to carry the weight of having to protect her children in a world that is conspiring to kill them.
” Consignment to this sorrow is part of what it means to be Black in America .
Now that Covid-19 has swept the nation , these contradictions can be even harder to sustain .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ reality of our health inequalities , in particular in terms of access to testing and treatment , and revealed the inadequate measures adopted to protect essential workers .
But the inequities don ’ t stop there .
Americans across racial categories are warier of growing their families during the coronavirus pandemic , but Black people in particular are facing financial burdens that make the decision a hard one to make .
A recent study found that 44 percent of Black people are shifting their fertility preferences toward delaying or abandoning the idea of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the general population .
That ’ s not surprising , given that financial insecurity and unemployment overwhelmingly impacts Black Americans .
Meanwhile , those who are pregnant are more vulnerable : In July , the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published a report that Black and Latinx pregnant patients are more likely to test positive for Covid-19 than their white counterparts .
But this hesitation to grow our families likely doesn ’ t come only from the recent economic instability and health insecurity .
It is well known that maternal morbidity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among Black people in the United States .
In the US , Black women are three to four times as likely than white women to experience pregnancy-related deaths , and in the UK , they are five times as likely .
Even when one accounts for class , middle-class Black women are more likely to die than working-class white women in America .
Fame does not protect one from these adverse events , as we learned when affluent Black women Serena Williams and Beyoncé both went through harrowing experiences in pregnancy and delivery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dangerous for a Black American woman with a PhD than a white woman with a high school diploma .
As a Black American woman with a PhD , the prospect of my birthing a child seems unappealing .
Add to that that the US ranks 33rd out of 36 among OECD countries for infant mortality , and it is not surprising that many Black people would prefer to abstain from childbirth .
Another disparity is in newborn survival , which , according to a new study , is correlated with interpersonal dynamics between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the United States are more than twice as likely to die before the age of 1 , irrespective of their mother ’ s income or education level .
A longitudinal study which documented newborn and physician relationships from 1992 to 2015 showed that Black babies were three times more likely to die under the medical guidance of a white doctor than when treated by a Black doctor .
This same study saw no difference in white newborn survival rate when they had doctors of the same or a different racial background .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Is Always Political At the same time , Black Americans disproportionately lack access to contraception and abortion .
Anti-choice zealots want to make abortion illegal in the United States , and their efforts have been unflagging since the ascent of the 45th US president .
Trump ’ s nomination of conservative Christian judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court raises the stakes even further .
The anti-abortion movement , aligned with Christian conservative groups and the Republican Party , has relied on scare tactics and racialized fear , and an arsenal of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for people to access safe and affordable abortions in the United States .
This strategy is not new but part of an ongoing culture war that is tied to racially motivated campaigns which , as Michele Goodwin has argued in Policing the Womb , criminalizes the wombs of poor people and people of color .
When I lived in New York City in 2011 , I was appalled by an anti-abortion billboard in Lower Manhattan that featured a Black girl in a pink dress looking bewildered with a message above her reading , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ African American is in the womb.
” The ad was created by the “ That ’ s Abortion , ” a right-wing campaign that targeted abortion providers .
Behind their brand of racially motivated anti-abortion provocation was a pernicious lack of awareness about the actual harms of Black life .
These arguments evade the ways that Republicans and Christian conservatives have interfered with Black people ’ s health and wealth by cutting funding for education , Medicaid , and housing .
In 2019 , there were 18 federal and state proposals to restrict @ @ @ @ @ @ @ race and sex selection , but all ultimately restricting access to pregnancy termination .
In June 2020 , Tennessee lawmakers , with the approval of Republican Governor Bill Lee , passed a law that would have prohibited abortions when a heartbeat was detected in a fetus .
The law was ruled unconstitutional by the US district judge .
Earlier this year , in June Medical Services v. Russo , the Supreme Court ruled that a Louisiana law that would have required doctors performing abortions to hold active admitting privileges in a hospital , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for patients to obtain an abortion .
At present , African Americans make up 18 percent of Tennessee ’ s population and 34 percent of Louisiana ’ s , which is well above the national average of 12.5 percent .
When Southern states pass these laws , one can not ignore that anti-abortion legislation in the American South will have a particularly deleterious impact on Black people .
The wave of anti-abortion measures , passed by Republican legislators , is part of an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attempt to erroneously conflate abortion with eugenics , as a way to draw in conservatives of color such as Ted Cruz and Ben Carson .
The theoretical falsehood is moving the goal posts from actual , harmful genocidal programs such as the force sterilization of Black women in the civil rights period and the known eugenics programs that disproportionately targeted Black Americans in Southern states such as North Carolina , which carried out state-led sterilizations until 1977 .
Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer was galvanized in part by her forced sterilization in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be fighting for racial justice , yet , their propaganda fails to acknowledge that a significant share of Black Americans support access to abortion .
These disparities in healthcare access have deep roots .
Black women have faced a long history of medical abuse and experimentation .
Enslavement , as Professor Deirdre Cooper Owens has noted in Medical Bondage , meant that a Black woman ’ s pregnancy and her fetus were considered valuable commodities for their enslavers .
This was predicated on Black women being valued for their reproductive and productive labor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ highlighted in her book Women , Race , and Class .
Some Black women resisted their enslavers ’ limitations on their reproductive agency , using abortifacients or committing infanticide to prevent their offspring from living a life under enslavement .
They were willing to use whatever means they had to have greater control over their bodies and potential suffering from a brutal system of chattel slavery .
We must address all these structural inequalities around reproductive health head on , rather than wishing them away .
