As the Middle East rages, Tony Blair argues that religion can help reform the region and bring about liberal democracies. He speaks to Lisa Miller about his latest diplomatic efforts—and his appearance today at Rick Warren’s church. As mass protests continued to rage in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen last week, all was serene in New […]
Blair’s New Mideast Mission Read More »
“Thou shalt not overspend” is rapidly becoming a tenet of the evangelical belief system, rivaling social issues like gay marriage. Can the gospel of thrift save our economy? The priorities of white evangelical Christians, about 60 million strong, have driven the culture wars for decades. It was they who formed the Moral Majority in the
Evangelicals Preach the Gospel of Getting Out of Debt Read More »
New scholarship on the Good Book’s naughty bits and how it deals with adultery, divorce, and same-sex love. The poem describes two young lovers aching with desire. The obsession is mutual, carnal, complete. The man lingers over his lover’s eyes and hair, on her teeth, lips, temples, neck, and breasts, until he arrives at “the
What the Bible Really Says About Sex Read More »
“Why are working mothers so furious all the time?” I was asked recently. An answer, not entirely rational, springs to mind: “Personally, I could use a travel agent.” It’s a joke, sort of. School vacation is coming up. I’m swamped at work, and trip planning has become a time-consuming hell. A simple family vacation requires
Mommy Is Busy Right Now Read More »
What was Jed Rubenfeld doing while wife Amy Chua was calling their children garbage and threatening to burn their stuffed animals? Colleagues speculate the brilliant Yale law professor may have tacitly signed on to those techniques, reports Newsweek’s Lisa Miller. One has to wonder. While the Tiger Mother was screaming at her two children to practice their
How Tiger Dad is Handling Parental Infamy Read More »
A memoir of a woman’s take-no-prisoners parenting style hits a nerve. Amy Chua’s email in-box has become the latest front in the mommy wars. Ever since Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, her warts-and-all book on parenting the Chinese way, inflamed the mommy-blogger universe with its publication last week, Chua has been under attack. “Oh. My.
Tough Love, From a Chinese Mother Read More »
The leering mug shot, the six dead, including a child—Jared Loughner may be the most unsympathetic defendant since Timothy McVeigh. And death penalty opponents worry his trial could spike support for execution. Death penalty opponents in the United States have become optimistic of late, even cheerful. Support for capital punishment has declined to 64 percent,
Jared Loughner Trial Could Expand Support for the Death Penalty Read More »
Families don’t move to Washington anymore, and lawmakers live on the road. Is this any way to govern? In its midcentury heyday, 50 or so members of the Senate Wives’ Club, met at 10 o’clock each Tuesday morning, Democrats and Republicans alike, sitting together in Red Cross uniforms, rolling bandages and exchanging the intimate details
The Commuter Congress Read More »
The imam behind the so-called Ground Zero mosque reflects on the “insanity” of religious radicals. How have the events of the summer changed you? We learned a number of lessons, the most important of which is this: the real battlefront is not between the West and the Muslim world. It’s between the moderates of all
As recently as 2004, when evangelicals were credited with reelecting George W. Bush, sexual mores defined the culture wars. But as the economy has become the political priority for liberals and conservatives alike, traditional culture-war issues—abortion, gay marriage—have been blunted as weapons in the political theater. As recently as 2004, when evangelicals were credited with