politics Archives - Debra Rienstra

climate change politics silly

An Interview with the Planet Earth: Outlook for a Biden Presidency

Earth: Look, I try not to pay much attention to human politics. I have so much to do, what with plate techtonics and weather systems and sustaining various kingdoms and phyla of creatures. Plus I operate on loooooong time scales, you know? Still, my current…

Debra RienstraNovember 14, 2020

Calvin events politics

From Fake News to Civic Glue: Media Trends and Imagining News as a Community Asset

Our worry about fake news is more corrosive to our trust in media and in institutions than actual fake content has been. We wonder if we can trust anything we see.

Debra RienstraMarch 7, 2020

Calvin events politics

Journalists Ponder a Fluid Moment for Faith and Politics in America

While I am normally happy to flop on the sofa and watch mindless TV on Friday nights, last night I pulled myself together and attended the 21st annual Paul B. Henry Lecture, sponsored by the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics. The lecture was a…

Debra RienstraApril 27, 2019

cultural commentary politics

Tragic Virtue Ecologies

But perhaps individual virtue-modeling (what we used the call “the character question” in American politics) is not the only question. What if we also ask whether our leaders create an atmosphere that cultivates virtues?

Debra RienstraNovember 10, 2018

college life cultural commentary politics review

The Weight of This Sad Time

Shakespeare is right to show us that there is no guarantee of reward for choosing integrity and mercy. Over against the example of his sources, Shakespeare eschewed a reparative ending. In Shakespeare’s final scenes, the noble among the younger generation pay a heavy price for…

Debra RienstraSeptember 29, 2018

cultural commentary politics silly

The Semiotics of Protest: A New Primer

Since we have entered the Age of Resistance, it’s important to keep one’s protest muscles well-toned. With all the marching, kneeling, standing, sitting, walking out, gesturing, and pumping of hand-lettered placards up and down—not to mention furious typing on Twitter—ordinary citizenship in the United States…

Debra RienstraMay 26, 2018

cultural commentary politics

Can We Retire the Word “Bias”?

Here’s how it works. If you don’t like what a person or news article or books says, you pronounce it “biased,” and you’re done. You have destroyed the person or source’s credibility. No need to consider what is being said on its own terms. End…

Debra RienstraJanuary 6, 2018

cultural commentary politics theology

I Never Was An Evangelical, and I Never Want to Be

In any case, Evangelicals of the contemporary American variety have always felt to me like the cousins my family visits only once a year for a day or two on out-of-state road trips. We are related, of course, but when we get together our differences…

Debra RienstraSeptember 23, 2017

cultural commentary politics pop culture

Quid Est Potentia?

“There are two elements of the constitution, wrote Walter Bagehot in 1867, the efficient and the dignified. … The efficient has the power to make and execute policy, and is answerable to the electorate. … The dignified gives significance and legitimacy to the efficient, and…

Debra RienstraDecember 17, 2016

cultural commentary politics

Speak What We Feel

I’m grieving. Not because I have policy disagreements with the winner. Not because the lady didn’t win. Those things matter, but it’s so much bigger than that. I’m grieving because a person who rode to power on a calculated surge of hatred and bigotry, who…

Debra RienstraNovember 12, 2016

politics

An Interview with the Planet Earth: Outlook for a Biden Presidency

From Fake News to Civic Glue: Media Trends and Imagining News as a Community Asset

Journalists Ponder a Fluid Moment for Faith and Politics in America

Tragic Virtue Ecologies

The Weight of This Sad Time

The Semiotics of Protest: A New Primer

Can We Retire the Word “Bias”?

I Never Was An Evangelical, and I Never Want to Be

Quid Est Potentia?

Speak What We Feel

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