We can learn from the example set @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Clinics that were organized by the Black Panther party , as Professor Alondra Nelson has documented in her monograph Body and Soul .
At the heart of these programs was providing free healthcare , free preventive screening for sickle cell disease , and free gynecological exams , through autonomous community networks , an anti-racist model that could be useful for Medicare for All .
Tackling health inequalities means listening to Black people and their concerns about healthcare access and empowering people to receive the care they want , without judgment .

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Even under normal circumstances, Black motherhood in the United States can be heavy, moving between feelings of hope and pride and feelings of fear. As Black Lives Matter cofounder Patrice Khan-Cullors put it, being a Black mother means being someone “who has to carry the weight of having to protect her children in a world that is conspiring to kill them.” Consignment to this sorrow is part of what it means to be Black in America.
Now that Covid-19 has swept the nation, these contradictions can be even harder to sustain. The pandemic has laid bare the dark reality of our health inequalities, in particular in terms of access to testing and treatment, and revealed the inadequate measures adopted to protect essential workers. But the inequities don’t stop there. Americans across racial categories are warier of growing their families during the coronavirus pandemic, but Black people in particular are facing financial burdens that make the decision a hard one to make. A recent study found that 44 percent of Black people are shifting their fertility preferences toward delaying or abandoning the idea of a pregnancy, compared to 34 percent of the general population. That’s not surprising, given that financial insecurity and unemployment overwhelmingly impacts Black Americans. Meanwhile, those who are pregnant are more vulnerable: In July, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published a report that Black and Latinx pregnant patients are more likely to test positive for Covid-19 than their white counterparts.
But this hesitation to grow our families likely doesn’t come only from the recent economic instability and health insecurity. It is well known that maternal morbidity as well as mortality are particularly high among Black people in the United States. In the US, Black women are three to four times as likely than white women to experience pregnancy-related deaths, and in the UK, they are five times as likely. Even when one accounts for class, middle-class Black women are more likely to die than working-class white women in America. Fame does not protect one from these adverse events, as we learned when affluent Black women Serena Williams and Beyoncé both went through harrowing experiences in pregnancy and delivery. We know that childbirth is more dangerous for a Black American woman with a PhD than a white woman with a high school diploma. As a Black American woman with a PhD, the prospect of my birthing a child seems unappealing. Add to that that the US ranks 33rd out of 36 among OECD countries for infant mortality, and it is not surprising that many Black people would prefer to abstain from childbirth. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Another disparity is in newborn survival, which, according to a new study, is correlated with interpersonal dynamics between medical staff and patients. Black babies in the United States are more than twice as likely to die before the age of 1, irrespective of their mother’s income or education level. A longitudinal study which documented newborn and physician relationships from 1992 to 2015 showed that Black babies were three times more likely to die under the medical guidance of a white doctor than when treated by a Black doctor. This same study saw no difference in white newborn survival rate when they had doctors of the same or a different racial background. Related Article As a Black Mother, My Parenting Is Always Political Dani McClain
At the same time, Black Americans disproportionately lack access to contraception and abortion. Anti-choice zealots want to make abortion illegal in the United States, and their efforts have been unflagging since the ascent of the 45th US president. Trump’s nomination of conservative Christian judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court raises the stakes even further. The anti-abortion movement, aligned with Christian conservative groups and the Republican Party, has relied on scare tactics and racialized fear, and an arsenal of unsound claims, to make it difficult for people to access safe and affordable abortions in the United States. This strategy is not new but part of an ongoing culture war that is tied to racially motivated campaigns which, as Michele Goodwin has argued in Policing the Womb, criminalizes the wombs of poor people and people of color.
When I lived in New York City in 2011, I was appalled by an anti-abortion billboard in Lower Manhattan that featured a Black girl in a pink dress looking bewildered with a message above her reading, “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.” The ad was created by the “That’s Abortion,” a right-wing campaign that targeted abortion providers. Behind their brand of racially motivated anti-abortion provocation was a pernicious lack of awareness about the actual harms of Black life. These arguments evade the ways that Republicans and Christian conservatives have interfered with Black people’s health and wealth by cutting funding for education, Medicaid, and housing.
In 2019, there were 18 federal and state proposals to restrict or ban abortions, many tied to race and sex selection, but all ultimately restricting access to pregnancy termination. In June 2020, Tennessee lawmakers, with the approval of Republican Governor Bill Lee, passed a law that would have prohibited abortions when a heartbeat was detected in a fetus. The law was ruled unconstitutional by the US district judge. Earlier this year, in June Medical Services v. Russo, the Supreme Court ruled that a Louisiana law that would have required doctors performing abortions to hold active admitting privileges in a hospital, was ruled to cause an undue burden for patients to obtain an abortion. At present, African Americans make up 18 percent of Tennessee’s population and 34 percent of Louisiana’s, which is well above the national average of 12.5 percent. When Southern states pass these laws, one cannot ignore that anti-abortion legislation in the American South will have a particularly deleterious impact on Black people. Current Issue View our current issue
The wave of anti-abortion measures, passed by Republican legislators, is part of an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade. It’s also part the Christian right’s attempt to erroneously conflate abortion with eugenics, as a way to draw in conservatives of color such as Ted Cruz and Ben Carson. The theoretical falsehood is moving the goal posts from actual, harmful genocidal programs such as the force sterilization of Black women in the civil rights period and the known eugenics programs that disproportionately targeted Black Americans in Southern states such as North Carolina, which carried out state-led sterilizations until 1977. Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer was galvanized in part by her forced sterilization in Mississippi in 1961. Anti-choicers claim to be fighting for racial justice, yet, their propaganda fails to acknowledge that a significant share of Black Americans support access to abortion.
