If you want to know where the Republican Party is headed, you need to set aside your assumptions and simply listen to what its leaders and activists say—especially when they’re talking amongst themselves. As a reporter and author on the religious right beat over the past dozen years, I’ve made a point of attending such […]

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As we head into the fall elections, there is increasing recognition of the critical role played by religious conservatives in the Republican Party and a corresponding curiosity over the seeming contradiction between the supposed values of this constituency and their rock-ribbed support of Donald Trump. Outside observers often marvel at how Christian nationalists put up […]

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“As critics from many sides accused the government of fanning the flames of intolerance, Premier François Legault came to the defense of Quebec’s secularism bill on Friday by saying ‘we have to think of what’s best for our children.’” ­—Jason Magder, Montreal Gazette, April 5, 2019. In June 2019, Quebec’s National Assembly, the provincial legislature, […]

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Donald Trump’s daft assertion—“Democrats hate Jews”—reflects an Israel policy that not only fans smoldering anti-Semitism across the world but also threatens the very survival of a hard-won Jewish homeland in a region armed for Armageddon. “Democrats have become an anti-Israel party,” Sarah Sanders told reporters recently. Then, sticking by that absurdity under harsh questioning, she […]

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