So I’m at a dinner party chatting with the guy sitting next to me, and he asks me what I do for a living. I tell him all about ministry, and then I ask him what he does for a living.
2014
To Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible: Toward a Visionary Left
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In the last forty years, the Left has utterly failed to articulate any viable alternative to neoliberalism’s vision of a fully marketized society. Still, the current global crisis of capitalism has made clear the contradiction of a civilization directed toward profit accumulation rather than human need and thus defined the task of an emancipatory Left: we must master capitalism’s own drive toward universality by making its benefits truly common.
2014
Let Me Be the Leninist, Please
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Let me offer a simple, alternative definition of what “Lenin” stands for: the view that great social change depends to some significant degree on “leadership.” That is, social change depends on groups of people who have developed effective organizing skills, concrete social connections in milieus engaged in protest, and some shared sense of a future to be won—and thereby can foster and advance momentum toward the desired transformation.
2014
How Much History Does the American Left Need?
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The American Left needs all sorts of things. Rather than dwelling on its own history, it would serve itself much better by pressing for serious economic equality—and politicizing the ongoing economic crisis.
2014
Life After Debt: Why America Needs an Anti-Capitalist Left
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America needs a Left that approaches social change without “economistic” blinders, countering capitalism not by appealing to it, but by opening space for people to no longer be dominated by its logics. Making efforts to relieve the debts of those in need—while striving to reimagine our debt-financed society—is a logical starting place.
2014
What Do the Suicides of Fifty-Year-Old Men Reveal?
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Suicide has become a public health emergency for middle-aged men in the United States, exposing a deeper economic and existential crisis.
2014
A Living Wage – Not a Minimum Wage
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We hope Democrats will succeed in raising the minimum wage to $10.10, but we realize that more is needed to end poverty. Fight for a living wage!
2014
Pope Francis and the Christian Renewal He Seeks
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Pope Francis has legitimated a powerful critique of global capitalism, drawing attention to its anti-spiritual, anti-God, anti-ethical essence.
2014
Devil’s Advocate: Building the Religious Counterculture
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I have to admit: I enjoyed {title}Atlas Shrugged{/title}. Something about it resonated, even for me, on the far opposite end of the political and religious spectrum.
2014
Doing Justice in an Unjust World
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Thad Williamson reviews Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation by Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda.
2014
Violence Against Women: We Need a Transnational Analytic of Care
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When gender-based violence occurs in the Global South, how should feminists in the Global North respond?
2013
Shifting U.S. Demographics Demand New Cross-Racial Coalitions
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Obama won by appealing to a broad swath of voters—the young, ethnically diverse, and non-affluent—who typically aren’t a part of the traditional political calculus. But he failed to garner much support among older, whiter Americans. If our political fights pit one group, one generation, or one race against all the multicultural “others,” then we all will surely lose.
2013
Online Exclusives: Identity Politics, Class Politics, and Spiritual Politics
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The online exclusives below are freely accessible articles that are part of an ongoing special series associated with Tikkun’s Fall 2013 print issue, Identity Politics, Class Politics, and Spiritual Politics: How Do We Build World-Transforming Coalitions? Many of our most provocative articles on this topic appeared in that print issue, which is only accessible to subscribers. Subscribe now to read the subscriber-only print articles on the web (explore the table of contents to see what you’re missing!). If you appreciate the free web-only articles below, please do enable us to keep up this important work by becoming a print subscriber or offering a donation. We will continue to update this page as new web articles in this series come out.
2013
Why Identity Group Work Strengthens Our Capacity for All Liberation Work
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There is value for leaders in being deeply rooted in their own primary identity group while at the same time learning how to be a fierce ally for all groups.
2013
Environmental Alert: Join Us in Making Revolutionary Changes to Save Life on Earth
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As the oceans rise to earth-destroying levels, the agricultural heartlands turn to desert, and the rate of skin cancer grows to match the rate of the common cold… now is the time to talk honestly with the American public about dramatically reducing consumption, combating the immense power of the 1 percent, and preparing ourselves to counter the mainstream media’s obfuscations of the urgency of the coming crisis.