These disparities in healthcare access have deep roots. Black women have faced a long history of medical abuse and experimentation. Enslavement, as Professor Deirdre Cooper Owens has noted in Medical Bondage, meant that a Black woman’s pregnancy and her fetus were considered valuable commodities for their enslavers. This was predicated on Black women being valued for their reproductive and productive labor, which Professor Angela Y. Davis also highlighted in her book Women, Race, and Class. Some Black women resisted their enslavers’ limitations on their reproductive agency, using abortifacients or committing infanticide to prevent their offspring from living a life under enslavement. They were willing to use whatever means they had to have greater control over their bodies and potential suffering from a brutal system of chattel slavery.
We must address all these structural inequalities around reproductive health head on, rather than wishing them away. We can learn from the example set by the People’s Free Medical Clinics that were organized by the Black Panther party, as Professor Alondra Nelson has documented in her monograph Body and Soul. At the heart of these programs was providing free healthcare, free preventive screening for sickle cell disease, and free gynecological exams, through autonomous community networks, an anti-racist model that could be useful for Medicare for All. Tackling health inequalities means listening to Black people and their concerns about healthcare access and empowering people to receive the care they want, without judgment.


thenation--2020-10-01--Get Ready for Election Month 2020

Get Ready for Election Month 2020

In 2018 , despite months of hype about a looming blue wave , election night was a dud .
Cable commentators sagged , trying to find meaning in what seemed to be mixed results .
Democrats appeared to have lost high-profile statewide races in Georgia , Texas , and Florida .
And while the party seemed to win control of the House , at midevening it looked to be by the narrowest of margins .
On Fox News , anchors mocked it as a mini-wave .
CNN anchor Jake Tapper declared , “ When you look at what ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not a blue wave.
” Donald Trump called the results “ very close to complete victory ” for Republicans the next morning .
But a week later , CNN trumpeted a new rollout of election coverage : “ Election Night in America Continued.
” It was a belated acknowledgment that the elections remained an unfolding story .
At that point , eight states—including California , Florida , New York , and Texas—were still counting ballots .
By the time the last race was called , more than three weeks after election night , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ net gain .
Ultimately , the party ’ s popular-vote margin was almost 9 percentage points , larger than in the legendary GOP wave elections of 1994 and 2010 .
There had indeed been a blue wave , and the rush to call election night a virtual draw let Trump spread lies about fraud when the story changed .
A week later , as Democratic wins materialized in California and recounts in Florida continued , he was screeching about “ infected ” ballots on Twitter and demanding , “ Must go with Election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , much worse in November .
If the networks and the mainstream newspapers cling to the outdated model of trying to call races on election night , we are headed for a presidential legitimacy crisis—regardless of who wins , but especially if Trump loses .
The Covid-19 pandemic has inspired dozens of states to expand vote-by-mail options , with many others offering a choice of early voting , voting by mail , or absentee ballots , along with traditional Election Day voting .
Some experts estimate that the number of ballots cast by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2016 .
Meanwhile , polls say many races are currently dead heats .
There could be many more tight races , protracted recounts , and more emphasis on slower-to-count absentee or mail-in ballots than ever before .
While there are many groups working overtime to ensure ballot access at the federal and local levels , some are also working to persuade the media to take a longer view in its election coverage .
A bipartisan blue-ribbon panel convened by the University of California–Irvine Law School ’ s Rick Hasen recommended that “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election counts may take longer than past years and vote margins may change during the count as election officials process large numbers of mail-in ballots.
” Or as Hasen told me , “ Regardless of what candidates might say , the default has to be a race or a state is too early to call ” if there are a lot of uncounted mail-in ballots .
The panel has urged media outlets to , among other measures , “ emphasize the need for a careful count , rather than reporting that [ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” and “ explain why shifts in vote margins are routine as counts of mail ballots are conducted and not indicative of fraud.
” We Still Aren ’ t Prepared for the Fact That Trump May Steal the Election These steps should become routine in reporting election results .
Although we knew it couldn ’ t change the outcome in 2016 , Hillary Clinton ’ s 2.9 million popular-vote lead—validating for the resistance and maddening for Trump—was under 200,000 the morning after Election Day .
It mattered that it grew , hugely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this year , very few in the news media paid attention to Senator Bernie Sanders ’ s win in the California Democratic primary .
Again , that couldn ’ t make a difference in the results , but it could change one ’ s perception of the strength of his coalition .
And to my cable friends especially , I say it might even be good for business .
Normal election coverage peaks in a few nights of sky-high ratings ; if news outlets promote a national month of high political drama , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2000 presidential election was a nightmare for voters but a boon for cable news , whose audiences surged in November and December of that year .
Many major news organizations , to their credit , are grappling with this new reality .
But let ’ s make sure that the longtime demand to call races on election night doesn ’ t override all those good intentions .

This article appears in the October 19/26, 2020 issue.
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In 2018, despite months of hype about a looming blue wave, election night was a dud. Cable commentators sagged, trying to find meaning in what seemed to be mixed results. Democrats appeared to have lost high-profile statewide races in Georgia, Texas, and Florida. And while the party seemed to win control of the House, at midevening it looked to be by the narrowest of margins.
On Fox News, anchors mocked it as a mini-wave. CNN anchor Jake Tapper declared, “When you look at what’s going on here tonight, this is not a blue wave.” Donald Trump called the results “very close to complete victory” for Republicans the next morning. But a week later, CNN trumpeted a new rollout of election coverage: “Election Night in America Continued.” It was a belated acknowledgment that the elections remained an unfolding story. At that point, eight states—including California, Florida, New York, and Texas—were still counting ballots. By the time the last race was called, more than three weeks after election night, House Democrats had notched an impressive 40-seat net gain. Ultimately, the party’s popular-vote margin was almost 9 percentage points, larger than in the legendary GOP wave elections of 1994 and 2010. There had indeed been a blue wave, and the rush to call election night a virtual draw let Trump spread lies about fraud when the story changed. A week later, as Democratic wins materialized in California and recounts in Florida continued, he was screeching about “infected” ballots on Twitter and demanding, “Must go with Election Night!”
Get ready for much, much worse in November. If the networks and the mainstream newspapers cling to the outdated model of trying to call races on election night, we are headed for a presidential legitimacy crisis—regardless of who wins, but especially if Trump loses. The Covid-19 pandemic has inspired dozens of states to expand vote-by-mail options, with many others offering a choice of early voting, voting by mail, or absentee ballots, along with traditional Election Day voting. Some experts estimate that the number of ballots cast by mail could be double what it was in 2016. Meanwhile, polls say many races are currently dead heats. There could be many more tight races, protracted recounts, and more emphasis on slower-to-count absentee or mail-in ballots than ever before.
While there are many groups working overtime to ensure ballot access at the federal and local levels, some are also working to persuade the media to take a longer view in its election coverage. A bipartisan blue-ribbon panel convened by the University of California–Irvine Law School’s Rick Hasen recommended that “the media educate the public about how election counts may take longer than past years and vote margins may change during the count as election officials process large numbers of mail-in ballots.” Or as Hasen told me, “Regardless of what candidates might say, the default has to be a race or a state is too early to call” if there are a lot of uncounted mail-in ballots. The panel has urged media outlets to, among other measures, “emphasize the need for a careful count, rather than reporting that [a complicated timeline] reflects an institutional failure,” and “explain why shifts in vote margins are routine as counts of mail ballots are conducted and not indicative of fraud.” Related Article We Still Aren’t Prepared for the Fact That Trump May Steal the Election Elie Mystal
These steps should become routine in reporting election results. Although we knew it couldn’t change the outcome in 2016, Hillary Clinton’s 2.9 million popular-vote lead—validating for the resistance and maddening for Trump—was under 200,000 the morning after Election Day. It mattered that it grew, hugely, over the next month. Just this year, very few in the news media paid attention to Senator Bernie Sanders’s win in the California Democratic primary. Again, that couldn’t make a difference in the results, but it could change one’s perception of the strength of his coalition.
And to my cable friends especially, I say it might even be good for business. Normal election coverage peaks in a few nights of sky-high ratings; if news outlets promote a national month of high political drama, audiences will likely stay tuned. The 2000 presidential election was a nightmare for voters but a boon for cable news, whose audiences surged in November and December of that year.
Many major news organizations, to their credit, are grappling with this new reality. But let’s make sure that the longtime demand to call races on election night doesn’t override all those good intentions.


thenation--2020-10-01--Who Has the Power to Define Christianity in the US?

On August 26 , during the Republican National Convention , Vice President Mike Pence closed his acceptance speech with a biblical sleight of hand .
Speaking before a crowd at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore , he exclaimed , “ Let ’ s fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents .
Let ’ s fix our eyes on this land of heroes and let their courage inspire.
” In doing so , he essentially rewrote a passage from the New Testament book of Hebrews : “ Let us fix our eyes on Jesus , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.
” There ’ s nothing new , of course , about an American politician melding religion and politics on the campaign trail .
Still , Pence ’ s decision to replace Jesus with the Stars and Stripes raised eyebrows across a range of religious and political persuasions .
Indeed , the melding of Old Glory and Christ provided the latest evidence of the rising influence of Christian nationalism in the age of Trump .
It ’ s no longer hard to find evidence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our politics and policy-making .
During the pandemic , the Bible has repeatedly been used ( and distorted ) to justify Covid-19 denialism and government inaction , not to speak of outright repression .
In late March , as cities were locking down and public health officials were recommending strict quarantine measures , one of Donald Trump ’ s first acts was to gather his followers at the White House for what was billed as a “ National Day of Prayer ” to give Americans the strength to press on through death and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protests against pandemic shutdowns , funded with dark money from the likes of the Koch brothers , demanded that states reopen for business and social distancing guidelines be loosened .
( Forget about masking of any sort . )
At them , printed protest signs said things like : “ Even Pharaoh Freed Slaves in a Plague ” and “ Texas will not take the Mark of the Beast.
” And even as faith communities struggled admirably to adjust to Zoom worship services , as well as remote pastoral care and memorials , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of religious division , declaring in-person worship “ essential , ” no matter that legal experts questioned his authority to do so .
And speaking of his version of Christian nationalism , no one should forget the June spectacle in Lafayette Square near the White House , when Trump had racial-justice protestors tear-gassed so he could stroll to nearby St. John ’ s Church and pose proudly on its steps displaying a borrowed Bible .
Though he flashed it to the photographers , who can doubt how little time he ’ s spent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same pages is another matter entirely .
After all , a Bible he signed in the wake of that Lafayette Square event is now on sale for nearly $ 40,000 . )
The Battle for the Bible in American History To understand how power is wielded in America by wealthy politicians and their coteries of extremists in 2020 , you have to consider the role of religion in our national life .
An epic battle for the Bible is now underway in a country that has been largely ceded to white evangelical Christian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ churches and nonprofits , universities , and think tanks , and with direct lines to the nation ’ s highest political officials , they ’ ve had carte blanche to set the terms of what passes for religious debate in this country and dictate what morality even means in our society .
Under Trump , such religious nationalism has reached a fever pitch as a reactionary movement that includes technocratic billionaires , televangelists , and armed militias has taken root with a simple enough message : God loves white Christian America , favors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rewards individualism and entrepreneurship .
Meanwhile , the poor , people of color , and immigrants are blamed for society ’ s problems , even as the rich get richer in what ’ s still the wealthiest country in the history of the world .
The dangers posed by today ’ s Christian nationalists are all too real , but the battle for the Bible itself is not new in America .
In the 1700s and 1800s , slaveholders quoted the book of Philemon and lines from St. Paul ’ s epistles to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They also ripped the pages of Exodus from Bibles they gave to the enslaved .
During the Gilded Age of the 19th century , churches and politicians alike preached a “ prosperity gospel ” that extolled the virtues of industrial capitalism .
Decades later , segregationists continued to use stray biblical verses to rubber-stamp Jim Crow practices , while in the late 1970s the Moral Majority helped to mainstream a new generation of Christian extremists into national politics .
In my own youth , I remember politicians quoting Thessalonians in the lead-up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reform Act as proof that God believes in work-requirements for public assistance programs .
Students of religion and history know that , although such theological battles have often tipped disastrously toward the forces of violence , deprivation , and hate , Christian religious thinking has also been a key ingredient in positive social change in this country .
Escaped slave Harriet “ Moses ” Tubman understood the Underground Railroad as a Christian project of liberation , while escaped slave Frederick Douglass fought for abolition through churches across the north in the pre–Civil War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the end of his life , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. explained how , to achieve his universal dream of justice , a beloved community of God would be built through a “ freedom church of the poor.
” After all , in every chapter of American history , abolitionists , workers , labor organizers , civil rights leaders , and other representatives of the oppressed have struggled for a better nation not just in streets and workplaces but in the pulpit , too .
In the wreckage of the present Trumpian moment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increasingly ascendant , people of conscience would do well to follow suit .
In my book Always with Us ?
What Jesus Really Said About the Poor , I focus on a reality that has long preoccupied me : how , in this country , the Bible has so often been manipulated to obscure its potentially emancipatory power ; in particular , the way in which what theologian Jim Wallis has called the most famous biblical passage on the poor ( from the Gospel of Matthew ) — “ the poor will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Since I was a young girl , scarcely a week has passed in which I haven ’ t heard someone quoting Matthew as an explanation for why poverty is eternal and its mitigation reserved at best for charity or philanthropy ( but certainly not for government ) .
The logic of such thinking runs through so many of our religious institutions including what ’ s now known as “ evangelical Christianity , ” but also our legislatures , courts , military , schools , and more .
It hasn ’ t just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has helped to spiritualize ( and cement in place ) poverty , while implicitly or even explicitly justifying ever greater inequality in this society .
Today , the idea that poverty is the result of bad behavior , laziness , or sin rather than decisions made by those with power is distinctly ascendant in Donald Trump ’ s and Mitch McConnell ’ s Washington .
Biblical passages like that one in Matthew have become another ideological tool brandished by reactionaries and the wealthy to deflect attention from this country ’ s systemic failures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ historic development of what ’ s often known as the “ Bible Belt ” ( or alternatively the “ Poverty Belt ” ) .
It sweeps across the South , from North Carolina to Mississippi , Tennessee to Alabama , home to poor people of every race .
It represents the deepest , most contiguous area of poverty in the United States , made possible in part by heretical theology , biblical misinterpretation , and Christian nationalism .
The convergence of poverty and religion in the Bible Belt has a long history , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the slave era .
It echoed through the system of Jim Crow that had the region in its grip until the civil rights years and the modern political concept of “ the solid South ” ( once Democratic , now Republican ) .
Within its bounds lies a brutal legacy of divide and conquer that , to this day , politicizes the Bible by claiming that poverty results from sins against God and teaches poor white people in particular that , although they may themselves have little or nothing , they are at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ color .
At the end of the bloody march from Selma to Montgomery , Ala. , in 1965 , Martin Luther King explained the age-old politics of division in the region this way : That “ psychological bird ” was seasoned and cooked in a volatile mix of racist pseudo-science , economic orthodoxy , and bad religion .
In fact , it retained its enormous power in large part by using the Bible and a version of Christianity to validate plunder and human suffering on a staggering scale .
De jure Jim Crow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history haunts America to this day , and the Bible continues to be weaponized to validate anti-poor , white racist political power .
As jobs and opportunity continue to vanish in 21st-century America and churches stand among the last truly functional institutions in many communities , the Bible , however interpreted , still influences daily life for millions .
How it ’ s understood and preached affects the political and moral direction of the country .
Consider that those Bible Belt states—where Christian nationalism ( which regularly displays its own upside-down version of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than 193 electoral college votes and so will play a key role in determining the fate of Donald Trump and Mike Pence in November .
I had my own experience with that version of biblical and theological interpretation and its growing role in our national politics in June 2019 during a hearing of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives .
Its subject was poverty in America and the economic realities of struggling families .
A racially and geographically diverse group of leaders of the Poor People ’ s Campaign ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) were invited to testify on those realities .
Alongside us that day were two Black pastors invited by Republican congressmen to stand as examples of how faith and hard work is the only recipe for a good and stable life for the impoverished .
We had come to present what we ’ ve called the Poor People ’ s Moral Budget , a study showing that the United States does have the money to end poverty , hunger , homelessness , and more , just not the political will to do so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ committee turned to the same tired stereotypes about why so many of us in such a wealthy country are poor .
Some cited the supposed failure of the 1960s War on Poverty as evidence that programs of social uplift just don ’ t work , while ignoring the dramatic way politicians had undercut those initiatives in the years that followed .
Like those pastors , others replied with tales of their own success rising out of economic hardship via bootstrap individualism , and they plugged Christian charity as the way to alleviate poverty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they essentially promoted a heretical theology that claimed people suffer from poverty largely because they ’ re estranged from God and lack a deep enough faith in Jesus .
That day , the walls of that House committee room rang with empty words twisting what the Bible actually says about the poor .
One Republican representative typically remarked that , although he was familiar with the Bible , he had never found anyplace in it “ where Jesus tells Caesar to care for the poor.
” Another all-too-typically suggested that Christian charity , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to alleviating poverty .
Someone less familiar with the arguments of such politicians might have been surprised to hear so many of them seeking theological cover .
As a biblical scholar and a student of the history of social movements , I know well how religious texts actually instruct us to care for the poor and dispossessed .
As a long-time organizer , I ’ ve learned that those in power now regularly , even desperately , seek to abuse and distort the liberating potential of our religious traditions .
Indeed , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
William Barber , my Poor People ’ s Campaign cochair , and I pointed out how interesting it was that he identified himself with Caesar ( not necessarily the most flattering comparison imaginable , especially as biblical Christianity polemicizes against Caesar and the Roman empire ) .
Then I detailed for him many of the passages and commandments in the Bible that urge us to organize society around the needs of the poor , forgive debts , pay workers a living wage , rather than favoring either the rich or “ Caesar.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ indeed the formula of the Trump era ( where , in the last six pandemic months , the 643 wealthiest Americans raked in an extra $ 845 billion , raising their combined wealth by 29 percent ) .
I also pointed out that the most effective poverty-reduction programs like Head Start are federally funded , neither philanthropic nor a matter of Christian charity .
In the Poor People ’ s Campaign , we often start our organizing meetings by showing a series of color-coded maps of the country .
The first has the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since 2013 ; the next , those with the highest poverty rates ; then , those that have not expanded Medicaid but have passed anti-LGBTQ laws .
And so it goes .
Our final map displays the states densest with self-identified evangelical Protestants .
I ’ m sure you won ’ t be surprised to learn that those maps overlap almost perfectly , chiefly in the Bible Belt , but also in the Midwest , the Mid-Atlantic states , and even in parts of the Northeast and West .
The point is to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting rights , health care , and other critical resources is to the battle for the Bible .
The stakes are measured in the health of the entire nation , because the same politicians who manipulate the Bible and the right to vote to win elections then pass immoral budgets and policies .
When Vice President Pence altered that line from the Book of Hebrews , he was charging headfirst onto that very blood-soaked battlefield with a desecrated Bible in hand .
The question is : Why should he and other Christian nationalists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If they are so intent on “ fixing their eyes on Old Glory , ” shouldn ’ t they also fix their eyes on what Jesus actually said ?
The Greek word evangelia , out of which “ evangelical ” comes , means bringing good news to those made poor by systems of exploitation .
The Bible ’ s good news , also defined as gospel , talks again and again about captives being freed , slaves released , and all who are oppressed being taken care of .
It ’ s said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of its pages that mentions poverty , the Bible would fall apart .
And when you actually read the words on those pages , you see that the gospel doesn ’ t talk about the inevitability of poverty or the need for charity , but the responsibilities of the ruling authorities to all people and the possibility of abundance for all .
At a time when 43.5 percent of Americans are poor or one fire , storm , health care crisis , pandemic , eviction , or job loss away from poverty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ important for Americans to begin to reckon with this reality and our moral obligation to end it .
Instead , politicians pass voter suppression laws , kick kids off food programs , and allow the poisoning of our water , air , and land , while Christian nationalist religious leaders bless such policies and cherry-pick biblical verses to justify them as all-American .
Consider such a reality not simply a matter of a religious but a political , economic , and moral crisis that , in the midst of a pandemic , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brink of spiritual death .
If America is still worth saving , this is no longer a battle anyone should sit out .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.
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On August 26, during the Republican National Convention, Vice President Mike Pence closed his acceptance speech with a biblical sleight of hand. Speaking before a crowd at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, he exclaimed, “Let’s fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents. Let’s fix our eyes on this land of heroes and let their courage inspire.” In doing so, he essentially rewrote a passage from the New Testament book of Hebrews: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.”
There’s nothing new, of course, about an American politician melding religion and politics on the campaign trail. Still, Pence’s decision to replace Jesus with the Stars and Stripes raised eyebrows across a range of religious and political persuasions. Indeed, the melding of Old Glory and Christ provided the latest evidence of the rising influence of Christian nationalism in the age of Trump.
It’s no longer hard to find evidence of just how deeply Christian nationalism influences our politics and policy-making. During the pandemic, the Bible has repeatedly been used (and distorted) to justify Covid-19 denialism and government inaction, not to speak of outright repression. In late March, as cities were locking down and public health officials were recommending strict quarantine measures, one of Donald Trump’s first acts was to gather his followers at the White House for what was billed as a “National Day of Prayer” to give Americans the strength to press on through death and difficulty.
Later in the spring, protests against pandemic shutdowns, funded with dark money from the likes of the Koch brothers, demanded that states reopen for business and social distancing guidelines be loosened. (Forget about masking of any sort.) At them, printed protest signs said things like: “Even Pharaoh Freed Slaves in a Plague” and “Texas will not take the Mark of the Beast.” And even as faith communities struggled admirably to adjust to Zoom worship services, as well as remote pastoral care and memorials, President Trump continued to fan the flames of religious division, declaring in-person worship “essential,” no matter that legal experts questioned his authority to do so. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
And speaking of his version of Christian nationalism, no one should forget the June spectacle in Lafayette Square near the White House, when Trump had racial-justice protestors tear-gassed so he could stroll to nearby St. John’s Church and pose proudly on its steps displaying a borrowed Bible. Though he flashed it to the photographers, who can doubt how little time he’s spent within its pages? (Selling those same pages is another matter entirely. After all, a Bible he signed in the wake of that Lafayette Square event is now on sale for nearly $40,000.)
The Battle for the Bible in American History
To understand how power is wielded in America by wealthy politicians and their coteries of extremists in 2020, you have to consider the role of religion in our national life. An epic battle for the Bible is now underway in a country that has been largely ceded to white evangelical Christian nationalists. Through a well-funded network of churches and nonprofits, universities, and think tanks, and with direct lines to the nation’s highest political officials, they’ve had carte blanche to set the terms of what passes for religious debate in this country and dictate what morality even means in our society.
Under Trump, such religious nationalism has reached a fever pitch as a reactionary movement that includes technocratic billionaires, televangelists, and armed militias has taken root with a simple enough message: God loves white Christian America, favors small government and big business, and rewards individualism and entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, the poor, people of color, and immigrants are blamed for society’s problems, even as the rich get richer in what’s still the wealthiest country in the history of the world. Current Issue View our current issue
The dangers posed by today’s Christian nationalists are all too real, but the battle for the Bible itself is not new in America. In the 1700s and 1800s, slaveholders quoted the book of Philemon and lines from St. Paul’s epistles to claim that slavery was ordained by God. They also ripped the pages of Exodus from Bibles they gave to the enslaved. During the Gilded Age of the 19th century, churches and politicians alike preached a “prosperity gospel” that extolled the virtues of industrial capitalism.
Decades later, segregationists continued to use stray biblical verses to rubber-stamp Jim Crow practices, while in the late 1970s the Moral Majority helped to mainstream a new generation of Christian extremists into national politics. In my own youth, I remember politicians quoting Thessalonians in the lead-up to the passage of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act as proof that God believes in work-requirements for public assistance programs.
Students of religion and history know that, although such theological battles have often tipped disastrously toward the forces of violence, deprivation, and hate, Christian religious thinking has also been a key ingredient in positive social change in this country. Escaped slave Harriet “Moses” Tubman understood the Underground Railroad as a Christian project of liberation, while escaped slave Frederick Douglass fought for abolition through churches across the north in the pre–Civil War years. A century later, near the end of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. explained how, to achieve his universal dream of justice, a beloved community of God would be built through a “freedom church of the poor.”
After all, in every chapter of American history, abolitionists, workers, labor organizers, civil rights leaders, and other representatives of the oppressed have struggled for a better nation not just in streets and workplaces but in the pulpit, too. In the wreckage of the present Trumpian moment, with a fascistic, white nationalism increasingly ascendant, people of conscience would do well to follow suit.
The “Psychological Bird” of Bad Religion
In my book Always with Us? What Jesus Really Said About the Poor, I focus on a reality that has long preoccupied me: how, in this country, the Bible has so often been manipulated to obscure its potentially emancipatory power; in particular, the way in which what theologian Jim Wallis has called the most famous biblical passage on the poor (from the Gospel of Matthew)—“the poor will be always with us”—has been misused.
Since I was a young girl, scarcely a week has passed in which I haven’t heard someone quoting Matthew as an explanation for why poverty is eternal and its mitigation reserved at best for charity or philanthropy (but certainly not for government). The logic of such thinking runs through so many of our religious institutions including what’s now known as “evangelical Christianity,” but also our legislatures, courts, military, schools, and more. It hasn’t just shaped the minds of young Christians but has helped to spiritualize (and cement in place) poverty, while implicitly or even explicitly justifying ever greater inequality in this society.
Today, the idea that poverty is the result of bad behavior, laziness, or sin rather than decisions made by those with power is distinctly ascendant in Donald Trump’s and Mitch McConnell’s Washington. Biblical passages like that one in Matthew have become another ideological tool brandished by reactionaries and the wealthy to deflect attention from this country’s systemic failures.
Consider, for example, the historic development of what’s often known as the “Bible Belt” (or alternatively the “Poverty Belt”). It sweeps across the South, from North Carolina to Mississippi, Tennessee to Alabama, home to poor people of every race. It represents the deepest, most contiguous area of poverty in the United States, made possible in part by heretical theology, biblical misinterpretation, and Christian nationalism.
The convergence of poverty and religion in the Bible Belt has a long history, stretching back to the earliest settler-colonists in the slave era. It echoed through the system of Jim Crow that had the region in its grip until the civil rights years and the modern political concept of “the solid South” (once Democratic, now Republican). Within its bounds lies a brutal legacy of divide and conquer that, to this day, politicizes the Bible by claiming that poverty results from sins against God and teaches poor white people in particular that, although they may themselves have little or nothing, they are at least “better” than people of color.
At the end of the bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965, Martin Luther King explained the age-old politics of division in the region this way:
If it may be said of the slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow.… And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man.… And his children, too, learned to feed upon Jim Crow, their last outpost of psychological oblivion.
That “psychological bird” was seasoned and cooked in a volatile mix of racist pseudo-science, economic orthodoxy, and bad religion. In fact, it retained its enormous power in large part by using the Bible and a version of Christianity to validate plunder and human suffering on a staggering scale. De jure Jim Crow may no longer exist, but its history haunts America to this day, and the Bible continues to be weaponized to validate anti-poor, white racist political power.
As jobs and opportunity continue to vanish in 21st-century America and churches stand among the last truly functional institutions in many communities, the Bible, however interpreted, still influences daily life for millions. How it’s understood and preached affects the political and moral direction of the country. Consider that those Bible Belt states—where Christian nationalism (which regularly displays its own upside-down version of the Bible) now reigns supreme—account for more than 193 electoral college votes and so will play a key role in determining the fate of Donald Trump and Mike Pence in November.
I had my own experience with that version of biblical and theological interpretation and its growing role in our national politics in June 2019 during a hearing of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives. Its subject was poverty in America and the economic realities of struggling families. A racially and geographically diverse group of leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign (of which I’m the cochair) were invited to testify on those realities. Alongside us that day were two Black pastors invited by Republican congressmen to stand as examples of how faith and hard work is the only recipe for a good and stable life for the impoverished.
We had come to present what we’ve called the Poor People’s Moral Budget, a study showing that the United States does have the money to end poverty, hunger, homelessness, and more, just not the political will to do so. In response, members of the committee turned to the same tired stereotypes about why so many of us in such a wealthy country are poor. Some cited the supposed failure of the 1960s War on Poverty as evidence that programs of social uplift just don’t work, while ignoring the dramatic way politicians had undercut those initiatives in the years that followed. Like those pastors, others replied with tales of their own success rising out of economic hardship via bootstrap individualism, and they plugged Christian charity as the way to alleviate poverty. I listened to them all as they essentially promoted a heretical theology that claimed people suffer from poverty largely because they’re estranged from God and lack a deep enough faith in Jesus.
That day, the walls of that House committee room rang with empty words twisting what the Bible actually says about the poor. One Republican representative typically remarked that, although he was familiar with the Bible, he had never found anyplace in it “where Jesus tells Caesar to care for the poor.” Another all-too-typically suggested that Christian charity, not government-sponsored programs, is the key to alleviating poverty.
Someone less familiar with the arguments of such politicians might have been surprised to hear so many of them seeking theological cover. As a biblical scholar and a student of the history of social movements, I know well how religious texts actually instruct us to care for the poor and dispossessed. As a long-time organizer, I’ve learned that those in power now regularly, even desperately, seek to abuse and distort the liberating potential of our religious traditions.
Indeed, in response to that representative, the Rev. William Barber, my Poor People’s Campaign cochair, and I pointed out how interesting it was that he identified himself with Caesar (not necessarily the most flattering comparison imaginable, especially as biblical Christianity polemicizes against Caesar and the Roman empire). Then I detailed for him many of the passages and commandments in the Bible that urge us to organize society around the needs of the poor, forgive debts, pay workers a living wage, rather than favoring either the rich or “Caesar.” That, of course, is indeed the formula of the Trump era (where, in the last six pandemic months, the 643 wealthiest Americans raked in an extra $845 billion, raising their combined wealth by 29 percent). I also pointed out that the most effective poverty-reduction programs like Head Start are federally funded, neither philanthropic nor a matter of Christian charity.
Good News from the Poor
In the Poor People’s Campaign, we often start our organizing meetings by showing a series of color-coded maps of the country. The first has the states that have passed voter suppression laws since 2013; the next, those with the highest poverty rates; then, those that have not expanded Medicaid but have passed anti-LGBTQ laws. And so it goes. Our final map displays the states densest with self-identified evangelical Protestants.
I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that those maps overlap almost perfectly, chiefly in the Bible Belt, but also in the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic states, and even in parts of the Northeast and West. The point is to show how inextricably connected the battle for voting rights, health care, and other critical resources is to the battle for the Bible. The stakes are measured in the health of the entire nation, because the same politicians who manipulate the Bible and the right to vote to win elections then pass immoral budgets and policies.
When Vice President Pence altered that line from the Book of Hebrews, he was charging headfirst onto that very blood-soaked battlefield with a desecrated Bible in hand. The question is: Why should he and other Christian nationalists have the power to define Christianity? If they are so intent on “fixing their eyes on Old Glory,” shouldn’t they also fix their eyes on what Jesus actually said?
The Greek word evangelia, out of which “evangelical” comes, means bringing good news to those made poor by systems of exploitation. The Bible’s good news, also defined as gospel, talks again and again about captives being freed, slaves released, and all who are oppressed being taken care of. It’s said that were you to cut out every one of its pages that mentions poverty, the Bible would fall apart. And when you actually read the words on those pages, you see that the gospel doesn’t talk about the inevitability of poverty or the need for charity, but the responsibilities of the ruling authorities to all people and the possibility of abundance for all.
At a time when 43.5 percent of Americans are poor or one fire, storm, health care crisis, pandemic, eviction, or job loss away from poverty, it couldn’t be more important for Americans to begin to reckon with this reality and our moral obligation to end it. Instead, politicians pass voter suppression laws, kick kids off food programs, and allow the poisoning of our water, air, and land, while Christian nationalist religious leaders bless such policies and cherry-pick biblical verses to justify them as all-American. Consider such a reality not simply a matter of a religious but a political, economic, and moral crisis that, in the midst of a pandemic, is pushing this country ever closer to the brink of spiritual death.
If America is still worth saving, this is no longer a battle anyone should sit out.